How Important Is Staging when Selling?

 There are many great Fairfax area homes for sale! Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at 703-798-9882 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions

Selling your home involves a lot of different steps. One of the most critical steps in preparing your home for sale is home staging. Today we are very excited to be joined by one of our favorite home stagers, Victoria, from Voilà Designs by Victoria. She is here to discuss with us why staging is so important when you are trying to sell a home. 

When you are selling a home, you have to understand that it is no longer your home. It has to be viewed as a house, a piece of property, a business investment that you want and need to sell. If you want to sell in today’s market, you’ve got to appeal to today’s buyers. This is where the home staging comes in.

Maximizing the space is one of the most critical aspects of staging. You have got to show the rooms to be as large as possible. Staging to sell is different than staging to live, so you’ve got to always have today’s buyers and their perspectives in mind. Maybe your home is a little older, so bringing in some fresh, new touches may help immensely.

When Victoria stages a home, she is looking for something modern, fresh, and clean. It’s really important that all of the elements of the home look as visually compelling and visually appealing as possible. When you have a vacant home, it doesn’t really translate to the buyer and doesn’t show as well with photography either, which is another important part of your home sale.

If you have any questions for Victoria, please get in touch. All of her contact information is on her website, which you can click here to visit. If you have any other questions for us, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We’ll be here for you, every step of the way!

How Can You Put an Accurate Value on Your Fairfax Home?

There are many great Fairfax area homes for sale! Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at 703-798-9882 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions

Today I'd like to talk about Zillow. It's a great resource to find homes, but not a good resource to use if you're trying to price your home to sell. I recently saw an interview where the CEO of Zillow was speaking, and even he said that Zillow's Zestimate can be off by as much as 8%. In some instances, that number can be off by as much as 25%!

For a home that is worth $200,000, a difference of 8% is a difference of $16,000! That is a significant amount of money. This is why you must take these Zestimates with a grain of salt. Zillow is not a pricing tool, it is an aggregate of homes that are around the neighborhood that have recently sold.

While it's helpful to have that information at your fingertips, it's better to speak with a real estate agent in order to get an accurate value for your home. We can place a very accurate and attractive sale price on your home if you allow us to come out and look at your property. 

We would love to help you sell for top dollar by placing an accurate value on your Fairfax home. Please don't hesitate to contact us!

How to Determine the Perfect Time to Sell Your Home

 There are many great Fairfax area homes for sale! Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at 703-798-9882 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions

A question that we get asked all the time is, "When is the right time to put my home on the market?" The answer to this question is simple: Whenever you are ready, that's the time to put your home on the market.

There isn't a special season or month that you need to wait for. Luckily, living in Northern Virginia, there are always people looking for homes. Whether it's people from the military, the government, or technology firms, people are constantly moving in and out of this vibrant economy we have.

The real questions you need to ask yourself are: When do you want to sell? And when will your home be market ready? Before putting your home on the market, you will want to make sure your home is clean, neutral, and de-cluttered. The only other piece of the puzzle is looking carefully at recent sales in your neighborhood to know where to price your home. As long as we price your home to market comparable ones, there really is no bad time to put your home on the market. It comes down to when does it work for you and your family.

No matter when you decide to put it on the market, we will get your house sold, Just let us know what you need when you need it and we'll be there to help you. We are here to serve you with all your real estate needs, no matter what that is. At the Stepping Stone Group, we will be with you every step of the way!

Maximize Your ROI on Home Repairs with my Expertise

 There are many great Fairfax area homes for sale! Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at 703-798-9882 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

 Know Which Renovations will Excite Your Buyers

Today I'm going to be talking with you about your Return on Investment (ROI) when you sell your home. There are some repairs that you can make that will benefit you much more than others. So, before you pick up a paint brush or even consider listing your home, have me come take a look at your property to see what can be done to maximize your ROI. 

I will walk with you in your home, and we will go room-by-room and talk about things you can do to prepare your home for a sale. I will cover the overall appearance of your home both inside and outside. 

When I come do this walk-through, I will be focusing on repairs that usually yield the highest ROI. Repainting and installing new carpeting are among the best repairs you can make to your home in order to get the highest return on an investment. Kitchen and bathroom repairs are also very appealing to potential buyers. 

I can also help make sure that your home is as appealing to buyers as it can possibly be. I am aware of recent design trends and can recommend certain changes that will excite and attract buyers. I would hate for you to spend a lot of money on a repair that will not get you anywhere in the selling process. Not a lot of home sellers ever think about which repairs will net the most money, but it's a nuance of the real estate business that I am well aware of. 

Contact me with plenty of time to plan these things out, because the sooner we talk about them, the better off you will be when you sell your home. You can call me at (703) 798-9882 or email me at betsy@steppingstonegroup.com