By Kristen Noble

I always hate to see this to my real estate clients, but selling a house isn’t fun or convenient. There seem to be less and less buyers. I think, and obviously believe, that home staging gives home owners the best chance to sell their property for the most money. One common obstacle I’ve run into with sellers is their concern with their children’s lives being disrupted during the selling process. Here are a couple of tips that I suggest if you run into the same situation:

1. It’s always a good idea to take down all personal photos. When there are children in a home for sale, it’s even more important for safety purposes. It seems common for a child to have something in their room that boldly displays their name. Combine that name with a photo of a child and a people knowing your address and it is a very dangerous combination.
2. See if the comforters in kid’s rooms that have a bold design on them are more neutral on their opposite side.
3. Kids are afraid their things are going to disappear when they move. Suggest that parents give boxes to their children and have the kids decorate the boxes so they recognize which ones are theirs more quickly. Have each kid use one color.
4. Have your kids gather what is going into a packing box and photograph the items. Put that picture on the outside of the box so that when moving day arrives they can quickly find their favorite toys are once the move takes place.
5. Get a couple of short, but long plastic bins that can slide easily under a child’s bed. Have them pack those bins with their favorite toys for every day play. It’s a lot easier to ask a child to clean their room if they know where everything goes.
6. There’s nothing wrong with a neat stack of plastic containers in the garage for kid’s items. Again, take photographs and tape them to the outside of each box.
7. You can get cloth hanging boxes to put in a closet. They’re great for books.
8. If your client is moving because their family has outgrown the home, tell them you don’t want your pictures to advertise that fact. Having kids rooms crammed with things from top to bottom doesn’t help!
9. Leave a basket with the home owner with small rewards for kids who clean up their rooms before showings. I have used stickers, pencils, and treats as long as my client permits it.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 10th, 2011 at 9:34 pm and is filed under Home Staging, Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.