The 9 Biggest Mistakes Home Sellers Make When Preparing and Staging Their Homes for Sale

Home sellers who make the following mistakes when preparing their homes for sale, will have their homes on the market for a lot longer than they want...and they will probably have to reduce their asking price.

1) Not Updating the Kitchen or Bathrooms. These are the two most important rooms in the house...the ones that make or break the ability to get an offer. And you don't even have to completely gut the kitchen or bath. See some of my earlier posts on how we updated several kitchens beautifully...and inexpensively. Even simple updates like painting your cabinets will create a new look that will be very appealing to a buyer. Buyers want a home that is move-in ready - but you don't have to replace everything in a kitchen or bath to achieve that. New faucets, clean and sparkling sinks, uncluttered countertops and new hardware can really spruce up these rooms. If the budget permits - do updated appliances, better countertops and new flooring.

Before: These kitchen cabinets were originally a mid tone taupe color

After: We painted the cabinets, added decorative onlays and we also created a beautiful faux marble look for the island countertop. You can make your kitchen beautiful...

without expensive replacement costs.
2) Not Caring About Curb Appeal. A buyer prejudges a home in 12 seconds from the outside of a home. That's why curb appeal is so very important if you want to attract a buyer to "come in." It's like the cover of a book - if the cover doesn't look interesting...chances are the book will be passed over.

3) Not De-Cluttering, Cleaning and Deodorizing. If you take the time to remove clutter, edit the amount of furniture you have in your rooms and clean your home to shine like a diamond - your space will look larger, more pristine and well-cared for. Endless knickknacks and collectibles in cabinets, magnets on the fridge and family photos all over the place deter potential buyers from envisioning themselves living in the home. It's best to pack up the treasures and make all surfaces shine. Making your house smell sunshine clean is also very important. You want to remove as many negatives as possible when your home is up for sale.

This bathroom would have looked great if the homeowner had removed the dated mirror, old towels and toiletries and added nice, fluffy white towels, a new faucet, shower curtain...and a neutral colored paint on the vanity and walls. Our company could have also created a limestone look on the countertop - a durable and beautiful finish that is less costly than buying and installing a new one.

4) Keeping Taste-Specific Furniture, Carpeting, Colors and Accessories as Part of the Decor. If you bought your home in the 70s or 80s and if the decor still reflects those eras, your home won't be on a potential buyers "make an offer" list. Odd colored carpets (teal is a big no-no), draperies, wall colors etc will not be appealing to a broad range of buyer. Why? Number one, not everyone has furniture that would go with specific colors - that's why neutral colors are the best to use when getting your home ready for sale. Another reason why taste-specific decor doesn't work is because more and more prospective buyers are young, first time homebuyers (ages 25-35). They weren't even born when Avocado and Harvest Gold were the "in" kitchen colors! The younger, first time buyer wants neutral colors, clean lines and uncluttered spaces. Tip: A buyer should not be able to tell if the seller is 90 or 30 years old and whether the seller is male or female.

 5)Trying to Sell A Home When It's Vacant. A home with no furniture is soulless and very unappealing. A vacant home can also translate into "desperate seller" in buyer-speak. The buyer gets the idea that a seller really needs to sell the home and so they assume the seller will take a lower offer. A vacant home never gets a full asking price offer - always lower. It's much more prudent to have a competent home stager bring in furniture and accessories - and make the home warm and livable. In addition, a vacant room actually looks smaller than it is. Plus - a buyer will only focus on the negatives of a space because there is nothing else to focus on.

Every hairline crack, every speck of dust...any minute "less then perfect" aspect of a house

is magnified when it's vacant.

6) Not Letting in as Much Light in to the House. Dark, heavy draperies, closed vertical blinds...any window covering that blocks light from coming in to a house - will not make the buyer feel that the home is bright and airy. You have to find ways to "steal the sunlight," as real estate guru Barbara Corcoran says. Add more light fixtures, uplights and take dark shades off your table lamps - replace with more translucent covers that will emit more light.

7) Refusing to Put Any Money into Necessary Repairs, Improving the House or Staging Before Selling. For every deferred repair, the homeowner will receive less money offered for the house. Avoid possible buyer objections by fixing the things that are wrong with the home. A wife may fall in love with a kitchen - but her husband will be looking at very crack, every bulge in the wall that spells water trouble and every electrical no-no in the house. Fix things before you have a buyer offer you less than you want. The money you spend on repairs will net you a bigger profit on your home. Also, consider hiring a home stager - even just for a consultation. Staging is an investment - not a cost. Plus, it's tax deductible. For every dollar you spend on staging, you get $3 in return.

8) Keeping Fido and Kitty at the Home When it's Being Shown. Many times I have been to Open Houses where I have been greeted by the family cat or dog. I have also attended Open Houses where there are 4 or 5 dogs in a crate - and they are all yapping and barking so much that I can hardly hear what the realtor is saying to me! I've also seen wee wee pads here and there at Open Houses. I am an animal lover - so these things never bother me. But, what about any prospective buyer who might be allergic to cats or dogs? It's best to keep the family pet away for the Open House day - and any time the house is being shown. You should also remove any sign (or odor) of pet ownership.

9) Not Marketing the Home Properly with Great Online Photos. With over 80% of potential buyers searching online first before viewing a property, it's imperative that a home look beautiful online. Badly lit pictures, cluttered surfaces in the photos and even just pictures of the exterior of the home (and no interior shots) spell "not worth a visit" to a prospective buyer. Even worse is when there are no photos of the home. Take the time to do a great photo shoot. It will really pay off. Staged homes, by the way - look great online.

Creatively Using Color

Using Color Effectively When Staging a Home


The Importance of Choosing the Right Colors When You’re Selling a Home: Learning to Go Beyond White and Real Estate Beige

Because I work with color every day of my life, I find it very easy to choose paint colors for my clients. I’ve experimented with color since I was a child – so I can easily remedy an already purchased can of paint that otherwise would be an “Oops” can on the shelf at Home Depot: If a color is too yellow – I know that adding some measured drops of violet tint will soften and neutralize it to a usable and beautiful hue. Not everyone can do this – but it’s a useful skill to have when you’ve hired a painter for a day and he’s rolled the first bit of paint on the wall – and you absolutely know it’s the wrong color!

Choosing the right colors for a home - especially when you are trying to sell it – is not the easiest thing to do. Color can make or break a room – it can help you make a small room look larger…a huge room more cozy…a long room less bowling alley-like…and a tall room less like an inverted shoebox! If you learn how to choose colors that work for the rooms you are selling, you can alter the perceived dimensions of the space.

In the coming months, I will share with you some of my tips for alleviating some of the most common problems that you encounter in residential homes every day. Today, I’m sharing some of my all-time favorite paint colors that have worked well for me – and why I used these hues.

Some of My Favorite Colors Used in My Staging and Color Consulting Work

Benjamin Moore Monroe Bisque: This is a warm beige that looks beautiful in most rooms. I used it recently in a St. James NY condo living room – the home sold in two days. It worked well with the homeowner’s creamy yellow leather sofa and love seat. Important note: Because the tone of the furniture and the oak flooring, and the wall color were closely related, it helped to make the room look larger. This is also a great color for a bathroom and a basement. If the basement doesn’t receive much light – add some white tint or white paint to it to make it lighter.


Benjamin Moore Silken Pine: I don’t usually recommend any kind of blue color for a home that’s for sale (that’s another topic for another time), but I just used this hue in a homeowner’s kitchen in Port Washington NY and it really is a special color. It’s a soft, neutral celadon bluish-green. It’s a great choice to enliven and modernize a space, without making too bold of a statement for home staging.

Benjamin Moore Shaker Beige: This is an interior designer favorite for many reasons. It’s a wonderful taupe color that will blend with just about everything. I’ve paired it with crisp white wainscoting and moldings in an elegant dining room on the Bay Shore NY waterfront – it looks beautiful. In the same home, I mixed just the tint of this paint in authentic Venetian Plaster for the home’s entryway. I also used the tint in a metallic plaster for the living room. This is a wonderful way to use the same color in an open floor plan home – without being repetitive. The Venetian Plaster and the metallic plaster take the tint in a different way – but all the rooms “blend” beautifully in value and hue.

Benjamin Moore Grant Beige. I just used this successfully in a Master Bedroom – the home sold for $6,000 above listing price. This color has some chameleon-like qualities, meaning that when paired with blue-green fabrics, it’s a neutral beige with blue-green undertones…but when used with crisp whites, it has more of a neutral beige quality. I chose the color because 1) I needed a restful color because it was a bedroom and 2) I needed a neutral that also had a slight blue-green undertone because I was using teal bedding. To make the bedroom seem larger and more serene – I chose colors that were very closely related in hue and value…with the least amount of contrast.

Restoration Hardware Silver Sage: This is one of my all time favorite colors. I’ve used it in elegant living rooms, master bedrooms and master baths. This company also has coordinated bedding etc that blends beautifully with the paint color (ie they have Silver Sage as a color in the bedding collection).

And for the truly adventurous…

Benjamin Moore Aura 50/50 mix of Barrista and Satchel: I custom mixed these two colors to use on my kitchen and kitchen eating area walls. Because my kitchen gets a tremendous amount of natural sunlight, I could go with a deep rich chocolate color. My cabinetry and moldings are all cream (Benjamin Moore OC 94, Windswept – another favorite of mine), so the dark wall color pops the light cabinetry and moldings. It does not make the room seem dark at all.

Would I use this in a kitchen that I’m staging? Maybe – but it would have to be a kitchen like mine – a sun-filled space with light cabinetry. But to be on the safe side, I would reserve this color for a small powder room. I recently did a small powder room in Melville, NY that features a dark chocolate brown metallic plaster – but any deep chocolate brown paint would do just as well. This color is dramatic and it works well with cream moldings and bone sinks and toilets. Add a beautiful mirror, a chandelier and artwork with cream matting that contrasts with the dark walls – and you have a really special jewel box that prospective home buyers will remember. As with all paint colors - try a sample on your walls first...see how the light affects it from morning til night.