10 Tips For Staging Your House
Real estate agents are great, but when you’re trying to do everything yourself, staging seems so ‘extra’. Yet although home staging is not always a walk through the park, especially if you are still living in the home, you can do it without a real estate agent.
Fortunately, there are many tips out there to help homeowners sell their homes in no time with the right staging. Downplay your home’s weaknesses, highlight your home’s strengths, and appeal to prospective home buyers with these 10 tips for staging a house from Sell Your House Fast LV.
Tip #1. Starting From The Curb
Home staging tips should always start from the outside looking in, so help your home stand out the moment your potential buyers pull up to the curb.
Let’s face it, without the outside appearance enticing your potential buyers, there is no way they would give the home a second glance.
Luckily, there are a variety of upgrades you can implement that requires more hard work than money. Some suggestions include:
- Remove grime and dirt from your gutters, fascia, roof, and siding with water pressure.
- Make your home pop with new paint on the shutters and doors, you can choose a bold color that coordinates with the rest of the home’s color.
- Replace mailbox, old house numbers, and your welcome mat.
- Pull the weeds, clean the edging of the flowerbeds, and add some more flowers and small shrubs around the home to bring an inviting feeling for potential home buyers. (If you are selling during colder temperatures you can get a pair of large planters and fill them with cold-tolerant annuals or small evergreen shrubs.)
- If you have the room, add front patio furniture to help expand your home’s outdoor living space.
Tip #2. Upgrade the Kitchen
One of the best home staging tips is to upgrade your kitchen. Kitchens are one of the most used areas of the home, so you will definitely want to take some time upgrading your kitchen and dining room for home staging that sells.
Although upgrades are necessary, they do not have to be expensive.
- Storage is huge for potential buyers, so you will want to make sure that if you are still living in the home that you start to clear clutter off countertops, use up all the dry goods in the back of the pantry and pack up the seldom-used appliances and accessories to clear up space and room for the buyer’s imagination.
- Give your cabinets a new look with paint; classic white or natural gray or slate blue typically work best.
- Replace or clean up corroded faucets.
- Dishwasher; before replacing the entire unit see about replacement panels through the manufacturer for your model.
- You can also use stick-and-peel contact paper to make your appliances look like stainless steel.
- Inexpensive ways to update a backsplash are to try faux tile, tin tile, or try painting the existing tile.
Tip #3. Minimize Your Furniture
One of the most important things you can do to stage houses for sale is to get rid of clutter, and that usually is through minimizing your furniture. Often professional home staging involves preparing a home before putting it on the market by minimizing as much as half of the owner’s furniture to help the home appear bigger.
- You will want to make sure potential buyers can move around freely.
- Give potential buyers easy access to the home’s best features; built-in bookshelves, fireplace, or spacious windows.
- Remove additional trinkets or clutter in the home or tables.
- Make sure to not add too many pillows on the couch or even in the master bedroom and other bedrooms. Remember, potential buyers, imagine their own furniture and decorations anyway. Personal style is not necessary here.
- Remove unnecessary furniture in the home by placing it in storage.
Tip #4. Furniture Placement
Furniture placement in staging homes is an important aspect to note when trying to sell your home. Many are led to believe that pushing the furniture against the walls is the best solution for more space however that is not the truth and something you definitely want to stay away from.
- Help reveal a spacious home by floating furniture away from walls.
- Reposition chairs and couches into conversational groups.
- Place furniture so that there is an obvious traffic flow in a room. (Not only will this make the space more user-friendly, but it will open up the room and make it seem larger)
Tip #5. Storage
Buyers’ priority list always puts storage as ranking on top.- Show off your home’s storage by decluttering your cabinets and closets.
- Using matching cloth bins and baskets to help keep closets looking neat.
- Implement shoe racks and under-shelf baskets to demonstrate the versatility of your storage.
- Tidy up the linen closet and add some potpourri so when the potential buyer looks inside they will be greeted by a clean, fresh-smelling linen space.
Tip #6. Sparkly Clean Bathroom
Most people judge a person on their bathroom, and that is the same for potential buyers and your home.
- Remove water stains from faucets
- Remove any signs of mold or clutter.
- Remove products into a storage area or box to help clear up more space. Buyers don’t want to see personal items.
- Invest in new rugs, shower curtains, and bathmats (this can be something you plan to take into your new home)
- Consider repainting your old-looking tile.
- Add fluffy white towels, fancy soaps, candles, and some apothecary-style accessories.
Tip #7. Appeal To The Senses
Aromatherapy can positively affect the way potential buyers think and feel, so why not add that to your home?
- Fill the home with pleasant light aromas. (you do not want to overload them either with obnoxious smells)
- Place a diffuser in the entryway.
- Place a delicious scent like a sugar cookie, strawberry, or vanilla on the kitchen stove.
- In the living room place a vase full of fresh fragrant flowers like roses, lilacs, or jasmine.
- Plug-in air fresheners are great for the bedrooms and bathrooms.
-
Tip #8. Make The Lighting Warm & Cozy
Great lighting cannot be overlooked when looking at potential homes to buy.
- Increase the wattage in the home’s fixtures and lamps.
- For every 50 square ft shoot for a total of 100 watts.
- Add multiple light fixtures if necessary.
- You will want 3 types of lighting; accent (wall and table), ambient (overhead or general), and task (under-cabinet, pendant or reading)
Tip #9. Make Your Home Stand Out With Color
You do not want to go overboard with obnoxious colors, however, you do want to set yourself apart by adding a bold color in a small space.
- Great places to add a bold color would be in the dining room or bathroom.
- You can also use the color to highlight important features of the home like the fireplace or a set of windows.
- You can also use wallpaper to help make even the little places, like bookcases, pop on the inside.
Tip #10. Create More Space With Curtains
Hung the right way, curtains can help make a room look more spacious and captivating for potential buyers.
- Using drapes that are the same color as the wall helps make space look wider.
- Create more height in the room by adding hanging drapes above the window.
- Have your curtains start at the ceiling and lighting touch the floor. (avoid having a puddle of curtain on the floor)
-
At Sell Your House Fast LV, we want to give you the tools to sell your house in no time. If you are in a time crunch and need help selling fast, reach out to us today for your free no-obligation cash offer quote for your home!
