When it comes to real estate, first impressions matter. Window treatments can play a large role in how potential buyers view your home.
When it comes time to sell your home, window treatments may be the last thing on your mind, but your blinds, shades, and shutters can actually play a pretty big role. So, we decided to shed some light on our favorite real estate weapon – window treatments.
Do Window Treatments Help Increase Home Value?
The simple answer is…kind of. You see, when it comes to real estate, first impressions matter and, according to Jay Samit, former CEO of SeaChange International, “Design is how you make your first impression.” Your home needs to look the part – appear move in ready – because “only about 10 percent of homebuyers can actually see the potential of a home,” says Marian Jacobsen of Distinctive Styling Staging & Interiors. And with 88 percent of homebuyers first viewing a home online before ever seeing it in person, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), your home needs to photograph well too. Basically, it all comes down to home staging.
- 95% of buyer’s agents say home staging affects a homebuyer’s view of a homeHome staging increases the dollar value of the home by 11% – 20%.
- 81% of homebuyers find that home staging makes it easier to visualize the property as their future home
- 28% are more willing to overlook property faults when a home is staged
Your window treatments play a large role in the look and feel of your room, affecting visual appeal and ultimately helping you sell your home for more.
Do Window Treatments Affect “Curb Appeal”?
As we already mentioned, design plays an important role in making a first impression. And the ultimate first impression in the real estate world is what we call curb appeal – that first glance a potential homebuyer has as they pull up to your home (or, more likely, view your home online).
When most people think about curb appeal, they focus on landscaping, siding and roof condition, paint color, and other outdoor elements. However, one design item often goes overlooked – window treatments.
“Do your window treatments affect your curb appeal? I think they do,” says Jill Brashear, JBC Interiors.
One of the best ways to utilize your window treatments to make sure they look unified from the outside. This doesn’t necessarily mean having the same blinds, shades, or shutters in every room, but it is important that you have a cohesive color scheme that works well with the exterior of your house.
Do Window Treatments Stay or Go When You Move?
“When you’re selling your home, it is natural to assume that anything you can safely remove is yours to keep,” says Angela Colley, Realtor.com. However, this is not always the case. “If you have custom-made curtains, plantation shutters, or blinds, leave them on the windows and doors,” says Colley. Curtains, on the other hand, are fair game.
“Curtains are always considered personal property, because they just slide off,” says real estate agent Bill Gassett. “Rods and blinds, on the other hand, are considered part of the house because they’re affixed and attached.”