Long Beach Real Estate-Downtown Long Beach Condos

Preparing Your Long Beach Homes for Sale

Home Staging Tips for the Long Beach Homeowner

Marketing your Long Beach homes is similar to the way merchandisers market products using special packaging. You wouldn't buy a product that doesn't look good, would you? Would you buy a home that is disorganized and dirty?  Neither will today's Long Beach real estate buyers.  Try to look at your home through your buyer's eyes.

Physical clutter can create mental and spiritual blocks to success, health and selling your Long Beach home. Have you ever needed to pick up your rooms, make your bed, and put away the dirty dishes in the sink before you leave for vacation?  That's because space cleaning assists in lightening your mind and leaves you with a feeling of balance.
 

First Impressions Sell

Some unacceptable first impressions home buyers have can be corrected with the list below. Always remember first impressions and how it is important in any part of your life and in selling your Long Beach home.
 

1. Clean up the walkway to your home removing weeds and dead plants, adding new ones, and sweeping and hosing off the driveway and garage doors. It may be necessary to paint the front door, if washing it doesn't help. Also keep the entrance well lighted at night.
2. Remove any personal stuff, old newspapers and magazines, clothes lying around and religious artifacts. Make sure countertops and dresser tops are clean and clear.
3. Move out any unused or extra furniture so that your rooms are more spacious and not crowded with a lot of stuff.
4. All cupboards and closets should be clean and orderly.  Get rid of old unused clothing.  Kitchen and bathroom cupboards should be extra clean and neat.
5. Remove from sight any cat litter boxes, garbage cans and pet dishes and check the odor in your home. Most homeowners don't realize that odor plays a big part in the sale of their home.
6. Replace any old rugs and carpets, paint the walls or remove any old wallpaper. Buyers love when everything is done before they move in.
7. Keep your rooms light and bright with clean windows and window coverings. Open up the blinds and curtains and let in the sunshine. If it's a nice day, open up the windows and let in the fresh air.  
8. Add tons of real flowers around your home inside and out. Flowers will also freshen up the scent of your rooms.
9. Keep your rooms painted in colors that appeal to all. It doesn't necessarily have to be neutral but don't use hot pinks, lime greens, or themed kids rooms. Even if it's a deep color and everything else is correctly staged, clean and neat, the color will not matter. 
10. Your garage is not the catchall.  Make sure it is very clean and organized. It you have time, try and have a garage sale before you list your home with your Long Beach Realtor.

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Staging Your Long Beach Homes

Are you considering selling your Long Beach Home?  Have you considered the value a professional home stager will bring to the table? You should.  With so many homes for sale on the market in Long Beach it has never been more important for your home to show well.  This is the third in a series of articles on staging your Long Beach Homes by Diane Concialdi of  DC Redesign.  This portion of the series addresses bringing your home to life with color. Here you will find great tips for you to consider prior to placing your homes for sale on the market; we hope you are enjoying the series.

Define Your Long Beach Homes with Color!

Each year we are presented with a new palette of color choices for apparel, home furniture design, décor, appliances, automobiles and more.  Home decor changes for 2008 are a warm range of colors with a rustic feel combined with modern, natural products such as bamboo and anything clean and green.
 
If you're uncertain as to what colors to choose for your room palette, here's a tip:  pull colors out of your favorite tapestry, pillows, curtains or piece of artwork. Designing a room this way works every time. Don't forget black; it completes the look and pulls it all together.
 

Colors in softer grays, putty, stone and granite colors or browns, greens and sunset colors like oranges and yellows create an earth-like landscape for your home.  Use soft pewter-blues with tan hues to create the feel of the beach or colors in greens. Tone-on-tones for whites, beiges or lighter browns and neutrals combined with a wall in a dark richer color add dimension to your rooms.
 

Start with darker colors for floors, move upward for the lighter colors on the walls and don't forget the ceilings. Using the same color for your entire room including the ceiling also works!  Paint has different sheens so be sure to use the right one.  Flat paint camouflages imperfect walls; eggshell and satin give a more formal look and high gloss should be used for woodwork and doors.
 

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Tips for Selling Your Long Beach Homes

Let's talk about the difference between Vacant Home Staging and the Redesign of your Long Beach Homes. Redesign Home Staging is transforming an occupied home into a desirable place your buyer can see themselves living in.  Many homeowners do not see the mess and chaos that can take over homes, and most real estate agents do not want to offend or insult their client by suggesting they clean it up.


A professional Long Beach Realtor explains to the seller that Home Staging will transform their home to appear more cohesive and appealing to potential buyers.  Buyers will view the home as well maintained; this home will stand out from other Long Beach homes for sale. 
 

At a professional home stager it has always been difficult to enter a home and stop myself from cleaning it up, organizing some part of a room or wanting to paint the walls a different color.   All three of these points - clean, organized and light and bright play a really big part in getting your home ready for sale. 

What can a Professional Home Stager do for YOU?

A Home Staging Professional will ask that you pack away personal photos, awards and certificates or religious items first, de-clutter and organize cupboards, drawers and closets and other unnecessary items.  We recommend having a garage sale before you list your home. It doesn't make sense to move clutter to the garage.  Besides, why move what you don't need?  Painting your walls to appeal to the larger audience of buyers is highly recommended if the paint color on your walls doesn't really suit the room or detracts from the structure of your home.  Whenever possible all repairs to walls, floors, plumbing and electrical should be taken care of too; see your home through the buyers' eyes.


After all suggested pre-staging is completed, furniture is rearranged to accent the room's architecture, windows and doorways.  Accessories are used, and in some cases rental furniture may be needed, but in Home Staging keep in mind, "less is more."  It is typical to see only a loveseat and chair, end table with a lamp and a cocktail table with accessories to complete a staged living room.  (In the home staging consultation these suggestions are given to you for a DIY or hire us back to complete the rearrangement.)

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We are very pleased to welcome Diane Concialdi of DC Redesign to the Long Beach Real Estate Home Team.  Diane brings a fresh perspective on preparing your Long Beach Homes for sale through Home Staging.  Home Staging is often misunderstood and assumed to be highly expensive, which is not always true. Please join me in welcoming Diane to the team, we encourage your comments. 

Staging Your Long Beach Homes

 
Hi everyone!  This series of articles will be a continuing education for Long Beach homeowners and Realtors designed to help you comprehend the importance of Staging your Long Beach Homes.  I'm sure many are confused about the steps to hiring or using a Home Stager and the many different techniques used to Home Stage or Redesign.  

You may know already that Home Staging has become a necessary step in selling your Long Beach homes in today's market.  The importance is equal to the Realtor, Home Inspector, Escrow, Title and Loan Company. 

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Model Your World

Thinking about remodeling your homes, kitchens or baths, considering a landscaping project, building a deck or any new project can be mind boggling. Just considering how to express your dream to the architect or contractor and knowing that you and they have the same vision can be a stressful experience.

The Google Gods have developed an absolutely great solution. It's a 3D modeling software, it's easy to learn, simple to use and best of all it is free. It's called Google SketchUp 6. Now before you start pulling your hair out, let these 4 autistic children show you how easy it can be.

Isn't that amazing and wonderful?

Google SketchUp also allows you to place your completed models into Google Earth using real-world coordinates and share them with the world using Google 3D Warehouse. You can learn more about Google SketchUp here.

Or you can download the free version here.

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