Guest Post - How To Stage an Empty House on a Budget

Yes, staging a house on a budget is entirely possible. Sellers who are considering staging their home can increase the overall value of the property. Plus, it can help potential buyers feel welcomed that they’d be willing to buy the house.

What’s great about home staging is that you are basically displaying your own personal touch. And anyone who likes your work and buys the home is the right new home owners.

Home staging does not have to be expensive at all. If you want your house to get sold right away, then these budget-friendly home staging tips to turn an empty house into another family’s dream home.

Clean the house

It is best to clean your house before staging thoroughly. Since it is an empty home, cleaning it should be easier compared to if it is filled with appliances, furniture, and other decorative.

There is no need to declutter anything. So, all you have to do is sweep up and make sure that all parts of the home are nice and tidy. If the house has a garage and a patio, those need to get cleaned as well.

The windows need to be shiny. Doorknobs should be polished, lighting fixtures are cobweb-free, disinfect the entire kitchen and make the bathroom(s) sparkling clean. If your home has carpeted floors, you may want to hire some end of lease carpet cleaning services to perform a throughout cleaning.

See to it the entire house smells good too. Some homes have had pets previously. If the house for sale had a pet before, you might want to hire a professional service that will take care of pet odors.

Basically, you want your empty home to be free from dust, dirt, and all other messes. If there are still further staging procedures needed, make sure that you get the house cleaned up first before showing it to potential buyers. And don’t forget to maintain the curb.

Renovation is key to selling a home

Undertaking the necessary renovations can help a house gets sold faster. You must be able to ‘wow’ anyone who takes a look at your home in order to attract their interest in buying your property.

Among the many renovations needed to get done before putting up a house for sale is repainting. You want to make your home more appealing to potential buyers and giving it a fresh coat of paint is something that should not be skipped.

Giving the walls, doors, and stairway a fresh coat of paint can increase the overall appeal of the house. Use neutral colors when painting anything in the house. This will allow for more appeal to all potential buyers with different color preferences

You do not need to repaint the entire house, though. Since we’re working on a tight budget, painting the main rooms is going to suffice. You don’t have to repaint anything in the bathroom not unless it needs one badly.

Make sure that you fix any dents or holes in walls. See to it that you replace all busted light bulbs, handle leaking faucets, and fix all squeaky doors.

Add some props

When staging an empty house, you should know where to put a focus on. You should prioritize staging the living room, dining, and the master bedroom. You can add one more room to stage if the house has several bedrooms. 

Your goal here is basically to emphasize the space in the respective rooms. So, it is important not to fill the spaces with a bunch of furniture and other decorative.

For the living room, you will only need to provide a sofa, a side table, a coffee table, and a couple of chairs. A table and a set of chairs would suffice in the dining room. Just add a centerpiece to complete the staging. 

You can get creative when it comes to staging the master bedroom. Set up a bed that will appeal to anyone, add in two bedside tables, and put a rug to highlight comfort and sophistication. 

You do not have to buy new furniture as you can simply make use of used furniture. If you do not have the necessary or appropriate kind of furniture, then you can opt to get on in a furniture rental shop.

And finally for the finishing touches add in a few paintings, custom made curtains, decorative jars, flowers in a vase, some magazines, and clean white towels in the bathroom.

These are just the main things you need to do before you put up your home for sale. You can basically get creative with the staging procedures. Once you’ve made the necessary fixes in your home, it should already be more appealing to potential buyers.

Author’s Bio:

Sean Hangar is owner and head designer at Custom Curtains Hurstville based in Sydney. He has years of experience helping people to make their homes and work places look amazing through his curtain and interior design. 

With an eye for detail and the best materials available in Australia, his designs are transforming homes throughout Sydney! Check out his website here.

Guest Post - How to Handle Your Difficult Neighbors

Life in the most beautiful house can be marred by bad neighbors. Handling difficult neighbors that make excessive noise, leave their pets business in your yard or are just plain rude, can be difficult. Instead of listing your property and setting up a home elsewhere, try our tips below first. You may end up becoming friends and enjoying your neighborhood all the more.

Get to know each other

Great neighbors are the ones that you honestly think of as friends. If your neighbors didn’t make the effort to introduce themselves when you moved in, take that step and get to know them. If you’re holding a housewarming party for your friends and family, consider inviting your new neighbors along too. It’s a great way to start the new relationship off on the right foot and provide a basis for friendship.

Keep it nice

If your neighbor is constantly rude, or just unfriendly, resist responding in the same way. Gossiping about them to other neighbors or getting grumpy with them or their children will only make matters worse. Remain polite and friendly, it doesn’t harm and leaves the door open for a more civil relationship.

Specific issues with your neighbors such as their overgrown yard or their pets choosing your yard as their bathroom, should be taken up directly with them, face to face. Show empathy and kindness when you do. Their yard may be overgrown as they simply can’t afford for their lawnmower to be fixed. They may not be aware their pet is choosing your yard for their deposits, or that their dog barks all day long while they’re out. Be open to offering to help with the issue if you can and make any offers to assist in a spirit of neighborliness; be respectful and non-judgmental.

Common problems and solutions

A whopping 42% of homeowners have had disputes with neighbors. Showing that while we might try to get along, occasionally issues still arise. Noise and pets are the two top reasons that neighbors fall out.

If you have difficulties with a noisy neighbor, consider speaking to them about it. If their noise is consistently late at night and making it difficult for you to sleep, speak to them about the issue calmly and politely. If it continues, document the instances and consider writing them a letter about the issue. Contacting your homeowner’s association, a lawyer or calling the police should be kept as a last resort action as they’ll have lasting consequences in your neighborhood and may sour other relationships.

You should also be sensitive about the level and times you generate noise too – keep sound systems away from partition walls, advise neighbors of parties in advance and if you’re planning some DIY, let them know.

If noisy neighbors trouble you because you have to rise particularly early, or work shifts, you may want to consider blackout blinds that reduce noise from outside and a white noise machine that will mask the sounds that do reach your bedroom.

Most problems with pets stem from poorly trained animals or natural instincts such as cats digging in garden beds and barking dogs. Speak with your neighbor about the issue and try to support them in the solution. If the dog carries on barking, try screening your yard, or sonic training. If the problem isn’t a dog, but a cat that keeps entering your space, consider a visit to your garden center to ask for a repellent that won’t harm the animal.

Author Bio: Elise is a freelance writer from North Carolina that regularly covers lifestyle, health, and home-life topics for Mattress Advisor. She is especially passionate about mental health and stress reduction techniques in the home, and loves to educate others on the topic through her writing.

Guest Post - 15 apps to make home inventory surprisingly painless

If you ever need to take a home inventory, you’ll need to have a clear record of everything in your house and know exactly how much it’s all worth so that you can be reimbursed in case anything unfortunate happens — because it’s always best to expect the best but be prepared for the worst. That means everything in your drawers, cupboards, and closets. All the tools in your garage and all your electronic gadgets. Your furniture, bedding, and towels. Even family heirlooms, keepsakes, and collectable items. Everything.

If all of this planning and organization sounds pretty daunting, we get it. Without the right tools at your disposal, keeping track of your stuff is a messy affair. Thankfully, this is 2019 and there are dozens of apps to help you stay organized — whether you’re moving or simply tidying up. Here are the top 15.

Author Bio: Karlie Kramer writes on behalf of Esurance on how to make all things home-related surprisingly painless. Specifically, she's interested in helping people stay organized and clutter-free. Her most recent piece is on 15 apps to make home inventory and organization simple.

Guest Post - Little Known Ways to Lessen Your Carbon Footprint

Many people these days are becoming interested in their carbon footprint and are learning about ways to reduce it.  You probably are already aware of more than a few good ways to do it. You probably already purchase appliances that are energy efficient as well as food that is either local or organic or both.  You might even already be using cleaners that are nontoxic as well. That being said, there are still quite a few other ways to green up your way of life that you might not think about right off hand.  Here are a couple of the lesser known ways to be more eco – friendly.

Try to Get Flex Time Hours for Work 

People who are truly serious about making the environment better know that letting go of the 9 – 5 lifestyle is a must.  When you travel back and forth to work on a daily basis, this causes significant harm to the environment regardless of where you are geographically located.  Having work hours that are flexible can mean a few different things. If you happen to be employed by a corporation, maybe you can see about telecommuting a few days a week.  You might also think about switching to 4 work days with 10 hours as opposed to 5 with 8. If you don’t work in a typical work environment, think about freelancing or even beginning your own business.

Install Solar Powered Hot Water

A lot of people who concern themselves with the environment have begun to focus on water.  Take fast showers as opposed to long baths, give your outdoor plants their water in the evening or early morning and make the decision to not buy bottled water.  These are all great goals.  

That being said, you can also take it even further by installing what are known as evacuated tube solar systems in your home.  These allow you to be able to heat your water while also harvesting energy from the sun.

Use Sustainable Carpeting

Many people don’t think about carpeting and rugs when they think about saving the environment.  The thing is, by using rugs and carpeting made from materials such as jute, sisal, seagrass, wool, and more, you could truly be reducing your carbon footprint while adding a lot of style to your home décor.  Rugs made from sustainable materials are also made in ways that don’t hurt the environment.  There are fewer chemicals used and as a result, they can also lead to you not having reactions to them like you can have to some of the synthetic carpeting and rugs on the market.

What other ways can you think of to reduce your carbon footprint?

Author Bio: Simon Gilles has been working with Natural Area Rugs for the past seven years as a interior design consultant. My primary focus is on home decor using area rugs and other accessories.