5 easy ways to make your home look more expensive, according to 2 top real estate brokers in New York City
Tom Postilio and Mickey Conlon of Douglas Elliman Real Estate.Image Courtesy of Douglas Elliman
Tom Postilio and Mickey Conlonare big players in the New York City real estate world. As stars of HGTV's "Selling New York," the two are known for their innovative marketing tactics and have closed $1.5 billion in residential sales.
One of their most valuable tactics for selling property quickly and at its estimated market value is staging: reorganizing and designing rooms within a home to help potential buyers envision what it might look like if they were to move in.
While Postilio and Conlon generally work with a stager on massive projects that can cost up to six figures, the two have a number of valuable tips for sellers who want to try it themselves and are on a budget.
We got five of their most important tips on how to ready your home before it goes on the market:
Get your windows washed.
"The first rule is wash your windows," Conlon said. "The first thing that [potential buyers] do is gravitate toward the view. [If it's not washed] it's like looking at the world through dirty eye glasses."
Declutter by throwing things away, not stuffing it into a closet.
"Declutter," Postilio advised.
Conlon agreed: "People have 400 bottles of shampoo on the floor of their shower, and you've just got to clear that stuff out. Instead of putting it in closets, throw it out, because storage is another important thing for [potential buyers]. If they don't feel like there's enough for their stuff, you're selling yourself short."
Make sure all bedrooms are staged as bedrooms.
These two advise against making one of a home's bedrooms into a media room or home office during the staging process. "We're always of the mind set for the resale value and getting the most that we can for our seller, and we want [potential buyers] to be able to [see] all the bedrooms [as bedrooms]," Postilio said.
"It's easier [for the potential buyer] to imagine the reverse," Conlon said.
Move belongings that are in the way of a room's main selling feature.
"Walk into a room, close your eyes, envision that you've never been there before, and open your eyes; if the first thing you're seeing is not the feature of that room, whether that's a view or a fireplace or some great woodwork, then something's wrong. Figure out what's getting in the way of that," Conlon said.
Don't overdo it.
Doing a complete remodel of a bathroom or kitchen can be a big waste of money. "You don't always get your full return on those kinds of [renovations]," Conlon said.
"Instead of ripping apart your bathroom, just reglaze the bathtub or put in new grout, and clean it up," Postilio said.
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