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nan_nan_gw

Staging a rural property

9 years ago

Is this different than staging an urban property? Is like to hear some thoughts.

Comments (13)

  • 9 years ago

    Staging usually just refers to the interior of the house: declutter, arrange furniture to maximum advantage. Same can be said of an exterior. By rural do you mean barns and animal enclosures? Get rid of all junk and get everything clean.

    nan-nan thanked sushipup1
  • 9 years ago

    Yes, no machinery or yard tools laying next to the barn. No weeds growing up high. Obviously.


    nan-nan thanked littlebug zone 5 Missouri
  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    With a rural property, many buyers will look at your photos a good long while before driving a long way out to see it. Professional photography is a must and drone photos are excellent ways to show off the location.

    If there's a barn or workshop, make sure all the lights work and put in the brightest bulbs that are safe. Open the barn doors and any windows for photos. Have a pest control company inspect and treat the property. No buyer wants to find fleas on her jeans or a black widow spider on her boots after walking through a barn. Use a yard blower to blow the dust right out the doors. Pick up everything off the floor that can be hung on a nail instead. Buy a new corn broom and dustpan, hang them next to the door, it will impress buyers that the owners care about keeping things clean. Dust off your fire extinguisher and check the expiration date, again, it shows the owners care about worker safety.

    Rural properties often accumulate more junk and trash than city properties, partly because there's room to store it and because passersby throw stuff like old tires out as they drive by. Rent a dumpster and throw things out after donating what is not useful to you, like a spare clothes dryer or an old kitchen sink. Barns can accumulate gallons and gallons of old paint and half-used oil cans that should be taken to toxic waste disposal. Use up the old cleaning supplies in prepping the barn for sale. Power wash any concrete surfaces that can be safely cleaned. Throw out the worst of your old rags (the ones with holes and rips) when you are finished with cleaning.

    As for "a fresh coat of paint from top to bottom" which is almost always a good idea for a house, that may not be possible for a big barn. If that's your situation, consider painting only the door and window trim in a light beige or darker-than-usual off white semi-gloss that won't show as much dust as brilliant white.

    Last but not least, farm buyers are often interested in the mechanicals. Clean off the cobwebs, blow off the dust, and wipe off the nameplates on pumps, tractors, etc. before the pro photographer comes out.

    This link has some good photos of neat as a pin barn interiors: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/tags/storagebarn/interesting/

    nan-nan thanked apple_pie_order
  • PRO
    9 years ago

    I think you've been in my late father's old family home! It was in a small, rural town but it had acreage and a barn and other out buildings. When his last brother died, it fell to my parents to clean out this property that had been lived in continuously by the same family (there were 10 children!) for over 100 years. They had thrown out NOTHING! Every letter written to another sibling was there. Boxes of old photos of funny looking people all standing together, and us having no idea who they were. A barn full of dusty, rusty stuff - some tools, some old kitchen equipment. I did take those, cleaned them and donated them to a historic house in a nearby larger city. And then there was the attic - old clothes, old parasols (most gotten to by moths and mice and not salvageable), hand pieced quilt tops that had never been quilted (they're stored in a cedar chest in my house, STILL unquilted!). Just stuff and more stuff everywhere because there was room to store it.

    It took my parents about 6 months of weekly trips to clean it out. No dumpsters available in the town, just bag after bag of trash. It was quite similar to cleaning out a huge old 3 story summer cottage my previous husband's family owned in Michigan. We spent a month just going through the linens in the "linen room" in the attic. I think we counted 144 white Irish linen damask napkins, all monogramed with a B. We divided them between 4 of us - the last have only recently finally worn out - they were from 1902 and were used 3 meals a day in the summer when there were German maids living in the attic!

    nan-nan thanked Anglophilia
  • 9 years ago

    I googled the topic and didn't come up with many results. This was helpful from https://www.landthink.com/tips-for-farm-and-rural-property-sellers/amp/

    1. Keep the grass in yards, pastures, food plots, and other open areas clipped and presentable.
    2. If there is landscaping and beds on the property, clean them out, freshen up the ground cover with new pine straw or bark.
    3. Trim up trees and shrubs around the home and the barns.
    4. Trim up any limbs that block views, hinder travel down a road, or may be endangering structures.
    5. Trim fence lines and keep them looking neat. This is very important around homes, barns, and road frontages. Spray fence lines to control the overgrowth of vegetation.
    6. Clear off porches and the areas around a home. Any items that do not belong in that area should be placed somewhere else.
    7. Any farm equipment on the property should be neatly arranged and the grass maintained in that area. If there is farm equipment around barns or shed, keep it from distracting from the view of a barn or pasture if possible.
    8. If the property has ponds, creeks or streams: make sure that some of the water can be seen from a distance. Also make sure that the potential buyers can walk to the water. If you have ponds it is best to keep them clipped and possibly “weedeat” around them.
    9. If you have animals that can be dangerous or a nuisance during a showing, make plans for them prior to showings. A large barking dog or a horse that likes to bite can make a property difficult to show.
    10. Inside the home should be presentable at the showing. We understand that you may reside on a property we are marketing, just make it’s as neat as possible prior to a showing. Pay close attention to the area around the doors that lead into the house, kitchens, and bathrooms.
    11. If any of the property has trash or debris laying around, remove it as soon as possible. This includes junk and trash in barns and sheds on the property.
    12. If any brush piles exist, they should be burned and removed. Remember to obtain the proper permits before burning.
    13. If there are areas that are overgrown with brush, briars, privet, or kudzu, make arrangements to clean it up and then plant grass back in the cleared areas.
    14. Any areas of open dirt or fresh ground needs to have something planted on it.
  • 9 years ago

    Another good idea I read was to communicate the benefits of owning your rural home.

    One benefit is space to play outdoor games and have campfires. What about staging a campfire area and games area (I usually have them packed away until the grandkids come to visit).

    We have a wooded area that the kids used to like to explore and would be a good campsite. Should we reestablish the trails and set up a tent?










  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    OP, you posted an excellent list of tips for preparing rural properties for sale earlier.

    I also think it is a good idea to set up small vignettes when selling your home so that a positive emotion is felt immediately by the buyers. Don't go too elaborate, keep it simple. Your idea of staging chairs around a campfire area is a terrific idea. One of the other posters here showed two Adirondack chairs in her yard looking at the view. Naturally in a rural area you would be consistent with the house and not necessarily use Adirondack chairs, but something local to the area. I don't think you need to go to the effort of re-establishing trails and putting up tents. But that is up to you.

    Staging the patio as if a BBQ or outdoor family lunch or dinner is right around the corner is another idea that works well. You could incorporate a games area too. Just one or two areas should be sufficient. JMO

    nan-nan thanked Denita
  • 9 years ago

    Mow the trails but don't set up anything that will mildew when rained on. If you have lots of extra time, you can cut any branches that whack a full grown adult when walking the trails.

    nan-nan thanked apple_pie_order
  • 9 years ago

    Drone photos definitely!

    nan-nan thanked sheepla
  • 9 years ago

    When we were looking for a country house, we checked out the trails on every property, that's a good advice apple_pie_order.

    nan-nan thanked summersrhythm_z6a
  • 9 years ago

    In the end, the OP is marketing his website. May be useful information for some.

  • 9 years ago

    No I don't have a website. I have a country property that needs staging.

    That was some info I found when I did an Internet search. I was surprised there wasn't more info on the topic and thought it would be good to share for future searchers' benefit!