Selling your home in Kamloops?

You have heard all about staging your home and getting it ready for sale but does your home have to fit a ideal look?

A sellers question. "We've been to a few open houses (doing research as we prep to sell our space) and we've noticed that everyone seems to have the same style of interior decoration. It's all white, minimalist with some rural flair (antlers over a fireplace, for example). Our house doesn't look like that. Is this something that people are looking for? Do we need to redecorate our place to optimize a sale?"

"When you're getting your home ready to sell, it's a great strategy to tour open houses and see what's appealing to the marketplace," says Andre Alves, a real estate agent in Toronto with Re/Max. "You'll notice there are a range of buyers that don't all have the same taste or style," so not every house, regardless of how it's designed, will appeal to everyone.

There's good reason minimalist decor seems to be everywhere, he says: It's a favourite look of stagers. The rural-modern esthetic is clean, simple, classic and easy to pull together, and it's often seen at open houses today because more people are seeking professional help to spruce up their spaces.

"With staging, buyers will be attracted to the decor, but (with less clutter) they'll focus on how spacious a room feels, the home's layout and storage space and the overall feeling they get from being in it."

This is key to increasing the perceived value of your house.

Alves is quick to caution against doing too much redecorating in this style before consulting a realtor or professional stager. For starters, you may not need to do as much work as you think you do. But, more important, there's a fine line between simple minimalism and sterile minimalism; the latter could make your space feel lifeless and clinical, and won't evoke the emotional response you want from purchasers.

As we know by now, staging a home helps increase its value and ensures it appeals to a wider variety of buyers. "A stager will rent the right furniture for your home and will create a cohesive look and feel at a fraction of what it would cost for you to redecorate." They'll also be able to design each room in a way that still lets your personality shine through; this goes a long way to ensuring your place feels full of life when you finally decide it's time to list.

His advice -if you don't want to seek the critical eye of an expert - is to stick to easy home renovations that have a high return on investment, such as painting. Choose a clean, neutral colour, such as one of the whites, as that can brighten a space. From there, just focus on keeping the house clean and organized; there's no need to go all out with a major redecoration in an attempt to appeal to potential purchasers.

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