Did you know that the very first viewing of you home will be online? And did you know that lighting, texture, colour, and furniture placement, can make your property more appealing to potential buyers? I didn't. But time and time again it has proven to be correct. In this post I'll break down some terms used in home staging to help give you an idea of whats its all about. 

The first term is lighting. How does lighting make a difference in home staging and how your property is viewed? Lighting plays a vital roll in home staging but is often over looked. What you want to see is, rooms with little to no natural light, have a minimum of a two bulb light sources/sources with maximum wattage. Also pendants are a fantastic addition to eating areas such as dinning rooms, or above kitchen islands. If you have a room with little natural light and no overhead fixture, the addition of ‘ambient’ lighting will do just fine. Table and floor lamps help give a room a light filled appearance.

The second term is texture. Texture is another aspect of home staging that is over looked. You can add texture with rugs, accent pillow, throws, wall hangings, or window coverings. Basically anything with fabric. Also adding decoration pieces is a good way to add texture. Pieces like wicker baskets or clay vases. There’s just something about natural fibres and materials that make homes more inviting.

The third term is pretty straight forward Colour. Having the right colours for your home can make it more appealing to potential buyers, even possibly putting it above the competition in any market. The right colour for your home doesn’t always mean white or neutral bland tones. Your colour pallet can speak to your homes style and personality.

Lastly, and most importantly, furniture placement. This is pretty self explanatory. There are some tips for placing furniture around your home to make it more appealing to buyers. In each room make sure you determine the rooms purpose as well as if the room has one or more focal points.

Focal Point- A feature that will attract attention and interest in a room.

Arranging furniture in each room to suit the needs of that room, will help create a mood and/or function for the space. Removing furniture that does not fit with the mood or function of the room is also key for staging.

A home stager has a knowledge and eye for helping clients when it comes to staging a home to sell. We are lucky to be collaborating with Innersense to help make your home show ready with ease. You can visit Innersensehome.com to learn more about what they do.

Talking to a professional is sometimes challenging, they use terms that are common knowledge to them, but sound like an alien language to you. I try my very best to explain Realtor terms when talking to clients, but some slip through the cracks leaving clients to guess what has just been said. I have compiled a list of terms that may be helpful to you if you’re going to be talking to a Realtor, Mortgage Broker, Lender or anyone else in the ‘home’ business.

Lets start with A:

Acceleration clause: A clause in your mortgage which allows the lender to demand payment of the outstanding loan balance for various reasons. The most common reasons for accelerating a loan are if the borrower defaults on the loan or transfers title to another individual without informing the lender.

Adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM): A mortgage in which the interest changes periodically, according to corresponding fluctuations in an index. All ARMs are tied to indexes.

Adjustment date: The date the interest rate changes on an adjustable-rate mortgage.

Amortization: The loan payment consists of a portion which will be applied to pay the accruing interest on a loan, with the remainder being applied to the principal. Over time, the interest portion decreases as the loan balance decreases, and the amount applied to principal increases so that the loan is paid off (amortized) in the specified time.

Amortization schedule: A table which shows how much of each payment will be applied toward principal and how much toward interest over the life of the loan. It also shows the gradual decrease of the loan balance until it reaches zero.

Annual percentage rate (APR): This is not the note rate on your loan. It is a value created according to a government formula intended to reflect the true annual cost of borrowing, expressed as a percentage. It works sort of like this, but not exactly, so only use this as a guideline: deduct the closing costs from your loan amount, then using your actual loan payment, calculate what the interest rate would be on this amount instead of your actual loan amount. You will come up with a number close to the APR. Because you are using the same payment on a smaller amount, the APR is always higher than the actual note rate on your loan.

Application: The form used to apply for a mortgage loan, containing information about a borrower's income, savings, assets, debts, and more.

Appraisal: A written justification of the price paid for a property, primarily based on an analysis of comparable sales of similar homes nearby.

Appraised value: An opinion of a property's fair market value, based on an appraiser's knowledge, experience, and analysis of the property. Since an appraisal is based primarily on comparable sales, and the most recent sale is the one on the property in question, the appraisal usually comes out at the purchase price.

Appraiser: An individual qualified by education, training, and experience to estimate the value of real property and personal property. Although some appraisers work directly for mortgage lenders, most are independent.

Appreciation: The increase in the value of a property due to changes in market conditions, inflation, or other causes.

Assessed value: The valuation placed on property by a public tax assessor for purposes of taxation.

Assessment: The placing of a value on property for the purpose of taxation.

Assessor: A public official who establishes the value of a property for taxation purposes.

Asset: Items of value owned by an individual. Assets that can be quickly converted into cash are considered "liquid assets." These include bank accounts, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and so on. Other assets include real estate, personal property, and debts owed to an individual by others.

Assignment: When ownership of your mortgage is transferred from one company or individual to another, it is called an assignment.

Assumable mortgage: A mortgage that can be assumed by the buyer when a home is sold. Usually, the borrower must "qualify" in order to assume the loan.

Assumption: The term applied where a buyer assumes the seller's mortgage.

Stay tuned for next week for the letter ‘B’