Home Staging – Entice Buyers through their Senses

Guest Blog Entry #4 – May 19, 2010

A few weeks ago, Terry Haas from HGTV’s – Designed to Sell gave us tips for staging your home to appeal to potential buyers.  How do you appeal to  buyers? This is the magical question that is the difference in an offer on your home, or not.

Guest Blogger, Alesha E. Churba of A.E.Churba Design: Simple and Divine Interior Design, has a way to appeal to buyers – through their senses! Read on, to see how Alesha explains that all of your senses will make the deciding factor on how appealing your home is to potential buyers.

The main reason for staging your home is to make the most out of your home so that it will sell quickly.   It is presenting your home in the best light possible.  One of the ways to engage your potential buyer is to tantalize all of their senses.  The visual sense is one that is the focus of many an article and television show and I would like to encourage you to think beyond just the visual.

SIGHT:

If you appeal to all five of the senses you will provide an optimum staged experience.   First and foremost, of course, is the sense of sight.  In addition to the normal things you should do when staging, I encourage you to look at areas that can be easily overlooked.  Check out the corners of the ceilings and make sure there aren’t any

cobwebs, look at your light switches and make sure they are clean, make sure your ceiling fans are clean, dust your light bulbs and make sure your bathroom mirror is clean.

HEARING:

Next sense:  Consider what the potential buyers of your home are hearing.  Is there soft music playing or country twang or loud obnoxious commercials?   Consider making some music CD’s that consist of easy listening with no commercials or fast beat sounds.  You want the potential buyer to mull around and stay for a little while and experience your home; picture themselves in your home.  If there is fast, upbeat music playing, your potential buyer will move quickly through your home.  I highly recommend iTunes.com for selections that can be purchased and made into CD’s.

SMELL:

On to smell: not only should your home smell clean but it should smell good!  You want the potential buyers to picture themselves living in your home right?  Why not purchase a pumpkin pie candle and make sure it is burning or get the tarts and have a warmer going.  Why pumpkin?  Males especially find the pumpkin smell enticing and downright sexy.  Check it out- really!  Pumpkin pie and lavender are said to turn men on.

Taste

is very power: since you have the pumpkin pie scent going, how about some cookies to go with the pie?  If you can have cookies available, the potential buyer will remember the experience of having a treat while looking at your home.  Make sure the cookies are displayed on a beautiful plate and there are napkins and a garbage can available.  Taste speaks volumes when trying to create memories.  Think about any festive event and you think about food.  Create that path to the memory.

TOUCH:

Lastly, I want to discuss touch: touch as it relates to texture.  It is very

important for your home to be sparkling clean true, but consider the surfaces.  If everything is shiny and gleaming what is your home portraying?  It is not “homey,” it is almost institutional.  Make sure there are some home-like comforts as you stage your home.  Place a soft throw on the couch, place an apron in the kitchen, and strategically lay pot holders near the plate of cookies.

Create the dream of home in your potential buyers head.  Make them picture themselves living in your home.  Create mental recollections by stirring all of the senses in the potential buyer.   After all, you want your home to leave a lasting impression on your potential buyer so that they will remember your home and envision living there.  What better way to create a memory than through using all of the senses?

Alesha E. Churba recently completed the CAPS Training and is the only Allied Member ASID (American Society of Interior Designers) with experience in Residential and Commercial Interior Design and Decorating in Southeast Idaho. Her business niche is primarily designing and decorating with her clients futures in mind- i.e. aging in place, color story investment, and designing for the long term safety and comfort of her clients.

For more home staging ideas on Stagetecture, click here.