8 Home Staging Tips Every Seller Should Know

The first impression is the only impression when it comes to selling a house. When you’re selling a house, you want it to look its absolute best for the potential buyers who walk through the door. That’s where home staging comes in.

Home staging, the beautification process of preparing your house for sale. It is designed to showcase your home’s strengths, minimize its weaknesses and attract a slew of prospective buyers. The objective is to ensure the property is presented and perceived in the best possible condition while it’s on the market. 

 A new survey from the National Association of Realtors® reveals that home staging continues to be a significant part of the home buying and selling process. 82% of buyers’ agents said staging made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home. These agents also said that visuals themselves are helpful, even more so in relation to buying a house during the coronavirus outbreak because  in-person open house tours were diminished or were halted altogether, so buyers had to rely on photos and virtual tours in search of their dream home. These features become even more important as housing inventory is limited and buyers need to plan their in-person tours strategically.

According to the NAR report, staging the living room was found to be most important for buyers.  The master bedroom is second and the kitchen was considered the third of the most important.

With so much to gain, it makes sense for sellers to put time and effort into staging their home, and fortunately, many of the best staging tips don’t require spending a lot of money. Whether you’re just getting ready to sell or are trying to add new life to a stagnant listing, take a look at these 8 home staging tips and make changes that can help your home sell faster and for more money.

1. Stage where it counts!

Not all rooms are considered equal when it comes to home staging. You want to focus your efforts on the rooms that have the biggest potential to influence buyers’ decisions, and spend less time on the rooms that won’t make much of a difference.

Per the NAR report mentioned above, the rooms that hold the most importance for buyers are the living room, master bedroom, and kitchen. These are the rooms that you want to focus the most on when you’re staging a home. Don’t worry as much about the rooms that have less influence, such as guest bedrooms, children’s bedrooms, and bathrooms.

2. 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.

More often than not, if a potential homebuyer is not impressed with the outside of your home, getting them to be impressed with the inside might be difficult.

You do not need to hire landscapers to sell your house, but it needs to look neat and maintained. By simply mowing the yard, clearing shrubs and adding some flowers, homeowners can generally get a 100% return on their money. 

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.

3. Get rid of 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! Clutter takes up space, and space is what sells. Make your home look bigger and more desirable by editing down to just the basics. You don’t have to get rid of things forever, but you should certainly be packing them up and getting them out of the house. 

Declutter one room at a time and start with the messiest. Shred and recycle any paperwork you no longer need, downsize any media collections like books, films, and music or invest in storage separators for your closets and cupboards.

4. Clean!

People tend to underestimate how much tidying needs to be done.  As one of the more important things you can do, cleaning is a major component to attracting buyers and getting your home sold. 

Spring cleaning has nothing on the cleaning you should do when you’re putting your home on the market. You want every square inch to shine, from the baseboards to the corners of your ceilings and everywhere in between. 

Invest in a good multi-purpose cleaner (or make your own using water, white vinegar, and essential oil) and some old rags. 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 floor and remember to clean those often forgotten about places like your oven.

5. Make Small Repairs and Cheap Upgrades!

Small repairs and upgrades can have a tremendous impact when it comes to putting your home on the market. A leaky faucet or piece of missing baseboard may not seem like a big deal, but when your home is in good repair it sends the message that your home is well cared for. 

Take the time to fix broken items and make small repairs around your home. For smaller upgrades, experts also recommend adding new doors and drawer fronts instead of buying new cabinets to give your kitchen that remodeled appearance.

6. Depersonalize the space!

One of the primary objectives of home staging is to help prospective buyers visualize the space as their own. The fastest way to accomplish this is to set as blank of a canvas as you can. You want the home to have style and charm, but it should be devoid of personal touches that suggest this home belongs to the seller, not the buyer.

Look at every detail with a visitor’s eye. Consider removing personal items such as family photos and refrigerator art,  keep clothes stored away and out of sight, clear bathroom counters of personal items like toothbrushes and contact solution, and remove anything overtly religious as well. This way, we provide the right vision for potential homebuyers. 

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. It is extremely useful for helping buyers better connect with the property.

7. 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.

You want there to be as much open, walkable space as possible. This helps buyers navigate the space, and also helps them better visualize their own furniture in each room. Put extraneous furniture in storage to get it out of the way, focusing on getting rid of any oversized pieces, damaged pieces, and those that don’t match the rest of the room. With the furniture that’s left, rearrange it to make the room look and feel as spacious as possible.

8. Play with color and light!

BOTTOMLINE:

Home staging is a marketing technique and may be among the most important used in home sales. It makes MLS listing photos, often a buyer’s first impression of a home, powerfully irresistible. 

It gives the perception of a well-cared home, it makes a home look cleaner and it helps buyers connect a lifestyle to a house.

Home staging doesn't require spending a lot of money – just making smart decisions. Your agent should be able to help you make specific changes that will add value to your home and entice the buyers who come for viewings. Once you know you’ve done everything you can to show your home in the best light possible, you can sit back and wait for the right buyer to stop by.