Real estate agents swear by home staging. They say it can help you sell a home quickly, and get more money for it.
So, you have little to lose and a lot to gain by implementing some home staging tips!
Home staging helps prospective buyers imagine what their life looks like in that house. It suggests the home is well looked after and reassures them the house is a great buy.
But how do you make a lived-in home look fresh and inviting? And isn’t home staging expensive? These home staging tips will show you how to stage a home in the most effective and inexpensive ways.
1. Maximize Your Home’s Curb Appeal
If you want to sell your home ASAP, you need to make a great first impression. And what is the first part of your home that buyers will see during the selling process? The front yard.
You do not need to hire landscapers to sell your house, but it needs to look neat and maintained.
Mow your lawn right before a house showing so potential buyers can smell the fresh-cut grass. Use a strimmer for the hard-to-reach places along fences and walls. Pull out the weeds along your path and consider investing in an attractive plant pot or two outside your front door.
Borrow a pressure washer to clean any paving stones and consider repainting your front door if it is peeling or looking a little dirty.
Also, nothing says “the owners neglect this house” like a broken mailbox. Fix any broken outdoor lights or fences, too. Consider repainting your fence or outdoor benches if they need sprucing up.
You can apply some of these outdoor home staging tips to your backyard as well.
2. Clear Out Your Clutter
This tip for home staging not only benefits your house but will also benefit you and your family when it is time to pack up and leave!
Is your dining room table covered in paperwork or do you have a pile of shoes at the front door? If so, not only will your house seem messy but it makes it difficult for buyers to imagine living there.
Declutter one room at a time and start with the messiest. Shred and recycle any paperwork you no longer need. And if you do need it, scan it first and then consider hiring shredding services to securely destroy your personal documents. Nowadays, you rarely need to keep original copies.
Downsize any media collections like books, films, and music. With services like Netflix, Spotify, and eBooks, there are so few reasons to keep thousands of physical media.
Invest in storage separators for your closets and cupboards. If you like having magazines or toys within reach, keep them in jute bags or baskets. Check out the KonMari Method if you need extra help clearing out your clutter.
3. Spring Clean Your Entire Home
Hire professional cleaners to give your entire home the “once over” if you can afford it. But if you are DIYing your home staging efforts, dig out your marigold gloves.
Invest in a good multi-purpose cleaner (or make your own using water, white vinegar, and essential oil) and some old rags. It helps to go room by room while you are downsizing to save time.
Dust your surfaces, ornaments, door frames, and baseboards. You might need a feather duster for those difficult-to-reach places. Vacuum every inch of your carpets and mop your floors.
Remember to clean those often forgotten about places like your oven. This checklist has more home staging tips for cleaning.
4. Pay Attention to the Little Details
You know those little jobs that are easy to put off because they are easy to ignore? Well, now is the time to do them.
Fix any broken baseboards, toilet seats, window latches, and loose door handles. Small maintenance problems give the impression that bigger issues are lurking elsewhere. Remove rugs and throw pillows with stains, too.
And be sure to take care of any odors. You may have gotten used to the smell of your three dogs but the new buyers won’t!
5. Remove Some Personalizations
One of the best home staging tips is to remove or dial back some of your personalizations.
This is difficult when you are still living in a home but it works.
A few family picture frames are fine, but those “live laugh love” stickers on your hallway wall have to go. Make your children’s bedrooms as gender-neutral and non-childlike as possible. If your potential buyers do not have children, it will be difficult to imagine those rooms as anything other than kids’ bedrooms.
Home staging is about selling your house as fast as possible. So, adopt a business mindset and hide Grandma’s crochet blanket in the closet.
6. Rearrange Your Furniture
The reason why furnished houses are more likely to sell over empty ones is that buyers need inspiration with how to arrange the room. This is very helpful when you have small rooms or ones with an awkward layout.
With small rooms, pull the furniture away from the wall by a couple of inches so your things do not look cramped. Put couches under sloped ceilings so people do not hit their heads. Use huge corner sofas and rugs to divide open-plan spaces.
7. Play With Color and Light
If you do not mind spending a little extra cash to sell your home fast, the best general home staging tip is to repaint your walls white. Buyers love inspiration but they also love a blank canvas. This will also ensure your walls do not have any scuff marks.
Invest in focal points in every room. If there isn’t a cool fireplace or large window in a room, use a colorful couch or striking piece of wall art to add a pop of color.
Also, make the rooms as bright and light as possible. Replace heavy drapes with blinds and add a few floor lamps.
Use These Home Staging Tips to Sell Your House
Home staging is an essential part of selling a home that will allow you to get a better, fast deal. If you use these home staging tips, you will have plenty of ideas of how to stage your home in an effective and inexpensive way.
Need more real estate advice? Check out our other articles for more expert tips!
