Our company just listed and sold a home in Croton. One of the tips we gave to the owner was to stage their garage along with other staging recommendations. The new buyers loved the cleaned out uncluttered house and commented on the size and usefulness of the garage. This particular house was sold within 87 days.
When staging your home to sell, most people think of only the living space, predominately the kitchens and bathrooms. What about the garage? Is this room worth the effort to clean, repair and organize?
When selling your home you should absolutely think about the garage. Just because it isn’t living space doesn’t mean that you should leave it cluttered, dust filled and dreary.
Make it appealing to the potential buyer. Make sure the lighting is bright. Use a track of lights as opposed to a one bulb light. Organize it utilizing cabinets, shelving and hooks to hang, hide and store items. Use walls and ceilings to hang items for storage. Make it look spacious by getting rid of the clutter and unused items. Eliminate items on the floors; put tools, paint cans and seldom used items away in a cabinet or plastic bin. Get rid of the cobwebs and dust; paint the walls and ceiling a light color.
Wash the windows to let the light shine in.
In this particular home that we sold, the owner installed rubber matting on the garage floor. This reduces the amount of dirt tracked into the house and makes it easy to clean up the water and drips from the car. A cement floor is uninviting. The new buyers commented on the clean garage and all of its storage space, yet room for a car.
Lastly, make sure you have an automatic garage opener with safety features. Make sure it is working properly and is quiet upon opening and closing. A noisy garage may need nothing more than to be lubricated but to the potential buyer, it may seem old and in need of repair.
When selling a home, don’t leave out the importance of the garage. Showing that you have taken care of your garage also indicates a positive feeling about the overall maintenance of your home.
Cynthia Lippolis
Licensed Real Estate Broker
Prudential River Towns Real Estate
www.RiverTownsRealty.com
