How to Stage Your Home Like a Million Dollar Listing on a Budget

I realize now why people invite me back to save their houses when they move into their new house because my house smells amazing it's so clean and I have cookies on the counter hi welcome to the health of Valentina I'm Valentina and today we are at my home one of the things that people ask me all the time is why stage the house a lot of times people think that it's super palace or it's just silly it's not something that needs to be done they think it's just an extra the truth is it's totally extra it's totally extra but it's gonna get you results 97% of buyers are looking online nowadays to choose their home which means my clients are sending me listings that they've seen and they say I want to go see this house you have three seconds to get your buyers to click on your photos and I am not kidding you sometimes I cannot drag my clients to a listing because they have seen those photos online and they won't move they will not go visit that house so your photos are so important I really think you've got milliseconds in which your buyer decides whether your house is going to be amazing it's gonna be their dream home or mmm it's gonna go somewhere on the bottom of the list if there's time maybe we'll go see it what it means in two stage your house is that not only do we get them to click on your photos online but you're gonna go to the top of the list you're gonna be one of the first ones they want to see and what I like most about it is it means multiple offers for you I mean I don't think I have to explain multiple offers right multiple offers means people are competing for your home and even though there might be three other houses on your street they want yours and they are willing to pay a share for it that is what we want I love being able to make my sellers extra money because in the and what that does is it sets them up for the next adventure that they are about to embark on and who doesn't want to have a little extra cash in your pocket for that some of the things that I do that are a little bit different than everybody else I shoot magazine-style and at first it kind of freaked out some people because it's different it's really different it means that the lights are turned off other real estate agents a lot of times look at me like I'm nuts but my listings get 30% more views or higher on Zillow and other online sites and they get number-one ratings pretty much every single time that I've ever listed a house they've got that number one rating and that's because people are just clicking on those photos they're saving and then they're visiting gonna help you make lots of money and what we need to do is give your home its day it's a spa so we are gonna pamper it we're gonna do all the things that you don't normally do this isn't the same as a lot of the video content that I post what we're talking about designing a space to live in that's different okay now a lot of times my sellers love what I do so much their home that they invite me back to come and stay staged their new houses and I say stage with air quotes because I don't actually use that word in real life it's something that a lot of people know what it means but I really don't like that word because what we really do going back to that idea of the spa is we style your house we style it up like we would for magazine shoot and we just give it its day according so we pull up all the stops it's gonna smell good it's gonna look good and your buyers are gonna be so quick to write offers you will not believe how amazing this is so I've got a few tips that I'm going to share with you today these tips are the final step so I have a client right now been working with them in Florida and we have walked through the renovation we walked through getting the furniture back in place and this is the final step right before the photographer comes it's just those little bitty tiny things it really just pushed your house over the edge and we'll have those buyers clicking on your photos visiting and putting in offers before you can even blink so we're gonna start on the curb appeal which of course you guys are probably not surprised that we need to start on the exterior of the home because the first shot that we have to put in the listing is the outside of the home so we've got to make sure the outside of the home look amazing and I can tell you right now my house is not ready to be listed and I'll go and I'm gonna show you why and then ever walk around my house and show you all the little tips and tricks and all the little things that I do to make your listing really stand out before we go outside and get this thing started I just wanted to tell you that I started this video yesterday so it's just taking me a little bit of time I wanted to do a really good job for you and really show you what I do so it's taken me a little longer to put the video together but I think it's gonna be worth it and what I hope that you'll get out of this is some really great tips and some actual visuals of what I'm doing while I'm doing it so that you can replicate it yourself so let's go outside and get this thing started the exterior of my Hills doesn't pass snuff for several reasons first of all I need to trim these bushes and I always recommend to my clients have either their landscaping company come just before they're gonna list or if they're di wires to go ahead and get out there and trim your Bush is really good replace plants that just you know don't look their best go ahead and replace them with something that just looks extra extra good some of the other things that I need to do are picking up debris it's just a bit of a mess right now it just rained and the yard just looks kind of you know just not as bad a hose being unwound and kind of drug across the driveway it's not really the best look this little area back here behind me is just looking sad and lonely so I'm gonna grab some plants I have this really really fine [Applause] oh hey I am not making this up this is what is on my door right now because we're getting ready for Halloween and I think it's hilarious it's so funny that I've got this crazy little bust that greets my guests a lot of times people will ask me can I have a seasonal wreath on the door like at Christmastime okay so what I always suggest is that you have items on your front door that are universal they can be seasonal but not holiday driven because not everybody celebrates Halloween there are some people that would love this and they would buy our house because of it but the majority of people would be a little bit freaked out by it so we don't want them to be freaked out by your house now the other thing that's really funny about my porch right now is that the candles have literally melted that is how hot it has been in Atlanta so I need to replace those candles with something that's more appropriate and I need to bring some florals up here the first thing that your buyers are going to notice the minute they walk in the door if you haven't break them out with the Halloween decorations is the temperature it's almost a hundred degrees outside today so the minute I walk in this house and it is cool that means the air conditioning works and I am not can you I can't tell you how many times a buyer walks to the door and says well at least we know the air conditioning works please please climate eyes your house now I'm hiding down here below the other thing that you need to be aware of more than a else in your entire house if there is one thing you do it could possibly actually trump the AC because that can be fixed people are gonna walk in their door and there you go like this kid you know they do it every single time the minute they walk in the door they are spelling for warning signs they want to know is there mildew is there mold is there a pet that's gonna like smell on this house forever is there cigarette smoke all those things in those micro micro a little milliseconds the moment they walk in the door and okay so what we want to do is in return is make sure that your house smells divine make sure that you get that pet smell out of your house because I see houses sitting on the market for all eternity because it smells like a pet or I mean obviously if you have a mold issue or a mildew that needs to be dealt with before you ever put your house on the market so we're gonna assume that those things are all in order I always tell my clients please whatever you do do not cook fish do not cook any polarizing spices I suggest something that smells like a sugar cookie I know that that sounds kind of cliche but I'm telling you it does work now what I say sugar cookie sometimes people go out and they buy all those plug-in things please do not buy the plugins if you have them take them out of the wall they are such a turn-off to buyers they reek and my mom has them so I tell my mom mom you got to take those out if she's like but I love them so it's fine when it's your house but this is no longer your house you're trying to sell it to somebody else and those people don't like those plugins in general every now and then somebody likes it but usually what it does is it makes people think you're trying to mask some other smell one thing that my house does not struggle with and a lot of my clients houses do you can see it it's almost messing up the camera here it's all the natural light I know I know you paid a lot of money for those blinds but I am telling you right now they will bake your house dark and you will make less money on your house with those blinds shut try to show how much money you spent on the blinds you are gonna give up money trying to show how much money you spent on the blinds when what you should be doing is showing how much light your house has so one of the very first things that I do when I walk into somebody's house I immediately start pulling the blinds down literally raising the blinds if there the traditional blinds and if they have plantation shutters I walk through the house I open every single one of them the rapture happened and my son just disappeared in the thin air and all we got left is his clothes we've even got a balloon which has a really great story my neighbors thought that my birthday was a month early and left me the sweetest balloon on my mailbox do buyers want to know all that they don't want to know all that I'm a great person and so are you but your buyers don't want to know who you are they're not buying you you are leaving the house they're by the house so what I do is I need to actually just simply clean up I need to declutter this is a great time to buy baskets for toys it's usually toys lying around here there's usually just stuff everywhere I'm gonna throw this into the laundry bin I may even go so far as to throw my dirty laundry in the back of my car literally because I actually don't want people to have to see my dirty laundry now I know I know I'm going really far but these little details are that important you guys know that I generally hate formulas but when I'm putting together a living room I generally follow these little guidelines I will have one like it that I throw kind of like this I wanted to feel approachable or here that one's gonna stay the same this one I'm actually going to flip this around that little pattern is really nice and I'm going to give you in the crotch ah okay so I don't want it to look like I tried too hard I want it to look like it just happened at that way if it looks like you try too hard people get the sense that maybe you needed to try it so hard because something wasn't quite right and it's not like this off feeling so what I want is to make it really cozy I'm gonna grab one with some pattern I generally keep these things fairly neutral and then add to life back in with really great plants books and those sorts of things very simple decor but make sure it don't strip it leave a few books believe some greenery fill the base with greens and make it feel alive and warm and welcoming so I've got this art piece that's gonna go up here okay so I'm gonna put this art piece up here the picture that was in here before was more fashion oriented and if I'm selling my house I don't want my personal taste to get in the way of someone else so I replaced it with something that's very neutral and very earthy and very sweet and I'm just gonna put this up here to finish this wall now I just have too many things over here this huge stack of books magazines this is my real life this is how I enjoy the space but not everybody is a magazine hoarder so I'm just gonna reduce some of it so again we're not stripping or being purposeful we're gonna leave certain things but we're gonna take out the extra like horror stuff even if your buyers are not avid chefs and cooks and long lavendar's in the bathtub your kitchen and your bathroom particular your master bathroom are always gonna be your number one selling items with your house people just want really nice kitchens and they want really nice bathrooms we're gonna get to the bathroom in a minute but I have quite a few tips to go through on your kitchen what you really want to convey to your buyers is that your kitchen is fully functioning that it's very clean that it's well-maintained and they don't want to look at your dirty dishes and your messes and finally you want them to feel like there's more room in this kitchen than they even need that is huge okay so one of the first things that I do is I go through the kitchen and I just click just click get the dishes put them in the dishwasher and I know this is taking it a step further but please run your dishes when somebody opens that dishwasher again they will because they're checking out the whole house kicking the tires and seeing what's gonna be like they open the dishwasher and they smell last night's food and it's crusted on the plates and all of your good efforts to show that you have cleaned this house are ruined and I'm gonna take your trash out the last thing you want is for people to smell gross stuff in your kitchens I stood here for a couple minutes and debated whether if I was staging my house to sell I would take if I would take down my artwork I'm going to leave the frame I'm gonna switch out the art inside because it does feel a little bit polarizing some of the things that I really like to do is minimize a little bit of the clutter you don't want it to feel too full so there's no formula you just kind of want to have it feel like it's inviting it's cozy but it's not overly cluttered or the worst thing would be for people to feel like there wasn't enough room into your pantry for all your stuff I've done a couple little things over here I unplug the toaster but because I purposely bought you're really pretty toaster that I can put out this one's going to stay out generally I would put ugly appliances away because if they don't add to the character or charm of the kitchen we don't want to see them but this is very charming because it feels like this very breakfast station which is literally how we use this area and I just added some greens and I took out the candy dish that was there now in the meantime I've created a bit of a mess and normally I keep my sponge sitting right down here in the safe so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna wipe this down really quick and I'm gonna make sure it's all really really shiny and pretty and new looking and I'm gonna take all this ugly stuff and I'm gonna tuck it underneath the sink and then I'm gonna make sure that there is cute soap sitting out on the kitchen counter because Don and Palmolive and all those other stuff it is practical but nobody wants to see your practical stuff when they are buying your house I have herbs growing by the window even if you're not going to keep up with this long term at least for the pictures for the day of listing and through the open house keep herbs by the window or in your kitchen somewhere to give the idea of life because we're gonna minimize the stuff in here and that can feel a bit soulless and the last thing we want is for people that feel like your kitchen has no heart and soul okay so make sure you've got some really great herbs this is just too much stuff right now over stop doors are the first warning sign to your buyers that there is not enough room in this house for everything people are going to open your drawers and your cabinet so you've got to make sure that they are declutter and that they are clean and that you give your buyers the impression that there is plenty of room in this house I think the cabinet is so full that it doesn't even close not good not good okay so this is again an issue of organized clear out and get your pantry to look designer we don't necessarily want all the extra stuff in here okay so I know that you need to actually live in your house but you can't your cereals into pretty jars and get some little bins and just corral your things and empty it because when somebody opens that pantry and it just looks amazing you have inspired them that they are gonna have this amazing life in this kitchen and it's just gonna be glorious every time I take this magnet down off the refrigerator my son comes and puts it back up on the refrigerator so I don't normally have a lot of magnets I know that a lot of you have magnets all over your fridge just take them off okay just take them off and if Landon complains then his picture is no longer there you can tell him that it's been packed so that we make sure it gets to the new house and we don't want to lose it so definitely take down your magnets and oh my god please please please please please clean out your refrigerator there is nothing more disgusting than opening the fridge and smelling somebody's rotten food in the time it's taken me to do everything else I've got it all done and I'm just going to pull out this cookie and show to you that's what we're going for a brown cookie now I'm gonna throw some extras in here and put them on a little plate because I think that baked goods sitting out on the counter is really really cute so I'm gonna do a little bit extra because I want to have something sitting out but you could just as easily have bought something at the store and put it out like on a cute little tray it just feels all homey and that's what you want you want your kitchen to feel homey [Music] the bedrooms are another one of those spaces that particularly the master people do not like feeling like someone else has been living in that room and you know doing things besides sleeping so what we want to do is what hotels do think through luxury hotels how they set up a room that is how you should set up your master bedroom for when you're going to sell your house so one of the things that I always do is that make sure that all the linens are extremely clean I almost always put a big fluffy white duvet down at the end of the bed I really want to give that impression of luxury even if it's just a ten dollar bouquet of roses from the grocery store I have several tips first of all always burn a candle in your bathroom because even if someone hasn't been in the bathroom anytime recently it's nice to walk in and it feel light and airy so my second tip is please do not leave the fan running in the bathroom please it's gross and please please put the toilet seat down it is disgusting to walk in and the toilet seats up just don't just put the toilet seat down and see how like real life people have things out on their counters and they don't always put everything away when it's time to sell your house you need to put all of your toiletries away please try to minimize them to only what you absolutely have to have in those cabinets just like the kitchen you want people to be able to open the cabinets and feel like there is plenty of room for them to store everything obviously you want the space to be extra clean extra sterile in the sense that it doesn't feel like anyone has ever been in here but that someone would like to come in here that's what you want your bathroom to feel like so I always take down the towels because nobody's been in here lately right you want to give the no one's been in here anytime recently not like oh my god and they just literally take a shower use the toilet and just leave oh we don't want that impression it's just so bad when you walk into a house and someone does that so take down the towels clean up your shampoos your conditioners and minimize it to only the things that are absolutely necessary your shampoos and your conditioners are not pretty like this put them away just don't even have them out so I suggest like the kitchen this is another space where pretty soap pumps are so important paper towels and toothbrushes and shaving cream and all that stuff needs to go away clean it up make it as minimal as you can but don't forget to add in a little bit of life you see how I've got a little clamp there this is actually a really good thing I'm getting ready to redo my entire closet so my closet is not a good example of how your calls it should be staged what you really want is your closet to look like you have extra space so if I was saving my house I would reduce this by half I realize now why people invite me back to save their houses when they move into their new house because my house smells amazing it's so clean and I have cookies on the counter when you're moving oh my gosh if you can make your house feel like a million dollars or if it's a million dollar listing it maybe two or three you will make so much money back so I know that this was a little bit of a longer video than what I normally do and I know that it was just utterly packed with so much information but leaving your questions that you have leave me your tips things that you've done before that you think have sold your house really really fast and for top dollar and I hope that you've enjoyed this video and that you will be able to apply these things to your home when you're selling I realize how challenging it is to separate myself from my things so if you need more help feel free to reach out to me I'm always happy to be able to help and I will see you very very soon and best of luck selling your house I'll see you soon bye

Channel: House of Valentina

Views: 840,004

Rating: 4.8029981 out of 5

Keywords: how to stage your home, atlanta real estate, top agent, house of valentina, million dollar listing, budget staging, how to sell your house, buying and selling, real estate tips, real estate staging, windward, open house nyc, luxury real estate, home tour, home staging, home staging tips, staging a house, staging your home to sell, how to stage your home on a budget, interior design, real estate agent, how to stage a house, real estate, staging a house to sell

Id: EHGDj7aXq4w

Length: 25min 30sec (1530 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 01 2019