Tag Archives: Vacant Home Staging Minneapolis St. Paul MN

“Scent”sational Homes

Eucalyptus Arrangement Simple Modern DIY Flower Arrangement

After a lot of sweat, love and maybe some tears, you are finally ready to list your home for sale. The landscaping is impeccable, rooms pre-packed, every surface cleaned and the stager has done their magic. You realtor is arriving tomorrow afternoon for the first showing. It’s time to run to Target and grab some fresh candles and air fresheners, right? Absolutely….NOT! It today’s blog, we’ll go through the do’s and don’ts of using scents during the home selling process, and ensure your potential buys have a “scent”sational experience with your home!

COOKING

The longer we live in a home, the more used to our natural scents. Cooking can make a lasting scent in your home that is great during meal time but not ideal during a showing. Foods like seafood, curries, onions, hot peppers, cauliflower, spinach all taste great and have wonderful health benefits, but are not your friend for selling a home. Attempt to avoid cooking pungent meals a week or more before listing your home. We’ll talk about a few tips to freshen the environment if you do have lingering cooking scents.

CANDLES

I love candles — the way they smell, the way they look, how cozy they make my home feel. Candles are fantastic, except some people are very sensitive to scent, and any hint of a candle burning will send them into a migraine! The last thing we want is a potential buyer leaving your home because they can’t tolerate your candle’s fragrance. Try to tuck away candles at least 48-72 hours before a showing.

AIR FRESHENERS

Air fresheners might seem like a great idea, or you may have heard the hack of hiding scented dryer sheets around the house to freshen up the joint, but we’ll want to avoid both for showings. Air fresheners, especially when brand new, can have quite strong odors, and similarly to candles, could prevent a potential buyer from touring your home. Scent also tends to be taste specific — what smells great to me might smell terrible to you! Best to just avoid artificial scents and use some of our tips and tricks to refresh your home’s air naturally.

ESSENTIAL OILS

I would put essential oils in the same category as air fresheners and candles. Although the oils are natural, there are folks with sensitivities and allergies to the oils and what they’re made of. Let’s avoid allergic reactions and skip the diffuser for at least 48 hours before a tour.

PETS

Pets are another scent that our noses tend to adjust to overtime. You might not be able to smell Rufus, but potential buyers might be able to! Shampooing carpets, removing pet hair from furniture, and doing a general deep clean of the home is the best way to rid of pet scents. Try to have your pet sleepover with a friend or family member after the home has been deep clean since we won’t want pets home during showings anyways. For cats, use black light to identify any hidden areas where you pet may have pottied, and try an enzyme odor eater to elimate the scent.

WINDOWS

One of the easiest ways to manage scents in your home is to simply open the windows! Dead of winter? Open windows! Ninety degrees? Open windows! Of course, if opening your windows doesn’t feel like an option, you could always invest in an air purifier. They work wonders!

Baking Soda

If you’re struggling with odors stuck in carpets or soft furniture, sprinkle baking soda over the surface and let it sit for an hour or more. Vacuum up the soda and you should vaccum up the smells with it!

COOKIES

When sellers feel very strongly about have a pleasant scent wafting through their home during open houses or showings, I suggest they head to the store, grab some pre-made cookie dough, and toss it in the oven before potential buyers arrive! Who doesn’t love the smell of fresh baked cookies? Of course, consider avoiding nuts or peanut butter in case of allergies. Bonus — you can take the fresh baked cookies on the road with you for a tasty treat while you wait for the showing to end!

FLOWERS

Another natural way to improve your home’s air is to utilize fresh plants and flowers during the staging process. Of course, we don’t want too many sources of pollen (dang allergies!), but house plants help clean the air and flowers make everything better! My go to flowers are eucalyptus and baby’s breath. They dry nicely so you won’t likely need to replace them throughout the showing process, and they give off a subtle, fresh scent.

Remember, when it doubt, just give a good cleaning and open the windows! Happy selling!

Guest Blogger: Katya Larsen, Stager, A Home Revival

A Peek Behind the Curtain

I’m sure you’ve wondered, how does staging actually work? Is it just moving a bunch of furniture in and out of homes all day every day? Does staging make that much of a difference? People don’t reaaaaalllly care how a home looks when they’re in the market for a new one, right? They can see the potential and know my couch won’t be here when they move in, of course. Today, we’re going to give you a sneak peek into just how exciting and effective staging a home can be!

Preparing for a stage is a multi-week process. We hear from a realtor that a client is looking for our support. We begin the process with a staging consult — up to two hours walking through a client’s home and prioritizing together the work that should be done and that changes to be made for the seller to receive the maximum price for the sale of their home. We take pictures so we can get to work designing and packing all the furniture and décor needed to impress buyers. After the consult, the seller gets to work cleaning, repairing and packing.

While the buyers are working hard at home, we are busy buzzing around our warehouse selecting furniture, bedding, lighting, art and décor that we strategically pack and ready for staging day!

Once the home is vacant, the selling family moved out, and everything spick and span, it’s time for us to bring our design to life with the help of our very beloved movers! We bring a big moving truck, full of beautiful items, and two amazing movers who help us thoughtfully and carefully curate homes. We place furniture, hang artwork, toss throws and do our absolute best to highlight the home’s best features and greatest potential. Again, our goal is to help you gross the most profit.

Here’s the best part — the final product! There is no higher compliment that a seller returning to their staged home and saying, “gosh, it’s so beautiful I’m not sure I want to leave anymore. I wish I had you come design our home years ago!” Check out these before and after photos from a recent stage!

Dining room before

Dining room after

Eat-in Kitchen Before

Eat-in kitchen after

Office before

Office after

Primary bedroom before

Primary bedroom after

Livingroom before

Livingroom after

A little paint, some updated, neutral décor, and voila! You have yourself a top-notch home for sale! Check out this beautiful home’s listing photos, and who knows, maybe its your next dream home!

Speaking of dream homes, you don’t have to wait until you’re moving to have us come to your home for design help! We offer design services, in addition to staging. We love helping clients fall in love with their homes all over again, so don’t hesitate to reach out, we are here to support you!

Guest Blogger: Katya Larsen, Stager, A Home Revival

The Hidden Costs of NOT Staging Your Home

We offer a variety of staging services at A Home Revival and Rooms with Style: staging consults, occupied stages, and the most inclusive service — the vacant stage. Here’s a peek at what each service entails:

Staging Consult – Home walk-through to develop a prioritized To Do List. Homeowner chooses which items on To Do List to complete and executes these items themselves.

Occupied Stage – Homeowners live in the home with their own furnishings; furniture placement may be changed, and accessories and artwork may be brought in for staging.

Vacant Staging – Homeowners have moved out and the home is empty; furniture, artwork and accessories are brought in for staging.

All of these services are incredibly helpful during the moving process, and clients are sometimes intimidated by the process and cost of staging. Our goal is to explain why it can be more costly to not invest in staging services during the moving process, and why these services are pivotal to getting the most revenue from the sale of your home.

Did you know, the majority of home buyers do not have the ability to walk into a home and imagine themselves living there? Its based on how our brains are built, like color blindness or handedness! A realtor once shared with me that a client wasn’t interested in a home they visited because he really didn’t like the blue couch. The realtor had to gently remind him that the couch didn’t come with the home! We hear examples like this a lot : “I don’t like the paint colors.” “I don’t like their style, it’s outdated.” “We don’t need a nursery.” “I didn’t like how it smelled in the home.” According to the National Association of Realtors, 82% of buyers find it easier to visualize a property as a future home when staged.

During the staging process, we are able to come to your home for a consult, prioritize with you the work you are willing and able to do to ready your home for sale, and then decide together how we can assist you with the process. Our hope is to neutralize the home, and create beautiful spaces that would appeal to anyone and everyone. We show how each room is intended to be used and come up with creative uses for spaces that are awkward or oddly shaped. We help buyers see just how great the home is, highlight it’s best features, and give them a head start at imagining their new life in their new home! According to realtor.com, staged homes sell 88% faster and for 20% more. We often stage homes that have sat on the market for weeks, or even months, without a sale, and see them sell in just days!

As we mentioned, staging services are flexible and meant to serve the seller’s needs. We prioritize the work together because we know there is often not enough time and resources to do everything possible to sell the “perfect” home. That said, the National Association of Realtors says more than a quarter of buyers (27%) are more willing to overlook property faults in a staged home. That means we can take on making your home appealing to buyers and save you the cost and efforts of major updates to your home. We show how great your home can look as is, and modernize it with our stunning décor.

We know staging is an additional investment, something that can feel “extra” or “unnecessary” with all the other costs and to-dos during the moving process. We can confidently say that the majority of our clients do save time and money by inviting us to walk with them throughout the selling process. We love partnering with realtors to serve their clients, and it is our hope to make the moving process a little more palatable. And if you like our work, we can even come to your new home and help you create your dream space! We’re here to serve and support you!

Guest Blogger: Katya Larsen, Stager, A Home Revival