Tips for Staging Your Home

We’ve put together a list of tips for staging your home that will highlight your home’s most impressive assets. For example, staging your home helps potential buyers imagine themselves moving in and living there. Fortunately for sellers, many of the best staging tips there are do not require a lot of money, time, or effort.

Here are the top ten home staging tips you can use when staging your home:

1. Stage Where It Counts:  Spend less time on the rooms where staging may not make a difference and more time on the rooms that will make the largest impact. These rooms include the living room, master bedroom, and kitchen.

2. De-Personalize The Space: The fastest way to help buyers visualize the space as their own is to create a blank canvas. Remove any personal photos and keep all of your clothes stored away and out of sight.

3. De-Clutter: Clutter takes up space and space is what sells! Make your home look bigger and more desirable by just using the basics. Remove things from the home such as un-seasonal clothing and anything else you may not need on a day-to-day basis. Buyers will be opening your closets to look at storage potential so be sure to remove as many nonessential items as you can. The less clutter the more appealing the home will be!

4. CLEAN: Clean like you’ve never cleaned before! Be sure every square inch of the house is cleaned and wiped down. This includes the baseboards all the way to the corners of the ceiling. A clean home suggests to the buyer that the home has been well taken care of.

5. Patch and Repair: First, walk around your home with magic erasers to get rid of any scuffs or marks on the walls. If there are areas that need some love, spackle, and caulk as necessary. You may need to do some paint touch-ups during this time if you see any chips or cracks in the paint.

6. Use Neutral Colors: Be sure when staging your home to paint over any bright or bold walls in your home. Painting over these walls with a gray, white, or taupe will allow the buyer to more easily picture themselves in the home. Bright colors distract from the assets of the room.

7. First Impressions Count: The most important thing for staging a home is the first impression! Potential buyers will see your yard and entrance first. Be sure to clear these spaces of any seasonal décor, yard signage, or anything that may date your home. Replace these items with a subtle welcome mat. Then add a touch of home with a potted plant or two at the front entrance. Keep this space simple yet welcoming. Check out these tips on revamping your curb appeal!

8. Freshen Up the Space: A few healthy plants will always add life and freshness to a space. Pick up a bouquet of flowers when staging your home and place them in the center of the kitchen table. For example,  large potted plants and succulents in places such as the living room bring life to the room. Fake plants will also do the trick! Another aspect of freshness is being sure that your home is free of any odors. Cleaning your home will get rid of the majority of the odors, but adding a diffuser in a room or two may not be a bad idea. Also, be sure to empty your trash before any showings.

9. Add Light: Before a showing, open up all the blinds, turn on all your lamps, and lights in closets and storage spaces. Letting in light will make the space seem bigger and will allow the buyer to navigate your home more efficiently.

10. Rearrange Furniture: When staging your home you want to be sure there is as much open walking space as possible. Put extra furniture in storage to get it out of the way, focus on getting rid of any oversized pieces, damaged items, and those that may not match the rest of the room.

Staging 101

Staging your home to sell doesn’t require a lot of money, but it does require time that will in turn be beneficial to the sale of your home. Your agent should be able to help you make more specific changes that will add value to your home. Once you’ve done everything you can to get your home staged and ready to sell all you have to do is sit back and wait for the right buyer!

Have you ever staged your home to sell?

Contact one of our Real Estate agents who will be more than happy to help you stage your home!