Staging Doesn't Have to be Expensive and Complex

There are many great Houston area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at 832-428-6453 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

If you are looking to sell your home, your goal is to get the most money possible in the shortest amount of time. One of the best ways to add value and appeal to your home is through home staging. You have a lot of options for how you want to go about it. You could hire a professional staging company, but that comes with a hefty price tag. Most of the time, a few simple fixes is all it takes to transform a living room. 

Today we are going to go through some of our most favorite, inexpensive home staging tips or you. We hope these will help you save both time and money when it comes time to sell your home.

A fresh coat of paint is always a good idea. Neutral, warm colors work best for highlighting the natural light in your home. This will make it easier to punch up the room with some colorful accessories and pull everything together.

A common design problem facing many homeowners is that they have no real entry way, as their front door opens up to the living room. To fix this, you can add a table, some lighting, and a rug to "fake a foyer" and make it feel like the living room and entryway are two different spaces.

A patterned rug, some pillows, or bright curtains add a ton of texture and an eclectic layer to the space, which is essential to a well-designed room.

In some cases, a "make-under" is just what you need. In the case of most fireplaces, taking some accessories and clutter away enhances the look and feel of the room greatly.

You could spend well over a few thousand dollars with a staging company, or you could do these fixes yourself for around $500. That's a small investment considering the value that you add to your home by adding those pieces.

If you have any questions for us about staging your home or anything else real estate related, give us a call or send over a quick email. We are always here to help, and would love to hear from you!

Important Service Update

There are many great Houston area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at 832-428-6453 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Hello, my name is Mike Gray and I'm proud to announce that I've formed an agreement with Jeffery Kuchar that will make me your primary resource for real estate.

I am taking over Jeffery's database, so if you are his friend or client, you will now be hearing from me. I am very honored to be in this position, and I wish Jeffery all the best in his retirement.

I have a full staff to help out with any and all of your needs. You can also expect bi-weekly videos from me that will be educational in nature and are meant to help you navigate through the Houston real estate market. 

I look forward to speaking with you in the future!

Where Is the Houston Market Heading?

There are many great Houston area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at 832-428-6453 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

I want to wish everyone who was hit hard by the recent storms the best of luck in your cleanup. A lot of areas around town were really hit hard, so we want to let you know you're in our thoughts!

Now, I want to give a quick overview of the housing market in the Houston area. At the beginning of the year, analysts predicted a slowdown due to rapidly falling oil prices, but we haven't quite seen that. According to Ted Jones, a chief economist at Stewart Title, there are several things to keep an eye on here in the Houston area. 

If we look at where we are this year, we've only seen a slight slowdown due to oil prices. In some areas, there hasn't been a dip at all! When looking at the year over year numbers, we've only seen one month of negative numbers so far in 2015. In fact, we've seen an appreciation rate of a little over 8%; if we forecast that into the future, we're expecting to see that trim down to closer to 5% by January of next year.

We're expecting the number of sales in Houston to decrease by about 10% from what we're seeing now. When looking at the job growth predictions, at the end of December last year we were at 3.8%, whereas the expectation this year is only 2.2%. What this means is we're expecting a more normalized, neutral market. Conditions have heavily favored sellers as of late, but it's looking like the playing field is going to be leveled here shortly. 

On another note, as the summer settles in and the market returns to a more normal state, I want to say congratulations to all the recent graduates out there! It's an exciting time to be a student and a parent, and I want to wish you all the best of luck! 

As always, if you have any questions about the Houston area, or if you need real estate assistance of any kind, don't hesitate to reach out to me. I would love to hear from you!