6 tips for staging and marketing a historic home

Despite their age, old houses are loved because of their history. Every historic home gasps the air of mystery and curiosity with a million stories of love, life and hope floating within it.

It takes a particular eye to identify and envelop the curiosity every wall offers. If you have worked with a historic house, you know how difficult it can be to find the right buyer for the house that’s full of stories and character.

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Here are a few tips ranging from staging to marketing and everything in between that would make it easier for you to sell a historical house to someone who will see what you see — honor and beauty.

The right staging

Show them what your seller sees

The secret is to make the right person see and appreciate the house from the owner’s eyes. If your target buyer is someone who will use it as a museum or heritage site, there is nothing much you can do about it except some basic maintenance.

But selling a historic home to someone who plans to live in it is a game-changer.

Here’s what you should instruct your seller to do to appeal to buyers who want to make this house their home:

1. Change the color of the room

Go for colors that would bring out the uniqueness and history of the house at its best. Use earthy paint colors and royal wallpaper print to give rooms that are in dire need of space a little illusion.

2. Rework the furniture

Don’t clutter the room. Throw out or sell the extra furniture, and keep a few wooden pieces. Change the door and window fittings to give them a more rugged look.

3. Incorporate today

It’s important to remember that your target buyer is someone who would live there with family. Get the house ready by adding in modern fixtures such as a modular kitchen.

In a nutshell, use the fireplace as decoration not to keep the room warm. The aim here is to make the house feel like it has a young soul.

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Guaranteed-to-work marketing tips

Show them it can’t get better than this

Making the historic home aesthetically pleasing is not enough to find the right buyer; it’s also crucial to market it properly to draw in the right buyer.

There is no right way to do this other than exploiting the one thing that separates a historic house from other properties — the story of the house.

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Here is how to market a historic property:

1. Where to advertise

List the property in historical magazines or websites that focus on the history quotient of a city. You can also ask other agents who specialize in historical homes. They can offer a clearer picture of places you can go to find the right buyer.

2. What to advertise

• List the exact price
• Focus on the events that took place in the home and the fixtures or elements of the house that are unique
• Mention the modern fittings that you are offering with this historically rich house

3. How to advertise

Along with applying the traditional marketing methods, you can experiment with these ideas:

Make a website

On the property website, you can do things above and try a few of these suggestions as well:

• Add a virtual walk-through of the house on the website to allow potential buyers to view the house inside and out
• Make and enact a skit of the house’s story and put it on your website
• Showcase any pictures or newspaper articles that show the history of the home

The aim of this website should be to generate excitement about the house among the prospects. But before you delve further in this stage, it’s vital that you fact-check the information and story that you know about the property with the facts.

Now you know how to get your sellers’ historic home the buyers it deserves — do not settle for anything less than what it’s worth.

Remember the story, mystery and character only a historic home can offer, and then leave no stone unturned to sell it to someone deserving — an admirer. These homes aren’t for everyone, but there is a buyer out there who is perfect for your seller’s property, and no doubt, you will find that buyer.

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Tripti Rai writes for 99acres.com. You can follow her on Google Plus and LinkedIn.

Email Tripti Rai.