Flaws You Cannot Hide by Staging Your Home
Are you planning to sell your home?
Maximizing your home's buyer appeal is essential. A professional home stager can help you to achieve this goal. When you work together with a stager, you are able to increase the closing price and sell your house quicker.
Home stagers have numerous skills and nuggets of knowledge that together benefit your sales process. These are the basic strategies used in successful home staging projects:
Removing excess clutter from your home to raise buyer's appeal
Depersonalization of the interior spaces for allowing prospective buyers to imagine themselves living there
Arranging pieces of furniture to maximize the available floor space and make the rooms airier
Home staging gets your house ready for selling. But while working with a professional home stager has many benefits, there are still many areas of your home that can't be fixed with the help of staging.
We are going over the main problem areas of your home that need repair or replacement instead of decorating and cleaning. Plus, ignoring these aspects of your home could compromise the results of your home staging efforts.
#1: Problems with your roof
Roof issues may cause a significant price drop in the closing price. Most buyers are wary about any serious problems affecting the roofing. And that's understandable as roofs form a protective layer between your home and the elements outside.
The most common roof problems include the following:
Stains
When your roofing has started to leak, ugly blotches and stains form on your ceilings. Sooner or later, your walls show signs of discoloration as well. Before you bring in a roofing expert, check that it's not a plumbing leak that causes these unsightly stains.
Old age
The life expectancy of your roof is highly dependent on its material, the surrounding climate, and the quality of the installation. Of course, regular maintenance (or the lack of it) plays an important role as well.
When your roof has become too old, it may lose its basic functionality and quickly start acquiring damage. In this case, you should consider a roof replacement before putting your home up for sale.
Damage from trees
Do you have any trees growing close to your roof? When tree branches regularly rub against the roof, the top surface may start wearing down. This wear could open the roofing material up to further damage, including leaks and cracks. Trim your trees to stop this process.
#2: Floor damage
Home stagers may have solutions for light floor damage. When your hardwood floors have become discolored and warped, covering these surfaces with vibrant rugs is likely to work wonders.
But there are many cases where home staging has no role in alleviating the issues. For example, squeaky and creaky floorboards call for actual flooring and subfloor repair.
Another problem is feeling a bounce or shift when you walk on the floor. This situation demands subfloor replacement. There is nothing for a home stager to do with issues of that degree.
#3: Foundation issues
Foundations problems pose a major challenge when selling your home. Home stagers are completely out of the picture here. Depending on its severity, foundation trouble may require extensive repair.
Prospective buyers are cautious when it comes to foundation issues. That's because any problems in this area of your home threaten the integrity of the whole structure. After all, your house rests on its foundation.
Sellers can pick between these two main strategies when their house needs a foundation fix:
Repair Do you want to maximize the number of potential buyers? Fixing your home's foundation is the best approach. Since many buyers turn away from homes with foundation problems, getting it repaired is a beneficial strategy. But you need to keep all the receipts and documents that serve as proof of the repairs taken.
Sell Some homeowners choose to sell their home that has foundation issues. Opting for this strategy means that you have to be ready to make a significant discount on your home. Ideally, the price difference should cover complete foundation repair. The downside of this approach is that it's much harder to find interested people.
Do you want to maximize the number of potential buyers? Fixing your home's foundation is the best approach. Since many buyers turn away from homes with foundation problems, getting it repaired is a beneficial strategy.
#4: Broken windows and torn screens
Torn screens and broken windows need repair instead of the application of staging methods. Covering up these parts of your home creates distrust and won't show you as a seller in a good light.
Fixing torn screens and updating your windows increases the value of your home. As a result, your property looks more attractive and prospects will find it more appealing.
While replacing your windows calls for a bigger investment, taking care of torn screens is a small-scale project. Most homeowners take on this project as a DIY challenge that can be completed in less than a day.
The bottom line: Flaws You Cannot Hide by Staging Your Home
Home staging helps to sell your property quicker and for a bigger sum. Hiring a professional home stager is more than likely to boost your home selling efforts.
Not everything can be enhanced by home staging. There are some flaws and problem areas in your home that can only be fixed by investing in proper repair projects.
The common flaws that can't be addressed by staging your home are as follows:
Foundation problems
Broken windows
Serious damage to your flooring or subfloor
Torn screens
Any substantial roof damage