Make a Statement with Home Staging Rental Furniture

In today's tough economic climate, few industries have taken a harder beating than the real estate market. That means that if you are trying to sell your home you have to be more of a stand out than ever before if you are going to woo those potential buyers into making the purchase. We all know how crucial landscaping and lawn work is to increase that all important curb appeal, but the simple fact is that all curb appeal can do is get potential buyers in the front door. What happens once they are inside?

You have cleaned and scrubbed and primed and painted, but is your place really ready for prime time? Before the open house, you have got to do your homework and understand a few basics of home preparation. Though it may seem like overkill and it may be a little emotional for you, it is strongly suggested that you remove family photos, collections and other personal items like trophies and awards before showing your home. Many opt to clear out the house entirely, making use of home staging rentals as props to show the property in its best possible light.

Home staging rentals have been a trade secret of home staging experts for years, but with the increase in the necessity of staging, more and more people are catching on, de-cluttering and cashing in. With housing sales at near record lows, we have to do everything we can to be memorable and by renting furniture and accessories to stage your home you accent the best points while drawing attention away from the down sides.

By using home staging rentals you can instantly transform that small, cramped bedroom into a cozy study or home office that's just perfect for an on-the-go lifestyle. Replacing a heavy antique table with a smaller, more neutral dining table and accessorizing simply with candles or basic plants can make the most of a dining room when finances are causing many of us to remember the importance of having dinner at home again.

By using home staging rentals and removing the majority of your own furniture and personal items from the home before your open house you are not only helping buyers to see themselves in the house, you are also getting a jump on your own packing and moving. With your things well packed you might even consider using a portable storage unit that can be delivered to your new home or apartment to make the moving process that much easier!

In the end the most important thing to remember is that while the house you are hoping to sell may have been your home, you have to depersonalize the process to make the most of this volatile real estate market and close that sale. Home staging rentals help to neutralize the space and make it more appealing to a wider audience, thus making it possible for buyers to envision themselves in the space.

Contact Interiors Refined by Paula for information on rental furniture for your home

How to Unpack without Exploding

One of the forgotten steps in moving is the fact that physically moving your belongings from one spot to another is only part of the deal. Once you get your boxes and your mattress and your desk to its final destination, you still have to be able to find everything and put everything where it belongs. A rule of thumb when surveying your house is that no matter how many box-fulls you think you have, a good idea is to at least increase your most generous estimate by at least 50 percent. And remember, for every box you pack, that’s a box you have to unpack.

According to data from the US Census, 14 percent of all American households last year moved. That translates to somewhere around 40 million people switching addresses.

Most of us take weeks, sometimes months to slowly and painstakingly categorize, wrap and pack all of our belongings. We spend months looking at prospective houses, arguing with our real estate agent and we spend days with our fingers crossed hoping we got the property we wanted.

But once you do get your dream house, then what? You took all this time to get everything ready and then you leave yourself….

ONE

DAY

…..to move everything. Yup, it’s just about as crazy as it sounds. But fear not, there are some common sense tips to keep your head from exploding. If you have the money, there are several companies out there that will help you pack up everything, and then once the movers do their thing, they will unpack pretty much everything. They will even take the boxes with them when they go. They will hang pictures, put your toothbrush in the bathroom and put the sheets on the bed. They will even get the computer up and running.

But, as you can imagine, moving companies and their services aren’t cheap. In that case, here are some good tips for do-it-yourselfers.

• “See-through” is your friend. Stay away from opaque brown cardboard boxes and try to use as much clear packing material as you can. Clear plastic bins, Ziploc bags for small things, anything that you can think of that is clear and can hold large amounts of stuff.

• Lists! Lists! Lists! Write down what goes in every single box, so when you wake up that first morning in your beautiful new home and you want that first cup of coffee, all you have to do is grab that list and see that it’s in box 91. Contact Interiors Refined by Paula to help you organize your list.

• Have the utilities turned on before you move in. This is especially important if you have kids. Moves are traumatic enough for adults, but when little Johnny is having his universe ripped apart, it helps to be able to plop the kids in front of Dora the Explorer for a bit while you try to recover from exhaustion.

While nothing can really prepare you for the mental and physical stress of moving day, being prepared and taking a few common sense steps can help keep things from getting too out of hand. In the meantime, contact us to help you when you move in as well!