Selling your house? Staging your home correctly is key to selling it quickly and efficiently. You want your home to look its absolute best and make a lasting impression for the potential buyers who walk through your door.
It’s easier than you think, and with our top seven ultimate home staging tips, you’ll learn how to make changes that can help your house sell faster and for more money.
Tip #1 De-personalize Your Home
One of the main goals of staging a home is to give prospective buyers a chance to visualize the home as their own. That’s going to be difficult for them to do if pictures of your family or personal mementos decorate most of the space.
One of the most essential home staging tips is setting as much of a blank canvas as you can. Touches of charm and style are fine as long as these touches aren’t too personal. In short, avoid personal touches that suggest this home belongs to you, the seller, and not the buyer.
You can start by removing any personal pictures, both framed pictures on walls and surfaces. Get rid of anything that’s hanging on your fridge as well, such as more personal photos, magnets, children’s artwork, reminders, etc.
Keep your belongings stored away and out of the potential buyer’s sight and put away anything overtly religious as well. It may be weird to de-personalize and live in your house void of everything that essentially made it your home, but doing this helps potential buyers better connect and fall in love with your property.
Tip #2 Get Rid of Clutter
Space sells, and clutter takes up a lot of it. If you want to make your home seem bigger, cleaner, and more desirable, try editing down to just the basics. Just like with our previous tip, you should consider packing up your things and getting them out of the house and storing them somewhere in the meantime.
How can buyers see the potential of the house if they can’t see the space, such as your hallway closet stuffed with winter coats, for example?
Anything else that you don’t need on a day to day basis, you can move somewhere else. You can expect buyers opening your closets to take a peek at the house’s storage potential, so remove as many non-essential and miscellaneous items as you can.
Tip #3 Give a Little TLC
Now is the time to give spring cleaning a run for its money and clean like you’ve never cleaned before. To buyers, a squeaky clean home is a sign that the current tenants took good care of the property.
A clean home goes beyond simple decluttering of stuff on the countertops. Go all out and dust your window blinds, wipe down the inside of your cabinets, and clean the inside of your refrigerator.
Home staging is also the time to take care of the tiny scratches, nicks, holes, and other signs of damage that signal neglect to potential buyers. You can start small by removing scuffs on the walls and then keep an eye out for any other areas that could use a little TLC. Touch up on those areas where paint has chipped away as well as spackle and paint over any holes to improve home value.
Spend a day going over every area of your home and look for signs of wear and tear that you know buyers will notice when you are showing your home. Make a list, roll up your sleeves, and get to work.
Tip #4 Make A Great and Lasting First Impression
Your front entrance is the first thing a buyer is going to see when they walk up to your house, so you want it to make a great and lasting first impression. You are selling not only the buyer your home, but also a vision of their future there.
Seasonal decorations, while cute, can date your house in both pictures and during viewings. Consider power washing your front porch or stoop if you have one, or at least scrub and hose off any dirt. You can add a touch of hominess with a healthy potted plant or two (a dying plant won’t do you any good) or a simple doormat.
Bonus points if your porch or patio has a swing or a rocker, this will further sell buyers the vision of a happy life if they buy your home. Just make sure any outdoor furniture is in good shape.
Keep the space welcoming and simple to make buyers excited to take a step inside.
Tip #5 Stick with Neutrals
You may love the bright colors on walls, but they can be a major turn-off for potential buyers. One of our top home staging tips to sell your home is painting over any loud or garish colors with neutrals. Shades of white, taupe, or gray will do the trick.
Bold colors are distracting and avert attention away from a room’s assets. Similarly to clothes and personal photos, loud colors make it hard to envision the home’s potential when it’s hard to unsee its past. There may be some buyers who love bright colors, but to be on the safe side, give the buyer the option to add them – or not.
Tip #6 Let in the Light
Brighten up by letting in as much natural light as possible. Dark rooms make for a sad house.
More light will also make the rooms appear bigger, so turn on all the lights in your house when showing your home. This also saves buyers from the awkward situation of stumbling around figuring out which switch turns on which light.
Tip #7 Re-Think Your Layout
The goal when showing your home is making sure there is as much walkable and open space as possible. Rearrange your furniture (or remove it) to make the room look and feel as spacious as possible. This will help potential buyers better visualize their own furniture in each room.
Home Staging Tips for a Great and Lasting Impression
If you’re selling your house, the goal is to make your home look its absolute best as well as make a lasting impression for the potential buyers who walk through your door. That’s where home staging comes in.
We hope our top seven ultimate home staging tips gave you some further insight into how to stage your home. With the right changes, staging your home can help your house sell faster and for more money.
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