Whenever you want to sell your property at the best price and/or receive multiple offers, you may want to consider contacting a professional home stager. Home staging focuses on maximizing the appeal of your property by using skills and techniques that make it easier to sell your home faster.
However, home staging has its limits too; as it cannot address potential issues in your home, especially the severe problems that are often deal breakers for buyers. Below are a few things that staging cannot just gloss over:
Cabinetry
Let's face it, when preparing a house for sale no one wants to spend more than absolutely necessary. Therefore, some sellers will only make quick surface fixes to improve a space. A common one is to replace the doors and hardware of the cabinet, but not the cabinet boxes. In doing this, a potential buyer may want to open up the cabinet and check inside.
Stainless Steel Lookalike
Another cost-saving trick some buyer may do is to apply stick-on stainless steel adhesive to cover white or black appliances. If you’re selling your house this is an absolute NO. This will leave the buyer wondering what else are you covering up.
Structural Issues
Another common deal breaker in selling a house are cracks in the foundation. Structural issues cannot be covered up with staging and must be addressed. You will need to decide to repair the structural issues or offer a huge discount to cover the cost of foundation repairs. Either way you must disclose this in the Disclosure Statement (see my previous post on Disclosures). Also, keep in mind when using large prints to cover up a crack, a buyer may want to look behind pictures to see if there are any wall cracks.
Flooring
Another common deal breaker can be the flooring. Some sellers may think covering up a warp floor, or scratches and stains with a huge area rug would do the trick. But that's not the case. This should also be disclosed in your disclosure statement.
According to Jennie Norris, Owner, Principal Stager at Sensational Home you should "never ask your stager to hide known flaws or issues in your home with staging items. That is deceptive to the buyers, and could get the stager in hot water. Instead, the seller needs to disclose all known flaws and not conceal things that could be an issue for buyers when they go to their final walk-through and find surprises they did not know were in the house."
In short, any severe issues such as foundation, flooring, electrical, roofing problems, and water leaks, are some of the typical troubles that can’t be fixed with the help of a home stager. You will need to hire a specialty professional to make these repairs instead. Remember, just because it looks perfect, it doesn’t mean everything functions properly. Look carefully and be vigilant!