When you’re at the store browsing for different things, do boring packages appeal to you? Of course not! Appealing packages that look like they contain excellent products draw your attention.
This tenet of buyer psychology also applies to people looking to buy a home.
Keep reading to learn about five home staging tips for selling your home.
1. Focus on the Important Rooms
When you first begin the process of staging your home, it can be easy to go overboard. Although you should put a lot of detail into each room, understand that some rooms are more important than others.
Kitchens, living rooms, and master bedrooms are the most important rooms. These spaces will influence a buyer’s decision the most. Make sure that you go above and beyond in these rooms.
2. Remove Personal Items
One of the primary goals of staging a home is to make the buyer be able to visualize themselves living in that space. Charm and style can help you, but make sure to remove any signs that point to the fact that you live in the home.
Make an effort to put photographs of friends or family members, clothes, and toiletries out of sight.
3. Eliminate Clutter
When you want to sell your home, you want it to look as big as possible. Clutter not only makes your home look messy, but it also makes it appear smaller.
Tidy up your home until it looks as minimalistic as possible. You don’t need to get rid of the items forever, but storing them away should help your home sell.
4. Give Your Home a Deep Cleaning
Another staging tip is to clean your home like you’ve never done so before. When staging a home, you want every inch of your house to glisten, shine, and shout cleanliness.
A clean home shows the interested parties that you take the time to maintain the property. Make sure to clean everything, including those chores you always put off doing.
5. Create a Fresh Atmosphere
Aside from cleanliness, you also want your home to feel fresh and inviting. A bowl of fresh fruit on the counter, or a few flowers or plants can help your home feel new and alive.
Make sure to let the light in as well. Nobody wants to buy a home that feels dark and dingy. The right realtor can help you create an inviting atmosphere. Check outJenjewell.ca to find a reputable real estate agent you can count on.
Try These Home Staging Tips for Selling Your Home
If you’re looking to sell your home, staging can help you do that. By following this guide and these five home staging tips for selling your home, you can be certain that someone will be interested in buying your house in no time.
Do you have any other home staging tips?
Make sure to share them with us in a comment down below.
Home Staging ….we have all seen it on the TV shows and heard our realtor friends and family talk about home staging!
What is Home Staging and does it really work?
I’ve been staging homes for for about 10 years, and yes – it really does work!
The concept seems strange and I still have people ask for clarification….”So the furniture that was there is removed and then you move furniture back in?” In a nutshell, yes but there is much more involved than just furniture. Cleaning, de-cluttering, repairs, updates, de-personalizing and then the staging / styling – it’s all a part of the process!
Home Staging is all about the present the home in it’s best light and setting the scene to attract the buyer. Home staging involves a number of steps to get the property looking it’s best and every house has different needs. Many think that a vacant home allows buyers to see how big the space is, how they can use it and visualize how they want to paint, furnish etc…
When we stage homes, we also get some ideas from the realtor about the buying demographic and target group – this really help us find a focus for the decor style, colours and also staging the property with the lifestyle in mind. A young newlywed couple would live differently that a busy family of 4 or 5! So we take that into consideration.
But that’s not the case – an empty home looks cold and uninviting plus it doesn’t present well in photographs, which is how most buyers will see their home for the first time. Buying a home is an emotional experience – the buyers connect with the home and an empty one is just that, empty and you can’t connect with empty!
So this is what Home Staging does…
Home Staging is about setting the scene so buyers can visualize living in their dream home. They can see how you can live in the space. The furniture and styling add warmth and help plant ideas of lifestyle and usability of the space and layout. The proper scale and amount of furniture balance out the room and allow buyers to ‘mentally move-in’.
Can you believe this is the same room?
This before and after is incredible (photos above). We did a few things to make this home look it’s best. For starters, take a look at the drapery. That heavy espresso brown panel drapery was replaced with some much lighter – look at the difference in the room – it looks open, bright and airy! We also moved the fireplace (it was an electrical fireplace, so it could be moved). The original placement made the room look long and skinny (almost like a hallway). By moving the fireplace, we have created two spaces. A living room with fireplace and potentially a wall mount TV and the other end of the room, we staged as a seating area for reading and a small work space.We were careful to pick furniture that was of the correct size and scale. We kept the tones light and airy (see that pop of yellow, a staging favourite). We have some simple accessories that really complete the look and add warmth to the space. The art, pillows, plant…they all make a difference in the presentation.
Home staging sets you apart from the rest.
When your home looks good , buyers (and their agents) take notice! We had a recent property sell in under a week for more than asking (and they weren’t in a multiple offer situation). The agent said to the buyers “give them an offer they can’t refuse, or you will lose this house”. So they did! Good looking properties look great in photos, these photos are seeing online, then the showings start to happen, lots of showing traffic means good (some times many) strong offers and next thing you know – your house is sold.
Home staging is a MUST – Home staging gets properties SOLD!
Realistic or not…every home buyers dreams of purchasing a home that belongs in the pages of a magazine. Staging your home or making it look it’s best, is one of the first steps to putting it on the market. Since many eyes will be on your home during showings, open houses and all through marketing and promotional materials, this is why you will want your home to look show room ready! Many sellers feel that doing aesthetic work in preparation to sell their home isn’t necessary and that the buyers themselves will want to make those changes themselves and to their taste – but to sell a home for top dollar in any market you must set yourself apart from the others.
1 – The Exterior Aka Curb appeal –
This is where you will make your first impression. If the outside is unappealing that sends a strong message to buyers and they may decide to move on without even entering. Create a lasting impression by maintaining the flower beds and lawn, sweeping the walkway and porch, power wash the siding and freshen up the door and shutters with paint. Take a look at accessories like the door mat– is it tired looking? mailbox – is it rusted? door bell? – is it working? number plate? – is it visible, clean?
2 – Depersonalize –
Staging your home for sale is very different from decorating your ‘new’ home. when you move in to your space you want to put your personal stamp on things, set up your furniture for your lifestyle and make it yours! When staging your home you want to attract the most buyers using neutral tones and furniture placement that shows off flow and the size of the room – highlighting the best attributes if the home. Keep your style and tastes to a minimum since many buyers with many different tastes will be viewing your space.
3 – Don’t leave the walls bare –
Yes, you want to depersonalize but don’t completely neuter your home and remove all warmth and signs of life. Removing personal items like family photos, collections and religious symbols is very important but decor items like art, mirrors and clocks add some warmth to the space and can pull a room together.
4 – Create furniture groupings –
Sometimes when sellers want to make a room look and feel spacious they spread out the furniture creating a big open space in the middle. This arrangement does leave a big, open space but it looks unfinished – which is a big turn off for buyers. It’s best to create furniture groupings to help buyers envision how to use the space – for conversation, TV watching, reading and more….Be sure to not only have furniture positioned in ways that would make sense for intended use but also be sure to have clear and direct paths through the room – this will give a room a spacious look and feel. You want buyers to envision the use of the space, how to live in the home and of course, highlight the size of the room but still keeping it cozy for conversation.
5 – Use paint to maximize the space –
The right paint colour can perform miracles. The right paint colour can make a room appear larger. We often recommend a fresh coat of paint throughout the home in a light tone but if you don’t want to pain the whole home – paint the space that you need to enlarge the same colour as the room that is adjacent to it. The matching colours will help the potential buyer’s eyes flow seamlessly from one room into the next and make both rooms seem like one big space. Bold colours do make a statement but they tend to make rooms feel smaller and more closed off, plus that also a personal statement and taste.
6 – Add extra lighting –
Lighting can make all of the difference between a good viewing and a bad one. You want to make sure that buyers actually see the aspects and features of the home. Natural light is a plus, so pull back the drapes, remove heavy curtains all together and bring up the blinds. For artificial lighting, you need to have enough to make your home feel cozy during evening showings. Add some floor lamps in dark corners, routinely check light bulbs, add high wattage bulbs or day light bulbs to existing fixtures.
7 – Clearly define every space –
Most of us have a room or space that is a catch-all and it serves many purposes but when it comes to selling your home – that space never translates well to buyers. That catch-all room becomes a confusing space. Present that space as ‘something’ a guest room, a desk, craft room, study, ply room – it doesn’t really matter but define what that space is. Clear it out, remove the junk and set it up as a proper, usable space.
8- Assume every space will be viewed –
Sellers like to think that buyers will just look at the main areas of the home during a viewing. In reality, buyers will look everywhere (especially if it is a 2nd or 3rd showing). So spend some time organizing cupboards, closets and other storage spaces. Yes, you are living there but you can keep it neat and organized. Start with a declutter – go through your clothes and linens (no sense in bring items you don’t need or want into your next home), donate or toss what you no longer need, pre-pack the extras that you want to keep and fold up the towels and bedsheets in the current linen closet – making a beautiful and organized closet. Same for other storage spaces. A closet that is bursting at the seams sends the signal that there isn’t enough storage space.
9 – Organize personal items with storage pieces –
If you are still living in the home that you are selling you will still have some personal pieces like toys, mail, pet items and toiletries. The best way to keep the home staged while you live there is to have some easy storage solutions. Baskets are great for toys, a chest or trunk at the edge of a bed, baskets or boxes in bookcases are perfect for flyers, mail and school items. For bigger items, like furniture try renting a POD or Storage unit.
10 – Fresh touches impress buyers –
Some fresh details make an impression on buyers like fresh flowers (perfect for open houses), fresh fruit in a bowl on an island is a great pop of colour and sets a friendly tone, plush towels in the bathrooms look clean and luxurious are just a few easy examples. These quick fixes can really make a world of difference in how your property is viewed by buyers.
Buyers want that emotional connection once they walk into a home, that feeling is so important and home staging makes that connection with buyers – it’s a necessary step in the process of selling your home,
