Home Staging Tips Q&A: Clutter, garage and paint tips that sells homes

you sent me your home staging questions
and I’m answering them in this episode
we are talking about home staging tips
question and answers
where you’ve left me comments on my YouTube channel
and now I’m answering them in this episode
from things like basements
garages
paint colors to clutter and everything in between
so stay tuned
hey there home sellers
welcome back to another creative home staging show
my name is Kasha
and today I am answering your home staging questions
because there are some of you out there
that love to leave comments on
on my other YouTube videos
and I’m gonna cover a few of them today in this session
because these are actually things you probably
are thinking about
maybe you have thought about and wondering well
I don’t wanna write anything
that someone else ask the questions for you
so here we go
okay so let’s start off with this first question
um I had
Lorraine asked me after watching the
how to sell your home for more money
the four rooms you must stage
she’s like well
what about the basement what about the garage
yeah and I understand where you’re coming from
because when I did that video
and even when I’m staging your house
and helping you with staging your house
I want you to focus on the four most important rooms
which are the living room
dining room kitchen
and primary bedroom and the reason why I say say those
because that’s where the buyers are looking for
that’s where they’re gonna spend the most
amount of time are in those four spaces
and it’s not to say that the basement and garage aren’t
um important
they are but not as important as those four rooms
if I want you to focus your money
your time and effort
it’s those four rooms first
now if you’ve gotten those rooms taken care of staged
painted clean
decluttered all the things that I talk about in my new
online home staging course
called Home Staging Basics
I go through all of those things
and explain the layouts and what you need to do
what you need to remove what you need to add
what things to keep out
but when it comes to the basement or the garage
once you’re done with those four rooms
then you work on the next ones
okay so with a basement
it really depends on whether it’s a finished basement
um I had one homeowner who was in the middle of um
drywalling their basement
and it wasn’t gonna be done
um I think they just managed to just get the drywall on
and that’s it um
so it because it was a
you know something
was in the middle of a construction project
they were moving their military
there was no way it was gonna get done before they go
they knew that was gonna happen
so basically all I said was
just make sure that all the
you know it’s all cleaned up
that the dust is gone it’s vacuumed um
and people will know OK
it’s a work in progress
it’s not as important as the other rooms
that they’re gonna be living in
and spending their time when they’re in their house
this um
bonus room was um
over the garage um
it could’ve been a basement
it could be whatever but those types of things are um
not as important to show off
you just show off the space
show off the size show them that yes
there’s lighting and there’s heat in here and
you know they’ll get the chance to paint it
but is not as important as the other ones
now
as a basement if it’s unfinished um
then yeah
you’re gonna show it in that state
don’t show it you know
as a storage room unless that’s what it’s meant to be
as a storage room um
the basement could also be used as
you know a bar
a craft room
that’s some things I also talk about in my course too
about what to name it what do you give it a function
give it a name okay
um as far as the garage
that one I would not fill up with boxes of things
that you’ve pulled out
because you are trying to stage your house
uh but at least
maybe I’ll have to manage to fit a car in there
okay um
you can still put boxes
I had boxes when I was selling my last house
and getting it rented out and everything
actually not selling it
renting it out um
and we had boxes just lined up nice and neat
you know stacked up
cause 1 sec one set of boxes were going to one place
another set of boxes were going elsewhere
so as long as it was stacked nice and neat
and everything was tidied
that the floors were swept
it’s a garage it’s not meant to be
you know a showroom ready place
like Jay Leno showing off all his cars
or something like that now
I did have a client just recently
where we did an online home staging consultation
we did a zoom call
and she went into her garage and she’s like
well she lives in Greenwich
Connecticut and she said well
I know
I need to get rid of these boxes here in the middle
I’m you know
I’m working on that
but do you really think I should paint the floors
and I’m like well no
it’s a garage it’s meant to be
you know a garage
she goes well
here in Greenwich they expect that
I’m like okay
if you know that’s what expected
then go ahead and take the time
but make sure you work on those four rooms first
spend the money on those four rooms first
before you tackle the garage
if it’s the last thing you have to do
and you don’t get around to painting it
okay just be aware that that may be something that
if people are looking for that
because you are in Greenwich
Connecticut or maybe you’re in a
you know high influential area like Colorado
Colorado Springs California
something like that the expectation is there then
you know that’s something you
you probably need to work on
but again the important rooms done first
then work on a basement or a garage space
okay
alright
the next question I have um
has to do with paint so this was a video I did on um
home station paint colors and goofy girl
thank you very much for your comment
um she tried samples of accessible beige
at certain times of the day
it looks like dried MUD in our house
and
all the dirty tops and greases aren’t doing it for me
and I get it with the perfect lighting
the various white make it look a bit sterile
and yes some whites can look sterile
that’s that’s why certain whites will do that
so she’s got a sample of natural linen from Sherwin
Williams and Navajo White
and they seem to be much more inviting
um but you know
what do I do which one do I pick
right and she’s like
I’m not the one buying the house right
that’s true you know
as long as you go with a neutral
like I talk about in the house
either one of those natural linen
Navajo white are nice not bright
crisp white white in your face okay
they’re kind of warmish kind of tone down a little bit
they’re not as harsh
decorator’s white is what I use for trim
around the doorways on the ceiling
um those are a crisp white
because that one doesn’t have any tint of pink
or purple or blue
or anything like that it’s just white
and that can look stark along another up color
right so for a goofy girl
yeah I
you know I
I wrote back to her and saying look
any either one of those is perfectly fine
because you don’t know what color furniture
the new buyers are gonna be bringing them with them
it may be blue furniture maybe black
it may be you know brown
those white cream colors will go with everything okay
okay if you’ve been listening so far
and you’re kind of wondering where
where do I even begin
I do have a free home staging guide
that you can download for free
it’s called how to start staging your house now
and in there I give you tips
I give you home improvements that you should work on
um think about a timeline that we just discussed
in that one question
and it’s just a way to help you get started
because you may be wondering well
where do I even begin how do I do this
this free home staging guide will get you started
so download it today
okay uh
the third question I have is
what happens when you live with a hoarder
and you’re trying to declutter
and get rid of so much stuff
it’s drama any advice
yes yes
I do have some advice
I’ve never personally had to work with a home that
with a person was a hoarder
um I’ve seen stories
I know that can be a very delicate
and very difficult situation
for the family members who have to deal with it now
Benjamin I don’t know if you are um
dealing with something that’s got
you know just all the closets are crammed with stuff
or is it like
everything is a tripping hazard
like the worst of the worst of the worst
like the front door is blocked
you can’t get out I mean
it’s very un you know
dangerous for even them to be living in that house
because there’s so many things that could cause issues
for you
just to get out of the house in case there was a fire
right um
so I don’t know but um
either way Benjamin
thank you so much for leaving this question
because this can be a very difficult situation
and I totally understand
I actually watched a video with Cass the clutterbug
and Matt Paxton they did this
and I’ll leave the link in the show notes
and Matt is um
has his own company and he goes
travels around the country around the US
and helps different people with hoarding issues
and helps them declutter their house
and get them to start a new chapter in life
whether it’s to you know
move with the family
maybe it’s just to clear the house and live with it
in a in a better situation
um but he does charge a lot of money
listen to the video you’ll
you’ll be you might be shocked
as to how much it really does cost to do that
um but basically
what he said
was something that kind of struck a nerve with me
and I’m like oh yeah
you’re a genius Matt
I must say and he said
have them pick out five things
that are most important to them
five things five things could be
you know whatever
and that each have a story
whatever that is so
if you had to pick five things right now
in your whole entire house
that were the most important to you
what would they be or if you had a fire in your house
and you had to save those five things
what would it be and what he mentioned was
you can you know
write you know
a couple of
a couple pages about why it’s important to them
it everything has a story
and there’s a reason why they
that’s important to them sentimental value
they got it from someone you know
whatever it is whatever the story is
that’s important to them
and then what he did was he had them put it in a bin
and then they zip tied it
put their name on it locked it up
so that no one could ever steal it
and take it away from them
so then what they did was then they realized okay
I have these five things that are now safe
what can I do about you know
the rest of the stuff in here
is the rest of the stuff not as important
so I did the same exercise
and I’m thinking here okay
what if I had to pick five things
what are five most important things in my house things
not people things and I’m looking around going
really there’s one
maybe two one is obviously like the
the safe like a mobile safe
you know with our important documents
okay yeah
not fun but it’s there
like passports and things like that right
um but the other one is this travel gnome
as we call it and he’s about three feet tall
and he has this big hat like a gnome hat
you know made out of a fabric and everything
and on his hat um
we had all the flags um
put on there sewn on there
the places we traveled
when we were stationed in Germany
and so it was where our family traveled
and to me
that was something that was very precious to me
of all the memories that we made as a family
traveling to all those countries right
we went to Switzerland we went to Morocco
we went to Finland
we went to all these different places
and I’m like we had funny stories in each place
we had you know
that’s our favorite Airbnb
remember that restaurant and so
and so you know
there’s stories behind it
so to me that travel gnome
would be the one thing I would rescue from the fire
it would be that right
so once you realize that and you look around
you’re like oh
well then that
that Hutch or that China set
not as important right
like yeah
it could be replaced
but if you think of the five things
what are those five things
so Benjamin
if you are watching this I’d love to hear
you know what are your five things
I would I’d love to hear
if you guys have your your comments
leave the comment in the videos
because I love seeing these comments
you guys are fantastic
I love being able to respond to almost
I’m trying to get to almost every single one of them
but it takes me a while to get through them
but this is a great question
so I will leave the link in the show notes with the um
e um
video to Cass talking to Matt OK
uh
and then the last question I have is from Cindy Menard
um our house is up for sale
the time it’s video it’s been on the market for 45 days
um built
and they need to be updates need to be done
one being popcorn ceilings
if the house doesn’t sell well
we have a list of upgrades we’ll be tackling
and my question is
where do you draw the line in updates
like okay
I get the ceilings the paint
you know minor details
but what about windows and bathrooms
do you invest in those upgrades as well
um and what I wrote back to Cindy was I said look
I would not go in and go update those windows
um we actually bought a house um
back in let’s see
it was in Virginia so this was in 2,007 seven um
it was a colonial home built originally in 1970
something beautiful brick colonial home in Virginia
okay um
and we knew it had good bones
but the windows after we moved in
we realized that they were um
some of them are single pane
some of them um
opened up mysteriously in the middle of the day
on the first floor and yeah
our heating Bill yeah
we are heating the squirrels living outside
yeah that’s how bad it was
so um
and our first electric Bill
I think I wanna say was like 500 bucks
I was like oh
my god oh
my god what
what is going on here so we
as a new homeowners
put the money in to go buy new windows
I think it was like 22 new windows
and I think I’ve got a new front door as well
and even the sliding black uh
sliding glass doors
did not realize that they were single pane
because they had they were working just fine
but when it got cold in Virginia
when those snowy winters hmm yeah
you could feel that cold cold coming through
so yeah um
so I would not go through the expense
of replacing the windows the buyers will
you know you may
just
may not get the price of the house for what you want
okay um
but it was built in you know
92 1992
yeah so
yours would be better windows than what we had in 1974
right so yeah
um but in bathrooms
doing the you know
updating a bathroom we did have the same issue
when we were selling that colonial home later
um it would have been a 60 thousand dollar investment
to update the master bedroom
we got multiple quotes
and that’s what it was going to be
and we’re like oh god no
we are not spending them that much money
we’re never gonna get a return on investment on that
and you again
you should be talking with your real estate agent
on this as well
um but yeah
but basically that’s not what we did
we ended up just updating a few things
like we changed out the counters
we changed out the fixtures
we um
the sink fixtures we changed out the lighting fixtures
um but so there are a couple things that we did do
spends like $2,000 on it
and definitely got our money back
when we sold the house
and actually that house sold for above asking price
and in like four days so yeah
um no
I wouldn’t do the windows or
you know the bathrooms
you can do some minor updates um
but not like a full Reno okay
so Cindy I hope that answers your question
I know I answered it before online
but if you didn’t see it now
you see it as answered on this video
so I hope you guys like this kind of style of questions
please keep the questions coming
I’d love to be able to answer them
and then maybe
I’ll do a video with one of your questions on there
as well so if you like this video
please like comment
leave a comment leave another question for me um
and then subscribe to the channel
so you can see more home staging tips
alright I hope you guys have a fantastic week
and we’ll talk to you later bye