Staging a vacant home.

Everyone knows vacant homes don't sell well.
Here are just a few thoughts potential buyers can have when they walk into a vacant home:

What is this room for?
Wonder if my furniture will fit?
Oh, it's vacant they must need to sell so will probably take less money.
Why is it vacant? What's wrong with it?

Only 10% of potential buyers can visulize the potential of a vacant home.

So in answer to that problem, some owners or realtors think "we''ll just rent some furniture and that will take care of the problem"

But filling space doesn't make a cold and sterile environment less cold and sterile. It's the warmth of a room and the emotional connection points that make buyers think "ahh, I could live here"

Here is a visual example:

vacant

with rental furniture

fully staged

Smart Move Design is a Home Staging and Redesign company located near Syracuse, NY and serves the Central and Northern New York areas.

Home Staging Fees are Tax Deductible

Tax tip: Home staging fees are deductible expenses

In today’s market, real estate professionals will be even more competitive in their approaches to attracting buyers. The home staging business is quickly becoming a popular tool used for making one’s home more appealing.

Part of the real estate professional’s job is to suggest ways to improve the likelihood of quicker turnover of their inventory. A professional home stager provides a service designed to sell your home.

From this perspective, if you hire the stager directly, then they are performing a service with the specific purpose of selling your home. Therefore, yes, the cost and expenses incurred for hiring this professional would be considered deductible when selling your home and may be netted against any gain on the sale, along with commissions paid to the Realtor and legal fees.
Specifically, home staging would be considered “advertising fees” and would fall under the allowable selling expenses.

Second, you may be able to negotiate with your Realtor and add the expense to the commission paid for selling the house. Either way, the same result is accomplished, and the services provided will be considered deductible.

That said, if the home stager recommends the entire interior needs a fresh coat of paint, these selling expenses are not allowable deductions.

Bottom line: Paying for the home stager’s services is deductible, while expenses for repairs, maintenance or permanent redecorating of the house are not.

Link to article: http://www.kansascity.com/business/v-print/story/551615.html

Smart Move Design is a Home Staging and Redesign company located near Syracuse, NY and serves the Central and Northern New York areas.

Top 5 Reasons You Should Stage Your Home.

1. You will make more money.

U.S. Housing and Urban Development reports that a staged home will sell, on average, 17% higher than an un-staged home.

2. Your home will sell faster which = less headaches and hassle.

The New York Village Voice reported that the average number of days an un-staged home is on the market is 30.9 versus 13.9 for a staged home.

3. The cost of Staging doesn't cost a dime.

In a 2003 Home Gain Survey of over 2000 Realtors, it was discovered that sellers who spent up to $1000 staging their home recovered almost 200% of the cost of the sale of their house.

4. Home sellers cannot view their house objectively, thus stage effectively.

Our homes are like our children, we don’t always see all of its flaws. We’ve gotten used to the way it looks and in fact it is difficult emotionally to change it.

5. Less guesswork and "do it yourself".

A professional home stager can manage your projects from start to finish. Or, they can give you a detailed enough report based on their extensive knowledge and training to have you "do it yourself".

Smart Move Design is a Home Staging and Redesign company located near Syracuse, NY and serves the Central and Northern New York areas.

Home Staging Tip 2

No this is not a paid ad for Spot Shot carpet cleaner.

But I am highly recommending it.

Clean or new carpets are a must when selling your home. If your carpets are still fairly new (under 5 years) or still in good condition, chances are you won't need to replace them. For carpets that have a few spots on them, I picked this up at our local Sam's Club and tried it on our carpet here at home. and guess what? Presto - no more spots!

The cost was $7.99 for 4 bottles. Sure beats the price of a professional carpet cleaner.

But if the spots are too many to tackle, go for the professional carpet cleaner.

And if having the carpet professionally cleaned isn't going to help your current carpet, spend the money and replace with an inexpensive, neutral carpeting. You'll see a 40% profit on your investment.

Smart Move Design is a Home Staging and Redesign company located near Syracuse, NY and serves the Central and Northern New York areas.

Home Staging Tip 1

but not when you're selling your home!

One of the first recommendations Professional Home Stagers and Realtors give their clients is to "declutter, declutter, declutter!" Less is definitely more when showing your home.

And this usually works well prior to your first open house, but what happens during the selling process when you have to live in the home and work around kids, pets, work schedules, etc?

We give our Home Staging clients a handout on how how to stay decluttered and stress free during the selling process. The handout provides suggestions that are simple and easy to maintain and helps deter frustration during the selling process.

Here are a few tips from the handout:

If bathroom storage space is minimal, give each family member a portable shower caddy for transporting toiletries from bedroom to bathroom and back.

Place under-the-bed storage containers in each bedroom for quick pick ups. Slide em out, fill em up, slide em back.

Solve the problem of what to do with bathrobes and wet towels with an over-the-door peg rack.

Do a 5 minute pick up every night before bed. Assign family members to each room. Hand little ones a pillowcase so they can help with nightly clutter rounds.

Smart Move Design is a Home Staging and Redesign company located near Syracuse, NY and serves the Central and Northern New York areas.