Home Staging Tips

You decided to sell your house, and you can’t wait to buy a new place. There’s just one thing standing in your way: You’ve got to close the deal on your current one first. You just hope it doesn’t take months to get an offer. You want to sell your house fast!

Well, there’s one tried-and-true trick that’s proven to reduce your home’s time on the market. A study by the Real Estate Staging Association found that homes staged before listing received an offer in just 23 days on average. That’s 90% faster than those who waited months after listing to bother staging.

Take a look at these 10 home staging tips and make changes that can help your home sell faster and for more money.

• Stage where it counts

You want to focus your efforts on the rooms that have the biggest potential to influence buyers’ decisions, and spend less time on the rooms that won’t make much of a difference. The rooms that are the heart of the home and what most buyers focus on include the master bedroom, the living room, and the kitchen. 

• Depersonalize the space

If you cloud your home with too many personal items, it could possibly turn buyers away if they can’t view the house as their home. You want to help prospective buyers visualize the space as their own. 

Start by removing any personal photos, making sure to take down both framed photos on walls and surfaces and anything that’s hanging on your fridge. Keep clothes stored away and out of sight, and clear bathroom counters of personal items, like toothbrushes and skincare products. While it’s true that de-personalizing your home makes it a little weird to live in, it is extremely useful for helping buyers better connect with the property.

• Get rid of clutter

You may like to showcase all of your personal belongings for your guests to see, but you shouldn’t showcase them for potential buyers to see. If you just read point two, then you know you need to put these items away. If your house still seems cluttered, try packing up items that aren’t necessary for everyday use. Just know that potential buyers will snoop around your house to find out how much space the house offers. The less clutter you’ve got in the space, the bigger it will look and the more appealing it will be to buyers.

• Clean like you’ve never cleaned before

You want every square inch to shine, from the baseboards to the corners of your ceilings and everywhere in between. A squeaky clean home suggests to buyers that the current tenants took good care of the property, a notion that extends beyond the kitchen countertops to the entire house. If you’re not the-get-on-your-hands-and-knees type of person, then we highly recommend hiring a cleaning company. 

• Patch and pair

So your dog ate your drywall, or your kids drew on every inch of the wall in their playroom. Or maybe it’s as simple as some tiny nicks, scratches, holes, or other impurities. Whatever it may be, all of these should be tackled. You want to show potential buyers that you’ve put effort into maintaining the property as it is about making the place look nice

• Go neutral

This staging tip is a bit more time and cost intensive, but it can make a major difference when it comes to your sale price and time on the market. Your kid may have begged you for that lime-green for their walls, but we can assure you your potential buyers will not be begging for them. Give the house a clean slate with neutral colors. Anything that would stand out in the crowd, paint over!

• Make a good first impression

As much as the interior of the house matters, the exterior is just as important, if not more. Home exteriors are the very first thing neighbors, visitors and prospective buyers see, so you want your house front design to impress. Budget friendly changes can be as simple as power washing your front stoop, and adding some hominess with a simple doormat and perhaps a potted plant or two, provided they are in perfect condition.

• Focus on fresh

Now that your home has been removed from personal items, clutter, and been retouched, it’s time to bring in some items. Yes, you read that right. Your home should still feel alive and not feel cold. The best way to do this is to bring in some healthy, well-placed flowers and plants. 

• Let there be light

The amount of natural light that slips through the windows attracts buyers. Raise the blinds, pull back the curtains, and put all the lights on in your house when it’s being shown. This will help make your home more welcoming, and also saves buyers from having to stumble around figuring out which switches turn on which lights.

• Rearrange your furniture

While the way you have your furniture may be functional for you and your family, it could come off another way to buyers. Put extraneous furniture in storage to get it out of the way, focusing on getting rid of any oversized pieces, damaged pieces, and those that don’t match the rest of the room. With the furniture that’s left, rearrange it to make the room look and feel as spacious as possible.

Staging a home to sell doesn’t require spending a lot of money – just making smart decisions. If you’re not sure if you need to make any of these changes, we can help you make specific changes that will add value to your home and entice the buyers who come for viewings. Once you know you’ve done everything you can to show your home in the best light possible, you can sit back and wait for the right buyer to stop by.