Staging IS important!!!

I can not emphasize enough just how VERY important this is.  From smells to clutter to wallpaper, if you are selling your house or condo take heed!!!  Less is more and at the risk of sounding oh so repetitive, a few simple steps will make a big difference.  The market is obviously heating up so take advantage and step it up.  First and MOST important, declutter.  We all know what this means, you have to do it, bare minimum, make those closets pretty.  Storage is at a minimum in Florida, so show it off because we all have stuff and we all need to know we have a place to put our stuff.  If your stuff is filling up a place that we could store our stuff for some silly reason, we can not phathom our stuff in that place.  Rent a storage unit if you are particularly attached to your stuff.  You can rent a climate controlled unit here locally for under $100.00 a month and they will even provide a free moving truck.  It is that important - get it ready and stage it properly before you put it on the market.  I am not telling you, you will make a lot more money, but I am telling you if you do these things, you will sell it faster and more than likely get fair market value.  If your house is not staged properly, you will likely not get fair market value.

All personal pictures - they are lovely, but take them down.  I do not care how great they are, you want your new buyers to put themselves in your house as owners, not as guests.  If your pictures are up - some potential buyers can not do this.  I have been in properties that are staged so well, they still have a few frames around the house, but they are the stock photos in the frame - perfect!

Silk plants, for the most part, store them, they are dust catchers and a lot of people simply do not like them.

Towels - please please please do not leave wet towels out, throw them in the dryer or somewhere else. Get rid of old towels, clean white fluffy towels please.

Wallpaper - I know you may have had that border up forever, and it is easy to take down, so just do it,  take it down and while you are at it, paint is cheap, a fresh neutral coat - not a bad idea.  I have a few neutral colors I LOVE and some fun beachy colors if you're interested!!!

I love this color - its a soft greyed down robins egg blue and it reminds me an awful lot of my dad's old VW bug so that may have a lot to do with why I love it so much but the fact that the color seems to change with different lighting throughout the day also makes me happy.

The other color pallette I really like is this:

These are those classic beach tones by Sherwin Williams and an egg shell is great - and you can cut any of these colors down if it is not neutral enough, but with that said colors are important.  

Number one neutral color is Sherwin Williams "Natural Choice" with Alabaster trim...

by Carolina Design Associates, LLC

Pets!  I love animals, I have animals, but not everyone loves animals - some people are actually afraid of cats or dogs and I have seen them try to get out of a house as fast as they can when a pet is present, or they have allergies or kkids with allergies or they are convinced everything will need to be replaced if you have animals.  If you can take your sweet babies with you when you leave and your house is being shown.  If not try to minimize all indicators.  Not always possible, but leaving your house in proper condition includes every member of your family.  

Last, but not least, odors!  This can be a big one - too much is bad and leaving musty alone is bad.  I am not talking about hiding problems, but make your home inviting.  Vanilla is the best, lavender is relaxing.  If you have time a batch of cookies about 30 minutes (Store bought sugar cookie dough) is awesome, but if not candles will do fine, just be safe. 

These are just a few seemingly obvious tips, but not to everyone, so I hope this helps someone - happy selling!!!