Overlooking the Obvious

What's the first thing that you notice when you look at a house? Most likely it's the area around the front door... and so this begs the question, why are so many front porches cluttered with things or overlooked entirely?

Most research suggests that a first impression is formed within 5 and 15 seconds upon arrival at a property for sale. Take a moment to think where the buyer is likely spending the majority of those 15 seconds... probably standing at the front door waiting for the realtor to fiddle with the lock box.

During those 15 seconds they are looking around, and noticing so many things that may have been overlooked when preparing a property for sale. Examples could be weeds coming through the stone walkway, a mailbox that is aged and rusted, living room window trim that is painted poorly or not at all, or simply really old and worn hardware on the door itself.

While preparing the interior is still the most important, overlooking the significance of the exterior, particularly the front door area is a risk you should not be taking. A professional home stager can help guide the buyer towards prioritizing where their money and efforts should be spent, and because we arrive at the home with "buyer's eyes", we notice things that buyers will and form the same first impressions.

A beautiful and welcoming front porch sets the tone for a positive visit once buyers get inside. So, let your sellers know... those doors that they walk through everyday without really seeing, are actually the portals to many opportunties that they could be missing out on.

Christine Bird operates New View Home Staging in the Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge ON market. For more information about our services visit www.newviewhomestaging.ca or call Chris at 519-505-0892.