Buyers today are unwilling to compromise: they are nervous, picky and want a house that is move-in ready.  Agents looking for a fast sale might steer their clients away from doing any fix-up work, as it can take up a lot of time and money. Some agents don’t have the vision to see a home’s potential and most don’t want to put in the effort. And this could very well cost you on the sale.

 

Many sellers hear the word “staging” and immediately think it means spending a lot of money, but that is definitely not the case!  Below are cheap and easy tips for staging your home.

 

First things first, “what is staging!?!”

 

Home staging is the act of preparing a home (and its contents) for sale with an emphasis on presentation and appearance. It’s about more than preparing the house for sale: Staging is what you do after you’ve cleaned, de-cluttered, painted, and made minor repairs.  Staging makes your house look bigger, brighter, cleaner, warmer, more loving and, best of all, it makes home buyers want to buy it.

 

If you are selling a home, than there is no doubt that you’ve been on the other side of the real estate game.  Think back to the time when you were buying: try to recall why you bought your house, remember the difference between those homes you loved and those you didn’t.

 

Of course, not everyone has the same tastes.  So, in order to ensure a quick sale for the best possible price, you must present your home in a way that makes it appealing to the largest possible audience.

 

With that settled, on to the tips!

 

• Use your eyes (or a trusted friend’s): walk through your entire house, or have a friend do it, and see where your eyes are immediately drawn.  If anything is really horrible and you can’t afford the time or money to fix it properly, hang pictures and strategically place baskets. You won’t cover the problem entirely (which would be wrong anyway), but you will draw your audience’s attention away from the problem and onto something more visually pleasing to focus on.

• Any main room or feature room – like a living room, dining room, or master bedroom – should always be set up to highlight the function of the original design.  That is, if you currently have a home office in the formal dining room, transform it back to a dining room.  If a potential buyer doesn’t see a dining room, they will assume that your home is out of space and must be modified, costing them more money and you a sale!

• De-personalize your space: As cute as your family Christmas card was last year, you must take it off your fridge.  And those pictures on the walls? They have to go too! Buyers must be able to imagine themselves in your house, and with pictures of you all over, it will be very hard for them.
• FURNITURE! Furniture is a huge part of staging a home, which is why we have a number of tips involving it.

• A common belief is that rooms will feel larger if all the furniture is pushed against the walls, but this isn’t true.  Instead, furnish your spaces with floating furniture.  Reposition sofas and chairs into cozy conversational groups AND place pieces so traffic flow is obvious.  This will make your spaces more user-friendly and open up the rooms, making them seem larger.

• Allow yourself to move furniture (along with artwork and accessories) into other rooms. Just because you bought that chair for your living does not mean it won’t look perfect in the sitting area of your bedroom.  You can put a little-used table in front of a window and with a few accessories, you know have a great writing desk or library table.

• Consider renting furniture.  If your family room ensemble consists of that old couch from college or a cheap table with dents and wobbly legs, replace them with some nicer rental pieces.

• Slip covers are a great friend! If your furniture is worn, but otherwise intact, use a slip cover as a low-cost way to enhance its appearance.  Additionally, slip covers can neutralize overly bright fabrics.

• If you are selling your house, you’ve got to move out- so pack up any unnecessary or overbearing furniture before you show your house.  Over-packed spaces are red flags to buyers that your home lacks storage space.  So pack those excessive items up and move them to a storage facility.  Clear the way for a sale: buyers want to see that square footage and not your junk.

• Along those lines, storage space definitely sells.  While only a very rude guest would look through your cabinets and closets, it makes perfect sense for a buyer to!  So clear out the needless clutter and organize your shelves to show off how much storage your house has.  Plus, this will give you a chance to start packing, as you’ll definitely be moving after those buyers see all your closet space!

• Other essentials: air and light.  You don’t have to keep your windows open at all times, but make sure to let in fresh air- no one likes a stuffy house full of stale air and certainly no buyer wants to purchase a house full of pet or smoke odor.  And while it may seem like mood lighting to you, dimly lit rooms tend to look small and dingy, especially during the day.  So keep it bright! If you have a particularly dark room, consider investing in a floor lamp that will bounce light off the ceiling. And if your walls are so dark they suck up all the light, consider re-painting.  (You can even buy a small can of a lighter shade of your original wall color, mix it with some glaze and rub it onto your wall.  It will reflect more light and give the room a more open feeling.)

• Bathrooms can be expensive to upgrade (but if you are up to it, pedestal sinks are huge with buyers these days); instead hang some high-quality plush towels on display over your towel rack, making sure to color coordinate them with the bathroom’s scheme.

• Remember: A master bedroom should appeal to both sexes. Get rid of features that seem too gender-specific. Paint the walls a neutral color, and choose bedding that matches. Then accessorize with items that complement the overall color scheme.  The master bedroom is a very important room in the house, because it is most likely where the buyer will be and the buyer must be happy with the space in order to buy!

• A note on accessories: Using the right accessories can make a room more inviting and when it comes to pleasing the eye, odd numbers are more preferable, especially three.  But rather than lining up three objects in a row, imagine a triangle and place one at each point.  Scale is important too, so make sure they vary by height and width.  Where to get accessories? Raid your yard! You don’t have to spend money on expensive fresh flowers, instead get similar effects by collecting fern, blooms, and foliage from outside your door.

In the end, the number and scale of improvements you make to your home before selling are only limited to your time and budget.  Just keep in mind that there is a fine line between spending enough for staging and spending too much.  After all, the goal of staging is to make more money and not spend it.

 

If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to ask! Helping clients sell and buy homes is what we do for a living.