More and more people are shopping for homes solely online nowadays which means photos and 3D tours are more important than ever before! We met with Kristy from With Buyer’s Eyes to talk about how to make your home shine in-person AND online!
Hello! This is Jace Baldwin with the Twin Cities Elite Real Estate Group. I’m here today with Kristy Kasper With Buyer’s Eyes. And just wanted to shoot a quick little video for you here today. Just kinda talking with Kristy and kind of hearing some of her expert opinions on how you can kind of get your home for market and for that virtual staging appointment as well. So thanks for joining me today here Kristy, and feel free to share some of your opening thoughts.
Kristy
Absolutely, thanks for having me, Jace. I know we talked a little bit before about what sellers are doing right now in kind of the virtual capacity with doing virtual tours and all of the great photos that are being taken for the listing shots. So when I meet with clients and talk about how to best start the prep process for getting on the market, I think a lot of it really does come down to decluttering, especially when you’re doing those virtual tours and people can literally basically walk through the house just through a video.You really want to minimize any of those things that might be distractions. So clutter that’s on countertops and tables, rugs that kind of break up the floor and make it seem smaller and spaces, you know, any pet-related items, any personal items. So you really want to start minimizing is really the best way to begin. People always have more stuff than they need for www. And I mean, realistically, you don’t stage your house the way that you live in it. So you want it to be clear of all those small distractions.
And then after that, we can talk about how to neutralize the space, whether it be with a color, which is a big deal, some artwork that helps warm up this space so that people can kind of have that emotional connection when they walk in. And it’s super important for photos and for those virtual tourists to not only not have personal things sitting out, but also have enough things on the walls or accessories to help kind of give that, that warm, emotional connection for people, because it’s hard when you’re just looking at photos and you’re just walking through a house on a video to kind of have that emotional connection that you would have when you walk into a home personally.
But in some of those things, you can really kind of portray that as people are walking through. So that’s kind of where we start. So it really is, you know, get some boxes out and start packing stuff up. Yeah. So that’s a real big thing.
I heard you mentioned personal items and I know we’ve spoken about this before, personal photos, things like that. What’s kind of your opinion on that? I know you did mention as well that, you know, the way we stage their houses isn’t the way people typically live in it. Go ahead and share your thoughts on those things.
Kristy
Yep. So when you have a potential buyer walk into your home, you don’t want them to focus on who already lives in that home. So by walking in and seeing a big gallery wall of this cute family and their kids and their pets that live there, they’re one, distracted by who lives there, and two, they’re envisioning those people living there, not themselves. So you really want to mitigate that whole kind of disconnect between them envision themselves in the home and being able to see themselves living there rather than the family that is currently living there. So I know people have kind of a different opinion on it, but I do think that for sure, those big gallery walls, if you have photo frames on every shelf, you really need to minimize. I mean, if you have one or two, incorporate it into some other things on a bookshelf, not a big deal, really, but you do want to neutralize as much as possible, just so that the potential buyer can see themselves living there.
No, that makes complete sense. The other thing I heard you touch on that I think would be great to touch on as well is paint colors. Again, I know it’s not people’s favorite thing to do, but ultimately when we’re trying to picture, you know, somebody that’s walking into the home, living in this property, what would be your advice in regards to paint colors? Cause that’s a question I tend to get a lot and I love to hear your yeah thoughts.
Kristy
Well, neutral is good, right? So gray’s kind of the new beige. However, gray’s going out a little too, but you do want to have a clean, fresh palette for the buyers when they come in because as buyers walk through the house, they mentally are making a checklist of things that they would either want to change or need to fix or maybe want to negotiate on. Paint is such a simple, easy, and relatively inexpensive thing to do up front before people walk in. It’s really good to neutralize any taste-specific colors so that people can come in and add their own, their own specific tastes to the room. So if you have a neutral palette on the walls, you know, add a little pop of color with artwork or accessories or something like that, but neutralize anything that might turn off a potential buyer and get added to their, to-do list.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, that’s great. You know, I guess the other thing that I tend to hear, and this is something that we take care of for our clients but people always ask when we’re speaking about you and when you’re coming into the play, you know, will they tell us to spend a lot of money? Or you know, what is this the cost that’s associated with you coming over? So I’ll let you answer that one as well.
Kristy
Yeah. So typically, it does depend a little bit on the price point of the home. So it’s higher-end luxury homes, probably going to put a little bit of money into prepping that for sale. However mid-range, lower-cost homes, I try to utilize what the buyer has and not have them spend a ton of money. If it’s for repairs and things that you know are needing to get done, then maybe we’ll spend a little money on that. But I try to make it as cost-effective as possible for you because I know a lot of people are not going to want to spend a ton of money. So things like painting is relatively inexpensive and it makes a huge difference. So I try to pinpoint those things that are going to give you the biggest return on your investment. Not all the things, because again, you know, switching out light fixtures, if they’re super, super dated and you know everyone is gonna think that they need to be swapped out, then maybe that’s something that we do. But if it’s, you know, kind of a neutral piece that, they could take it or leave it, then we’re not going to switch it out just to spend money. So we’re going to do whatever’s going to be the most cost-effective and give you the biggest return on your investment. And, you know, whatever your budget is, we’ll work within and do the best that we can with that.
Awesome. Yeah. I know one big thing that I tend to notice when I’m working with buyers, and even when I’m bringing people through my listings, is when a home is not staged or the home is empty. People have a very hard time imagining, you know, themselves, there, how the home is going to be set up. So, this is just something that we think is super important. The listing side of things and the purchase side of things. So, we certainly appreciate you taking some time out of your day to shoot this video with us. And we look forward to having you help us more in the future.
Kristy
I’m here anytime you need me, Jace!
Alright, perfect. And we just wanted to say Happy Halloween, everybody, as Halloween is approaching. Thanks guys.
Guiding you home,
