Sound Off: How does the drought affect home staging and presentation?
How does the drought affect home staging and presentation?
The drought has increased awareness of the water supply.
Even though scientists are predicting a wet version of El Niño this winter, we must still be conscious of how we use water.
Driving through the neighborhoods in the Bay Area, parched gardens are everywhere.
Even if it’s subconscious, most of us feel more emotionally connected to houses with healthy lawns in front and embellishments, such as a white picket fences.
If new plantings are needed to spruce up a garden, my garden staging experts have been using grasses and succulents when they can (in planters, on patios, decks and borders).
A lawn that has gone brown can be brought back to life with fertilizer, reseeding and a heavier watering schedule a few weeks prior to marketing.
Homeowners can look for ways to cut back on other water usage in order to accommodate the garden watering.
Houses are more often than not empty and staged when they come to market, so water usage drops.
When people think of staging, they tend to think of perfectly placed furniture and accessories.
Stagers come into an empty space and make it look as if someone lives there.
With the ongoing drought, the biggest real estate trend is water conservation in landscaping.
Plants are arranged in ways to maximize the outdoor space and draw your eye toward play areas and comfortable seating spaces.
Stagers will also bring in outdoor accents for not-so-lush spaces.
Stagers understand that no plant is better than a fake plant, so they’ve found ways to tastefully fill spaces so you don’t even miss the green leaves on the side table or in the corner.
Provide copies of water bills for the previous 12 months along with any local water restriction rules to potential buyers.
Highlight any water conserving features your home offers, especially over others, in your marketing materials.
When selling your home, if you are unable to maintain your lawn because of water restriction requirements, then consider removing all or part of it and replacing with native drought-tolerant plants.
Find creative ways to reduce water use for your home and highlight actions you’ve taken as benefits to purchasing your home.