When selling a home, you want it to look its absolute best for potential buyers! Home staging helps feature your home’s best assets and impress buyers who are hoping to visualize themselves moving in. When dealing with such a significant financial transaction, home-staging is an easy and cost-efficient way to boost your selling price and cut down on your market period. Since home buyers are accustomed to seeing picture-perfect houses online and on TV, getting your home showroom-ready can make a huge difference when selling. Remember that buyers are often looking to fulfil their dreams or improve their lives when buying a new home so staging is a great way to help realize those dreams and improvements. In today’s blog, I offer some steps and tips to stage your home successfully.
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Start with Important Rooms
Focus your time, money, and energy on the key rooms that will have the most impact on buyers’ decisions and selling price. Typically, I recommend centering your staging on the living room, master bedroom, and kitchen as these are the rooms that are the most important for buyers. While staging is beneficial in any room, you can focus less on bathrooms and extra bedrooms which have less influence.
One of the most important areas to stage is the front entrance of your house. This is the first thing your potential buyers are going to see when they enter your home and you want to make a great first impression. Keep things simple and clean by removing seasonal decorations, power washing your front stoop, adding a homey doormat and maybe a fresh plant or two. Set up this area to serve as a welcoming and warm space that puts buyers in the right mood and suggests all the other great rooms they can look forward to.
Get Rid of Clutter
Another essential step to home-staging is to de-clutter your home and dwindle items down to basics. Clutter distracts potential buyers from your home’s best features and may even highlight some weaknesses. If you want buyers to see your beautiful hardwood floor or island counter-top, make sure they are as visible as possible by keeping them clean and clear of items that could cover them up. Editing down clutter opens up sightlines for buyers and limits any distractions from your home’s potential.
Clutter also takes up space in your home. A clean, empty-as-possible house looks bigger and more appealing to buyers. Remove as much as possible and clean before anything else to open up space. This includes items like knick-knacks, un-seasonal clothing, games, most of your décor, and anything else that you do not need on a day-to-day basis. Remember that buyers will be opening up closets and storage areas to check for space and potential, so do not try to hide your clutter! Jamming closest with personal items will only make your closet look small and storage space appear lacking. Box all of these items up and place them in storage or anywhere else out of the house to make your home and storage areas feel roomy.
Aim for Bright, Light, and Fresh
Homebuyers are attracted to brightly lit rooms because they feel welcoming and clean. Take advantage of your home’s natural light by opening all blinds or pulling back curtains before a showing – this will also open up rooms and make them appear larger. Turn on all your lights – including overhead lights, lamps, and closet lights – so buyers are not stumbling in the dark during a showing. This lighting will again make your home feel welcoming and warm. Make sure your light fixtures are clean and replace any outdated or broken features for an inexpensive update. Even something as simple as dusting your lightbulbs can help let more light shine and make your home feel brighter.
Consider adding little touches that add life and freshness to your home. These touches can include things like fresh plants or flowers, a bowl of fresh fruit in the kitchen, and plush folded towels in the bathrooms. Remember to space out these touches to avoid cluttering one particular area and instead highlight key areas of the home. Make sure you also do a deep clean to remove any unwanted odours before a showing. Since we are often immune to our home scent, I recommend having a friend walk through the home to spot any trouble smells. Take out the garbage before any potential buyers enter the space and consider installing a small scented plug-in on a low setting to maintain a pleasant, noninvasive smell. Another great tip is to let any fresh air into your home for at least ten minutes beforehand to remove any unwanted odours and stuffy feelings.
Consider Furniture
Furniture is one of the most important home staging elements to focus on because they take up the most space in your home. Make sure your furniture is the right size for each room to avoid clutter. Too much furniture will make a room feel cramped while too little can make your space feel cold. Consider removing different pieces so that there is as much walkable space as possible to make a room feel spacious yet livable. Renting new furniture is also an option if your pieces are broken, outdated, or simply do not match the house. The typical rule with furniture is to remove about half of it, again sticking to just the basics. This allows buyers to easily navigate between rooms while also helping them to better visualize their furniture in each room.
Depersonalize
When staging, you want to set a blank canvas so potential buyers can imagine themselves living in the space. One of the primary objectives of home staging is to encourage buyers to visualize the home as their own. While still retaining a sense of style, you want your home to be free of any personal touches that suggest the house belongs to someone other than the buyer. Remove things like family photos, children’s toys, bathroom items, or anything else that would prevent the buyer from connecting with the home. Also, if painting, try to stick to neutral colours as bright walls can add too much personality to a space and signify past inhabitants. Stick to grays, whites, and tans as these colours will not distract buyers from your home’s assets.
Following these home staging tips does not require spending a lot of money and are easy ways to add value to your home. I am happy to discuss what specific changes you can make to your home that will entice buyers at viewings and increase your sale price. Contact me and we can get started on staging your home to show it in the best light possible!
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