When you decide to sell – your home becomes your investment – so in order to maximize that investment you need to look at your house from a buyers perspective – and that involves staging. There’s been a lot of research on what turns buyers on and also off when they are home shopping.
You don’t have to be a professional decorator to stage your home and make an impact on potential buyers. You just need to make some simple changes, work with the furniture you have available, and create a clean and inviting house that shows well.
So here’s 7 home staging ideas that are proven to help a home sell quickly and for more money.They are easy to do but require some elbow grease.
Curb Appeal
One of the first and most important things to address is the outside of the house – the curb appeal. I’ve had quite a few buyers pull up to a house and decide to not go in. The outside needs to look well cared for and clean. So here’s some things to consider doing: power wash the house and walkways, clean the windows, manicure the lawn and if you haven’t painted your front door for a while, put a fresh coat of paint on the door and the trim. Also replace a shabby mailbox and house numbers and consider adding shutters to windows or putting a fresh coat of paint on the ones you have. Some light landscaping is also a good idea. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy – just things like adding mulch and a some flowers here and there. The most important thing is that it looks manicured and well maintained. If the outside looks like it hasn’t been maintained, buyers will think you don’t maintain the entire house and may pass on going inside After you’ve taken care of the outside, then start on the inside.
Home Staging Before and After
Declutter, depersonalize and pare down. When potential buyers come into your home,
they want to feel like they have counter space, storage space, and square footage to work with. So remove some furniture to free up some space., clear off counter tops and create some breathing room in closets and storage areas.. Buyers also want to see a home with potential for their lives and their needs.and one they can imagine themselves in. If they see lots of knick-knacks or a wall covered in family portraits, they will envision your life, not their life in the house. So remove all that.
Home Staging Rule
And The next item is more of a home staging rule than a suggestion. And that’s to ensure that the walls are in good shape and painted with neutral colors.
How To Make A House Feel Homey
Once you’ve decluttered, depersonalized, pared down and taken care of the walls, then step back and take a look. Does it look sterile without all your knick knacks? Have you ever seen that hgtv show where the guy completely empties the room and then selectively adds back furniture and a few home items to make it look cozy and appealing? We don’t want the house to look like a Dr office – we want an organized homey look with pops of color throughout the house to offset the neutral backdrop. And that could be things like vases of flowers, colorful throw pillows or area rugs and a few pieces of art on the walls – no more than 2 wall hangings in a room and just be sure to not put holes in the walls that will have to be repaired later. And then add a few Home items like a cookie jar filled with cookies, a basket of fruit, a spice rack, a nice coffee machine, some perfumed soaps in the bathroom,.. These are things that give you a sense of comfort and the enjoyment of being home.
Staging Furniture
Then look at furniture placement. You just want a few pieces in each room – pieces that define the room. It’s not a great idea to alter the purpose of the room – like turning a living room into an office or play room. For the living room think in terms of creating conversation centers around a focal point like a fireplace or a television. So you’d want to avoid placing seating in a straight line – instead you’d arrange it in more of a square or semi-circle with seating facing each other. In the master bedroom, you not only want to make the color neutral, but also it should be gender neutral and remove everything except your bed and two end tables with lamps so the room looks more spacious. An inexpensive addition like new bedding is a good idea.
Deep Cleaning Your House
The last thing on the list and the most important is to deep clean the inside of the home. If you need help, hire a cleaning company so that forgotten spots like grout, moldings, baseboards, corners and the hard-to-reach crevices between appliances are cleaned. And everything smelling fresh. Of everything you could do, this is along with the curb is likely the most important.
.So here’s a summary of the order of things to do to get your home ready and it’s a good idea to start this process early on – a few months ideally.
1. — Address the curb appeal.
2 — Declutter, depersonalize, pare down and create some space so the home appears larger.
3 — take care of the walls with neutral colors.
4 –Add pops of color to offset the neutral walls and select a few home items to create a homey feel.
5 – Address furniture arrangement to create conversation centers.
6 – Make the master bedroom gender neutral and remove all furniture except the bed, end tables and lamps. If it’s a large room, then a chair and dresser is good but if it’s small, then remove that stuff.
7 — And the most important give the home a deep cleaning – military style cleaning.
These are all things you can do yourself or hire a service for not much money to help you out. And by doing these 7 things, buyers can more easily imagine themselves living there, be more confident that the home has been taken care of and it will likely result in a higher sale price and get the property sold faster.
If you’d like a staging Guide that goes into more detail with tips for each area of the home, Here’s a link to download Simple Staging. I think you’ll find it very helpful.
