Summerland & Penticton Okanagan BC Real Estate, Homes For Sale and Revenue Properties - Raymond MAASKE: British Columbia: Vancouver: South Granville

Does this House Move You? - Staging a House with Emotion

Home staging is not just about placing furniture in a vacant property, or adding fresh towels in the bathroom or throwing some colourful toss cushions on a sofa and calling it a day.  At Exit Stage Right, we believe there is so much more to home staging than meets the eye.  I always find it rather amusing, those who feel they can stage a property themselves and think they don't need a professional Home Stager. 

A really good Home Stager will take an uninteresting corner and turn it into an interesting feature.  They will add something that tugs at your heart strings, or makes your heart skip a beat.  It will be a little touch here or a little interesting grouping there that makes you sigh or catch your breath, either consciously or subconsciously. 

Don't settle for just ok.  Wow buyers by hiring a Real Estate Home Stager who can really grab a home buyer's attention and let them remember your home above the other 10 homes they visited that weekend.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere There's Signs - Home Selling in Vancouver

As a Home Stager in Vancouver, I often give advice on curb appeal.  I suggest several things:

- Plant colourful flowers
- Add planters with flowers or ornamental trees
- Paint the front door a contrasting colour
- Clean up the yard, store the hose reel, pick up after Fido
- Clean the windows
- Prune the bushes
- Cut back the tree to better see the house
- Add a new mail box
- Add more up-to-date house numbers

One point that has never come up before, is the question of election signs in the front yard while you're trying to sell your home.  We are having a national election here, and voting day is today, May 2nd.  There are political signs everywhere right now, littering the city. 

I recently staged a home that is located on a busy main street.  Having a political sign on this street would be invaluable to a political party, as thousands of people drive this road day in and day out.  I felt it was my duty, as a home stager, to caution the home owner that by displaying one political party's sign, they may be alienating potential buyers who align themselves to another political party.  The name of the game here is attracting the broadest range of buyers to view your house.  Also, in my opinion, the Realtor's® sign is dwarfed and pretty much lost amongst the political party's sign.  

What's your vote?  Do you think it matters if you display political signs when selling your house?