3 Emotional Home Staging Tips That Help Seattle Homes Sell Faster and For More 💰

Are you thinking about selling your home? Here is one of the most overlooked strategies that helps buyers fall in love fast and it has nothing to do with granite countertops or square footage. Hi, I'm realtor Emily Cressey with HomeProAssociates.com in Keller Williams, Greater Seattle and I do love watching buyers fall in love with a property because that's the moment when things get real. The truth is people don't just buy homes with their heads, they buy with their hearts. So if you're selling your home this year, your job is to help those buyers feel their heart that they already belong in the property. When I'm showing a home to buyers, they will often spend an hour or more like sitting in the home. They walk through first, they're like, I think this could be it, honey. And then I have them sit on the couch in the living room or out on the porch. They might come back to visit it on multiple days. They might come to every single day the open house is open and just soak in the ambiance of the property. So if you want to make your home comfortable and inviting, I would make sure they have a place to sit and enjoy the view. It's not in the laundry room, right? It's someplace nice in the home and settle in to the feeling of the property. So today we're going to go over three staging strategies that create an emotional connection with buyers and help you sell your home faster and for more money. So tip number one is to create inviting vignettes, set up cozy conversational spots like the front porch, the living room, the pre-milled places, someplace they could enjoy the view. It might be on different floors of the home, depending on where they are when they stop and have this moment, right? But you want them to be able to sit down, relax, and imagine themselves enjoying the space as their own home. Could be a sunny breakfast nook or reading chair in the bedroom, a bistro set on the patio, right? Make sure every area feels usable and welcoming. I know the stagers don't want us sitting on their air mattresses in the bedroom, right? And ruining the bedding and the sheets. But we should be able to find a sitting area on each floor of the house where the whole party can just sit down and say, wow, this is it. And do that as a group, okay? Tip number two, let them linger. When I'm touring homes with buyers and I see them stay in the home for longer than our appointment time, that's my cue that they're really getting into their future in this property. So as a seller, please don't rush them out. Sometimes home sellers get back like, oh, you said you were going to be here from 2 to 2.30 and now it's 2.30. And they're eager to kind of rush the buyers out so they can return to their own routine, okay? Fight against this instinct. Do not ask them to leave. Do not have them call the agents and get people encouraged to leave the home. You want them to spend as much time in there as you can because the longer they stay, the more they connect with the property. Tip number three is to appeal to all five senses, okay? Again, a lot of this is subconscious. It's not something that people realize on like, oh, there's fresh flowers here. But these little things, the fresh flowers, the soft music, the warm lighting, heat or air conditioning, for goodness sakes, do not make people feel like, oh, this house is freezing and cold. No one wants a cold house. You also don't want to go up to the bedroom and feel like it's 90 degrees on the top floor of that townhouse in the middle of summer, okay? So don't be cheap. Even if it's vacant, heat the home, cool the home. Make it nice for the people that come by. So I mentioned cookies earlier. I actually sold a house at Christmastime, which is traditionally a horrible time to list your home, right? But I sold a house at Christmastime and before every showing, we went there multiple times, the sellers would make warm chocolate chip cookies for the buyer clients to enjoy while they were there. They had the Christmas tree up. They had the music playing in the background. The whole thing smelled like evergreens. It was a huge hit. And that house ended up selling fast in December with multiple offers. We were not the only ones that they were making cookies for, but these types of details help create a full sensory experience that makes people feel like your home stands out from the rest, not just in their memory, but in their hearts, okay? So selling a home is about more than just putting a sign in the yard. It's about telling a story and inviting buyers to become a part of it. If you're thinking about selling and you want help creating this type of connection driven experience for your buyers, reach out to me at HomeProAssociates.com. I would love to help you set the stage and sell your Seattle area home with her. I'm real estate agent Emily Cressy with Keller Williams, Greater Seattle, and you can find out more about me and how I work at HomeProAssociates.com.