When it comes time to sell your Caribbean vacation home, for whatever reason, you want to sell it quick and you want to sell it for as much money as you can.  You may be fortunate and you’re putting your house up for sale in a seller’s market, but even doing the bare minimum of staging can net you a bigger sale.  If you’re selling in a buyer’s market, that means it’s important to stage your house so it stands out as an extra special house.

Tip # 1: Know Who Your Potential Buyers Are!

Staging a house means setting it up to appeal to buyers.  Know who your potential buyers are - young families, retirees, young professionals with no kids, etc.  This is the first step.  You can’t set up your house to appeal to everyone, so know who will be looking at your house and gear your staging for them.  If you don’t know, look to you and your neighbors’ lifestyles.  Are you a 20 something professional and your vacation home is an urban condo near a bike path?  Or is your neighborhood filled with gated-community Caribbean homes, families with young children and playgrounds?  These are big clues.  If you’re still unsure, ask a real estate agent for their input.

Tips #2 : See Your Home Through The Eyes Of Your Potential Buyer

The next step is to look at your home from the eyes of your potential buyers.  Start with the exterior and take care of anything that could be considered an eye sore; such as weeds, uncut grass, trash, broken shingles, peeling paint and that sort of thing. 

Now go around inside and clear up any clutter to make the rooms appear bigger.  Consider boxing up and storing some of your stuff while your house is on the market.  Yes, you will be inconvenienced, but not as much as you would be if you had to keep showing the house again, and again, and again with still no sale.  Take a look at your choices of interior paint colors.  It’s best to repaint with neutral colors.  Others might not like your very personal color choice and will have a hard time seeing past it.

Take care of these things first before you worry about staging your home for sale.  Staging won’t have the effect you want if people are turned off by the obvious items that need attention.

Tip #3: Use Your Creativity Or Get Professional Help To Stage Your Home!

Staging a house involves creating vignettes that allow people to picture themselves living there.  You’re actually not selling a house, you’re selling a lifestyle.  So you want to set your house up and give potential buyers the lifestyle they’d like to see themselves living. 

For example, if the potential buyers are a young couple about to start a family, your baby’s and toddler’s bedrooms should be clean, cozy, and downright adorable.  The rocking chair should have a few children’s books on it; the crib bedding should be cute.  While too many toys around the house is not a good thing and can make the house look cluttered, some toys and picture books in the family room are a big plus.  Lay a family game out on the coffee table and arrange the furniture in an eye-pleasing way.  If possible, have some frozen cookie dough on hand so you can bake cookies right before a showing.  The backyard should look like a fun place for a family to hang out.  A tricycle on the patio and a swing set in the yard help families picture themselves living there. 

If you want your condo to attract the urban professional buyer, stage the kitchen with a higher end table setting, and leave a package of specialty pasta and sauce near the stove.  Stage a corner of your kitchen counter with the latest and greatest coffee maker with cool coffee cups and some coffee liquors.  Have some magazines on your coffee table that would be of interest to your potential buyers.  Create a sexy and luxurious scene in the master bath with candles and fluffy, expensive towels and custom soaps.  The patio table can be set with a small dinner party in mind.

These are examples, and of course your details may be different.  The point is to create the look and lifestyle the buyers want.  Staging means investing extra time and money to make the house look wonderful, and the return is a higher selling price and faster sale.