Priscilla Toomey, Julie B. Fee Sotheby's International Realty

Oct. 30, 2019:  We have become a visual world, and in real estate, "you only have one chance to make the best impression" holds especially true. What can you do to accomplish that? Four steps will help you get there: 

De-cluttering:  Prospective buyers will see what's there.  You should not expect them to imagine what could be. They see what is. So you need to de-clutter. Get rid of as many highly personal items as possible because those only remind prospects that the place is yours, not theirs. When it looks "naked" to you, you've probably done what you need to do. What you want is for the place you're selling to look like they can imagine themselves living there with their things.

Staging:  Staging means arranging what you already have to show your place to its best advantage, not bringing in a lot of rented furniture and furnishings. The key point about staging is that a good stager will see your place through the eyes of a prospective buyer and re-arrange things accordingly to make your place most appealing. What you may have been comfortable with for the past several years may well not be what today's millennial buyers are hoping to see. The closer you can get to that, the better.

Professional Photos: The photos you take will go onto the Multiple Listing Service and will also migrate to many other websites such as Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com and others.  You need someone who is a pro at taking real estate photos and has the equipment to do an excellent job for you. And remember that the camera picks up everything, even those keys you accidentally left on the kitchen table. A professional photographer will see them and get rid of them, but the point is that people leave all kinds of little things around, so be sure to clear out as many as you can. Very few people have a camera that can do the job of professional equipment.  We have seen more than enough photos of homes taken with someone's phone camera, and they look unprofessional and are unable to compete with home photos taken by a pro. And if you're planning to have any rooms virtually staged, do let the photographer know because the angles may need to be a little different.

Virtual Staging:  You need to de-clutter and stage because people will be walking in once your place is on the market.  If your place is vacant or your things look "tired," you can have rooms "virtually staged" so that prospects can see the possibilities of what your place could look like. Virtual staging takes an empty room or takes a photo of a room that's furnished and empties it and re-furnishes it in a style you choose to show it to its best advantage. There is typically a caption that says the room has been virtually staged. Staging enables prospects to see what could be if they buy your place.  Additionally, when they are looking at it online, it is likely to help draw them in for a visit.

To compete in today's market, following these steps will position it to its best advantage.

Pictured here:  Priscilla Toomey

Photo courtesy Julia B. Fee/Sotheby's International Realty 

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