Staging your house helps buyers fall in love with your property. It even makes them offer more for your house if it’s well-staged. The agent won’t have to say, “Imagine this,” because buyers will already see furniture and design possibilities for the space they might consider buying.
Home staging is more than preparing the house for sale – it’s even is beyond cleaning and decorating. It’s about decluttering, updating, repairing, and depersonalizing your house. It’s also about highlighting the best features of your home, downplaying its flaws and dressing your house to look its best. It gives the “oomph” that’s missing for most homes that are being sold. If you’re planning to sell your house, engage in some aspect of home staging to sell your house quickly and for more value. Here are some helpful home staging tips to add appeal to your home:
1. Clean your house thoroughly
One of the cheapest ways to make your home shine above competitors is by literally making it shine. Shine your floors and gleam your windows. Clean your counters and scrub grout on your tiles. Remove fridge magnets and give your appliances a good scrub. Every surface should sparkle due to cleanliness. Also, your house doesn’t only need to look clean, it must smell clean as well. Get rid of unpleasant pet odors by replacing old carpets with new ones. A thorough cleaning may take a lot of work– and you may need to hire pros to take care of the really hard-to-clean areas, especially if you have a big house – but this is worth the effort.
2. Remove clutter
Decluttering is another major thing to do during staging your home. Take a look at your belongings and ask yourself what you can live without. All clutter must go, and you may need to store your items offsite temporarily, like in a relative’s garage, if you are not willing to let go of your items. A lot of homes have too much furniture, and even some of those must be removed so the house would look much bigger. Plus, you have to clear the way for a sale by showing buyers the amount of square footage your house has, not your personal belongings. Avoid displaying very personal items – keep it in storage and display it in your new home.
3. Balance the clean but lived-in look
Yes, the house must be clean and free of clutter, but it would be more appealing if you add a bit of style using accessories to make it look cozier and homier. Decorate with vases with cut fresh flowers, a basket of fresh produce on the kitchen counter, or a bowl of lemons near the sink.
4. Maximize curb appeal
A nice curb will lure in potential buyers. Some people decide on the spot if a house is worth a look inside, so make sure your curb is attractive. Clean it real good by power washing the siding and walkways. Wash your front windows, and hang visible house numbers. Repaint or stain your porch floor as needed, or scrub the grout if it’s made of tiles. Mow your lawns and keep the grass green. Plant flowers in bloom in the garden and in front flower boxes. This is important because staging the inside won’t be worth it if people don’t even want to look into your house because of an unwelcoming curb.
5. Make your porch or patio look inviting
Even if you only have a small stoop, make it look inviting with a clean doormat then decorate it with blooming potted plants and one to two pieces of patio furniture, if you have the space. If you have wooden floors and beams, sand the wood, and cover them with light-colored stain. Keep your porch light on during the night, in case potential buyers would like to stop by.
6. Refinish floors
It’s best to give all floors thorough cleaning, but if your wood floors are in poor condition, you may have it refinished. If you don’t want to invest in refinishing floors, place area rugs in strategic places to make it look just fine. If there are missing floorboards, fix it. It will cost you less to address problems than the amount buyers might deduct from the price due to floor issues.
7. Paint with fresh, neutral colors
Painting a living room with neutral colors hides imperfections in your walls using colors that will appeal to more people. Neutrals are your safe bet, as painting the house with your favorite shade of pink may not suit the taste of many prospective buyers. These days, neutrals extend beyond white, gray and beige – you may also use honey, warm tans, soft blue-greens, and greige.
8. Transform extra rooms
Every room must have a defined purpose. If you have a spare bedroom that you use as dumping ground for boxes of junk and old furniture, it’s time to clean it up and transform it into a room with a specific purpose. Think about what potential buyers might want to see, like a home office, a children’s playroom or a guest room. You may rent or borrow some furniture from friends to make a real room out of a junk room to stage that extra room well.
9. Rearrange your furniture
Move and reposition your furniture to make it look more user-friendly and cozy. A chair you originally bought for the living room might look nice when placed as a sitting area in the bedroom. Furnish the living room by pulling your furniture off the walls to open up the room and make it look larger. Position chairs in pairs to create conversational areas.
10. Upgrade your lighting
Light up your home properly so buyers would see the real beauty of its interiors. A lot of houses have poor or improper lighting, so to fix this, increase the wattage in your fixtures and lamps. Your best bet would be a total of 100 watts per 50 square feet. Make sure you use three types of lighting: ambient or overhead, accent and task lights. Upgrading your lighting makes your home look warmer and more welcoming.
11. Make spaces look bigger
Make your room appear larger than it really is by painting it with the same color as the adjacent room. With a small kitchen and a dining area, using the same paint color makes the rooms look seamless like one big space. Use one type of vinyl tiles on these areas for a better flow. You may also paint the walls with the same color as your draperies.
12. Create a gender-neutral master bedroom
You may stage other bedrooms as a girl’s room and a boy’s room, but the master bedroom must appeal to buyers of both sexes. Keep it clean and tailored and make use of neutral wall colors. Choose beddings made of crisp linens and place a tasteful artwork as a focal point of the room.
13. Stain or paint kitchen cabinet doors and drawer fronts
If your kitchen cabinets look already dated, it may turn off potential buyers. Try staining them to give it a new look and add some new hardware. If you want a pop of color, paint the cabinet doors match or complement the color of your kitchen walls. It’s a cheaper option instead of buying new cabinets to replace them.
14. Paint your dated tiles
Dingy bathroom floors can turn off potential buyers. Have your tiles professionally painted to make your bathroom look brand new, or do the painting yourself. Just make sure you use high-adhesion primer and a special ceramic epoxy covering. Then, accessorize like the bathroom’s a spa, like putting out rolled up towels, decorative rattan storage boxes, and scented candles.
15. Install a pedestal sink
Show off the floor space you have in your bathroom by opting for a simple pedestal sink, rather than a vanity sink. It doesn’t only maximize space, but it also appeals to buyers. Consider swapping your cabinet-style sink with a pedestal version.
16. Add built-in bookshelves
Homebuyers love to have bookshelves to store in their books and other decorations. Add open, built-in shelving on a wall, then add some of your items to stage it. Arrange neutral-colored items in clusters to make sure the focus is on the built-in cabinets, not on your accessories.
17. Let more natural light in
Bright and airy rooms are attractive – it feels more like a relaxing home. Use light paint and open up your window shades. Use light colored furniture and add accent lamps. Choose light draperies that don’t look too heavy for the windows.
18. Accessorize creatively
Make the room look more inviting by mixing the right accessories. When adding a group of accessories, odd numbers are preferable, especially three. But don’t simply line your trio of decorations in a row, place them in a triangular position with one object at each point. Be sure to vary height and width too. Make the accessories effective and pleasing to the eyes by grouping them by color, texture, shape or other unifying elements.