Staging your home to be competitive in today’s market means not just putting a fresh coat of paint on the front door or taking down the family portraits. It means bringing it up-to-date in a more environmentally conscious, forward-thinking way. One basic improvement you don’t want to overlook that doesn’t require a repairman or the correlated costs is installing LED bulbs.

Any savvy Realtor will advise you to replace any bulbs that are out before the house is shown. Up the ante with LED bulbs. The message LED bulbs communicate to a potential buyer is that you take your home’s maintenance seriously, that you keep it up-to-date and understand value. Not only do LED bulbs say that you’re environmentally aware, and have kept your home up-to-date, but these LED wonders light up your home (interior and exterior) and highlight the very rooms you’re trying to sell to a potential buyer.

If the investment into LED bulbs has stopped you short from buying them for your own use, consider the fact that buyers will notice the LED difference and will do the math; they know that hey’ll not be faced with replacing an  LED bulb for a good, long while.

The packaging says the Philips 13-Watt LED bulb lasts 22.8 years when used for 3 hours a day. The protective plastic packaging takes the first couple of years to open. Seriously, these precious light bulbs are packed better than the most expensive Land O’Lakes cage-free eggs in their multi-layer molded plastic container. My question is? If I use the bulb for only 1.5 hours a day will it outlive me?

Rated five out of five stars by people who purchased the 13-Watt Dimmable LED Flood Light Bulb at Home Depot, the cost is $34.97. Fully Dimmable, this medium base flood light replaces 75-Watt halogen PAR30s, saving up to $170.50 in energy costs. This Philips Energy Saving LED PAR30L flood light can be used in recessed cans and track light fixtures. Used in kitchens, living rooms and dining rooms, the light it casts is as close as it gets to natural daylight.
The savings is remarkable. The estimated yearly energy cost is only $1.57, consuming 83 percent less energy than a standard incandescent light bulb.
Other lighting ideas to help sell your home faster for more money:

• Turn on all the lights in the house when you leave for work in the morning so that your house won’t be dark if a showing comes up on the spur of the moment at any time of day or early evening. That includes leaving the lights on in the basement or in closets
• Use the same type of bulbs down a hallway or in a single room, not assorted kinds
• Install LED under-cabinet spotlights to make your kitchen countertop area look more spacious
• Install LED light bars on top of your kitchen cabinets that have space between the cabinet top and the ceiling. This will have the effect of heightening the ceiling
• Install motion detector LED lights in your garage
• Install LED fixtures in your shower, waterproof, of course
• LED light bulbs attached to your redwood deck makes the walkway safer to negotiate and visually extends the outdoor living area.

Converting to LED bulbs throughout even a modest 1,800 square-foot-home can cost upwards of $1,000 if purchased all at once, so if you’re trying to impress potential buyers, start at the front door exterior fixture and work your way through the first rooms a buyer will view: the foyer, the first room to the right and the first to the left.

When LED first came on the market, the bulbs were expensive, and while guaranteed to last  longer than an incandescent bulb, the early LEDs were unreliable and some short-lived.

Today’s bulbs are built better than LEDs of a few years ago. They’re packaged to withstand a free-fall from 16 feet high and they now work with dimmers.
Allstar Electrical, headquartered in Denver, CO, has been working with LED for decades. LED fixtures still have a long way to come before Allstar will wholeheartedly recommend them, says Gary Stone, president of the firm. The light bulbs, however, are entirely another matter having been refined and are better than they ever were.