Make It Appealing to All Potential Buyers
Are you ready to list? Set the stage for a successful sale. Properly staging your home will help to downplay your home’s weaknesses, highlight its strengths, and catch the eye (and memory) of house hunters.
Rid the Home of Clutter
When staging your home, your goal is to show buyers what it looks like without clutter. One source of clutter easy to overlook is your furnishings. Remove whatever you can live without, while still maintaining functionality. Don’t be afraid to be ruthless – professional home stagers will often remove as much as half of a home’s furnishings.
Prune the Yard and Outside Spaces
The curbside view is the first impression that your home gives to homebuyers. Make sure the yard is mowed, shrubs are trimmed, the mailbox and driveway are in good repair, and the exterior doesn’t need paint. If you have a porch, set it up just like you would an indoor room, adding seating and splashes of color to give it a “relax here” vibe.
Light Up the Space
You want to make your home warm and welcoming from the moment someone steps inside. Open shades, curtains and drapes to allow maximum daylight into the room. Maximize the amount of light in the room by using higher wattage bulbs. Ideally, you should have three types of lighting per room: ambient, task oriented (such as for reading) and accent lighting.
Furniture Rearranged
Often we push furniture as close to the wall as possible in order to maximize living space in the center of the room. But for staging purposes, try to do the opposite. Moving furniture away from the walls will make a room look larger. Create cozy intentionally purposed spaces by grouping furniture together. Also consider the way placement of the furniture affects traffic flow. Avoid creating tight spaces. If buyers have to walk single file to get through the room, the room will feel small.
Bigger is Always Better
It’s possible for nice things to come in small packages, but not when it comes to homes. Buyers are looking for space that is usable and affordable. Brighter and lighter rooms seem bigger. Utilize paint colors to achieve a larger look. Connect the flow of two small rooms by painting them the same color. Achieve a seamless look by having the drapes and the walls match.
Repurpose and Redefine
When staging, you are making suggestions to potential buyers about what a room could be used for. A room shouldn’t be a free-for-all. Give it a purpose. Perhaps a room can staged to be an office, workout space, a craft area, a reading nook, play space, entertainment area or music room. Any of these uses can be suggested by décor and items in the room. But keep the staging simple enough that a buyer to come up with their own ideas too.
Your home may feel odd to you after it has been staged, but remember it’s all for a good cause. Staging is one of the first and most important steps you can take when listing your home, because making it appealing to potential buyers will lead to a quicker sale and a higher price.