Valentines Day is usually spent taking a romantic vacation with your significant other or spending tons of money creating the perfect day.  Like many you can end up spending hundreds of dollars for one day.  If you are like many couples currently experiencing the difficulties of the recession and trying to sell a home, you just can not afford to do both this year.  If this is your situation, I have the PERFECT solution: spend Valentines Day staging your home.  One of the great things about staging your home is that it can be done with little or no money. No matter what your budget is, even if it is zero, you can use staging techniques to increase the appeal of your home.

When it comes to selling your home you want it to really appeal to buyers in a positive way. You want buyers to love your home, to look around and go, “Ooh, look at that,” or “Wow, that’s beautiful.” Your home should have some pizzazz, some sizzle. In other words you want to trick your home out and give it some bling!

Here are my tips for home staging:

1. Get Rid of the Clutter

One of the most important things to do when it comes to making the inside of your home look desirable is to get rid of the clutter. After living in our home for a while we tend to accumulate stuff. I have heard professional home stagers recommend that the average home owner clear about 1/3 of their possessions out of the house before putting it on the market. Definitely remove any collections of dolls, spoons, Star Wars figures, or any other dust catchers.

2. Window Treatments

It’s a good idea to have window treatments on every window in the house, if they make sense. A combination of blinds with curtains is best. But here’s the catch, you also want to let lots of light into the house. So the blinds should be raised and the curtains fully open. This creates a nice framing effect on each window.

3. Lighting

In addition to letting in natural light you want to add plenty of artificial light. The trick that home stagers use is to layer the lighting. They use a blend of light from ceiling fixtures, lamps, wall lights and task lights. You want to make rooms bright, without being too bright and not have any single light source overly stand out.

4. Doorknobs, Switch Plates and Outlet Covers, Oh My!

If you are going to go to all of the trouble to make the walls and doors look great, you should finish the job by replacing all light switch plates and outlet covers with new ones. I also recommend replacing all of the doorknobs if they look at all worn, because it’s so inexpensive to do it. The reason this is a pet peeve of mine is that freshly painted walls with painted over switches and outlets looks like a cover up job to me. Replacing all of the switch plates and outlet covers in your home should cost you about $30.

5. Arranging the Furniture

If you’ve ever seen a professional home stager in action they seem to have this great ability to take the existing furnishings you have and rearrange them, sometimes into different rooms and make your home look completely different--and so much better. Because the furnishings you have and the layout of the rooms in your home will be completely different for each person there aren’t a lot of general tips I can give you for arranging your furniture. Look in home magazines. It doesn’t cost anything to go to the bookstore and look at them. They are full of photos that can give you great ideas. HGTV in particular has really come to realize that the housing market has gone soft and they have multiple shows now exclusively focusing on home staging. These stagers share tons of useful tips and tricks for making your home look great. What I don’t recommend doing is going out and buying whole new furniture sets for key rooms in your home just for staging.

There are a few commonsense tips I can offer that apply, no matter what furnishings you have and how the layout of a room is.

1. Don’t leave large dead spaces.
2. Clearing the clutter applies to too much furniture as well.
3. Don’t have everything pushed up against the walls.

6. Master Bedroom

The master bedroom is the ultimate refuge. It is the haven within the home. No matter how large or small your master bedroom is, you want it to appeal to the buyers as a place they WANT to spend their nights. If your master bedroom is cramped, it’s time to move some of the furniture out. Also, closets are a big selling point for houses. Clear out your closets out. If your master bedroom closet is jam–packed, buyers will look at it and decide there just isn’t enough room, even if your closets are huge.

7. Bathrooms

Your bathrooms should be so clean you can eat off the floor (but no need to test it this way!). There shouldn’t be any mildew, soap scum, toilet rings, body hair or anything else that makes the buyers think they are buying your dirt. Make sure the mirrors sparkle.

8. Kitchen

“Kitchens and baths sell homes.” Pretty much any real estate agent in the country will agree with this. Making your kitchen look the absolute best it can is well worth it when you are trying to sell your home. The beautiful thing about staging your kitchen is that you really don’t have to spend any money to do it.

These tips will help to save you money while trying to sell your home and allow you to still spend time with your loved one on Valentines Day. A Well-staged home that is competitively priced consistently outsells non-staged homes, even the fixer uppers. By the way don’t forget the flowers! If you would like more tips for do-it-yourself home staging techniques check out my book Rent-to-Sell by clicking HERE.

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In a rent-to-own sale the seller allows you, the future buyer, to live in the home for a while as a renter before you actually purchase the home from them. Before you move into the seller’s home as a renter, you and the seller would agree on the sale price and other terms. You would pay the seller a non-refundable option fee. Both you and the seller would sign some paperwork covering the lease, the purchase and the option

Once you have been approved by your seller, you have a few little details to take care of. You know things like moving into your new house, signing contracts and so forth. Here are a few tips from my book Rent-to-Buy that will help you.

Create a Folder for Your New Home

I strongly recommend that you get a file folder and keep all of your documents in it. This folder should have copies of all your contracts and paperwork. You should also keep copies of all payments, receipts, etc., in the folder during the lease period. An important part of being able to get a mortgage at the end of the rental period is having organized documentation to create a strong paper trail.

Draft All Documents: Rental Agreement, Sales Contract, Option Agreement, Memorandum of Option and Affidavit of Liens

Prepare the contracts before you move in so that you have everything ready to go. All of these contracts are available in my companion course, ‘Rent-to-Buy’, which is available in the “Wendy’s Store” section of www.WendyPatton.com.  I go into detail on this in my course with an audio step-by-step instruction CD to assist you.

Check if Taxes Have Been Paid

You’ll want to make sure the seller is paying their property taxes and that they are current. If the seller has a mortgage, there is a good chance that the lender requires an escrow account to cover property taxes and insurance. In this case, you’ll probably be able to verify that the taxes are current when you verify that the mortgage is current. However, not all mortgage lenders require an escrow account, and some sellers don’t have mortgages. In this case, you’ll need to verify from another source. Usually, you can check with your local Tax Assessor’s office (or whatever it is called where you live) to make sure the taxes are current. Many assessors’ offices now allow you to do this online. Otherwise, you should call the office.

Sign All Documents

It’s time to meet with the seller and sign all of the documents. Typically, you would do this before you move in. This allows you to lock in the deal and prevents the seller from finding another buyer. You would pay the option fee to the seller at the time all documents are signed. You might pay the rent and security deposit to the seller at this time as well or when you take possession of the home. Bring a pen or two!

Rent to Buy is currently available.  Rent to Buy is your hands-on guide to buying your next home as a rent to own.  You can get your next home NOW without having to qualify for a mortgage until later.  This is the solution you need until you can qualify for a mortgage.  This is the solution home sellers need because they can’t find mortgage qualified buyers.  Rent to Buy is a great option in our current real estate market.  Check it out!