10 TIPS for STAGING a HOME

If you’re a home seller, you will want your home to look the absolute best for the potential buyers who visit your property. That’s where home staging begins.

Home staging is a way of decorating with the intent to highlight your home’s most impressive features and to help buyers imagine themselves in the space, as if it were their own. If staging is done right, you should have no problem selling your home quickly.

According to the National Association of Realtors’ 2019 Staging Stats report, 40% of buyers’ agents believe that home staging does help potential buyers on how they view the home, with 83% saying that it makes it easier for buyers to visualize the home as their own. On the home sellers’ agent side, 22% of sellers’ agents report that home staging increases the value of a home between 6% and 10%, and 28% of sellers’ agents note that it greatly decreases the total amount of time a home is on the market.

It just makes sense for sellers to put time and effort into staging their home. Luckily, many of the best staging tips don’t require spending a lot of money. If you’re getting ready to sell or are trying to add new life to a stagnant listing, take a peek at these 10 staging tips and make some changes that can help your home sell faster and for more money.

1. Stage where it matters most

When it comes to home staging, not all rooms are created equal. You should focus your efforts on the rooms that have the greatest potential to influence buyers’ decisions. Spend less time on the rooms that won’t make much of a difference.

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

2. De-personalize the home and property

One of the main purposes of home staging is to help potential buyers visualize the home as their own. The best way to accomplish this is to provide somewhat of a blank canvas as possible with still keeping some basic visual interests. You want the home to have warmth and character, but personal touches should be eliminated, especially those that suggest the home still belongs to the seller, not to the buyer that’s shopping for their next home.

Begin the process by removing personal photos. Make sure to take down framed photos that may be hung on walls and also remove tabletop photos as well. Keep in mind that photos and personal notes and items on the fridge should also be removed. Keep clothing and accessories put away and out of sight, and clear bathroom counters of personal items, like toothbrushes and contact solution. Also take notice in removing religious and political items that may be in your home. While it’s true that de-personalizing your home makes it a little weird to live in, it is extremely useful for helping buyers to better connect with the property.

3. Purge all clutter

Clutter makes a home seem smaller, so get rid of it! Make your home look bigger and more desirable by leaving just the basics in sight. You don’t have to part with things forever, but certainly pack them up and get them out of the house. Put away out of season clothing, most of your personal décor (you can keep a few select pieces if they’re subtle or minimalistic), papers, games, and almost everything else you don’t need on a daily basis. Buyers will be opening your closets to look at their storage space, so remove as many miscellaneous and non-crucial items as possible. The less clutter there is, the bigger it will look and the more appealing it will be to potential buyers.

4. Clean like CRAZY!

A basic spring cleaning won’t be enough! You will want every square inch to sparkle and shine, from the baseboards to the corners of your ceilings and everywhere in between. A fresh, clean home suggests to buyers that the current owners took excellent care of the property. If you’ve neglected certain tasks, like cleaning the inside of your refrigerator, regularly dusting your window blinds, cleaning windows and baseboards, etc.... Now should be the time to get it done!

The cleaning you’ll do for staging your home, has similar steps to the deep clean you do when you move into a new home, so start with those and add on as you need to.

5. Patch, caulk, repair and paint

Home staging is a good time to tend to the tiny nicks, scratches, holes, and other problem areas that show neglect to buyers. Start with an eraser type sponge and go room to room removing any marks or scuffs from the walls. Watch out for any areas that could use some extra TLC. Spackle and caulk as necessary. You likely may need to do some paint touch ups too, especially if you notice areas where previously applied paint has chipped. Just like with cleaning, the primary purpose is as much about showing potential buyers that you’ve put effort into keeping up the property structurally, as it is about making the place look nice with simple decorative touches.

6. Go neutral not bold

This staging tip is a bit more costly and time intensive, but it can make a huge difference when it comes to the listing price and time on the market. Bright paint colors on walls help people to express their personality in their own homes, but bold and bright can be a major turn-off for buyers. When you’re staging your home to put on the market for sale, one of the very best things to do is to paint over any bold colors with neutrals, like gray, white, and/or taupe. Bold colors can distract the eye from a room’s best features, just like personal photos and clothes are distracting to the eye. Buyers might want bright colors themselves, but a neutral home gives them the option to do that – or not.

7. The first impression must be a good impression

The front entrance is the first thing a buyer is going to see when they walk up to your house, so you will want it to make a strong positive first impression. Remove seasonal decorations, because this can date a house in both pictures and when buyers view the home. If you have a front porch, consider power washing it, or at least scrubbing off any excess dirt. Sweep the porch often to keep leaves and dirt from accumulating and add a touch of hominess with a simple doormat and perhaps a potted plant or two, provided they are in perfect condition (a dead or dying plant will not be helpful). Keep the front porch simple but welcoming to help get possible buyers off on the right foot by suggesting good things to come inside.

8. Focus on freshness

Use a few healthy, well-placed plants and bouquets of flowers around in the home, as these items can add life and freshness into the space. Place them strategically so as not to clutter any one particular area, but place a couple of fresh items in all the areas that matter. Display a vase full of big, bright flowers in the center of the kitchen table, a bowl of fresh fruit on the kitchen island, put a small, potted house plant or some succulents in the living room, and perhaps a larger potted plant in the corner of the living room as well. If you don’t have the time or green thumb to maintain fresh plants, use fake plants. They will set the same atmosphere with less work but make sure they are free of dust.

Another side of maintaining the freshness of a home, is making sure there are no odors. A good, deep clean should take care of most lingering smells, but also be sure to clear out your trash bin often. You will definitely want to dispose of all trash before showings so buyers aren’t hit with any offensive smells. Using a small scented plug-in in a couple of rooms is also a great idea. One may be okay, depending on the size and layout of your home. If you do use the scented plug-ins, keep them on a low setting – you want the smell to be pleasant, but subtle.

9. Light and bright

Bright rooms are happy and bring positive energy to any home. Brighten rooms up by letting as much natural light into the home as possible. Open dust free blinds on all windows. This will also make rooms seem bigger. If your yard needs some work, keep blinds down at an angle, but open the slats enough to let light in without showcasing problem areas of the yard. Before showings, turn on all lights, including lamps and closet lights. This well help make your home more welcoming, and it also saves realtors and possible buyers from having to search around playing the game of “Which Switch?” when trying to light up the rooms.

10. Rearrange your furniture

Rearrange your furniture to allow a natural flow when walking through the home. You will want there to be as much open, walkable space as possible even if it means moving out furniture pieces and leaving a few. This allows potential buyers to navigate the space, helping them to better visualize their own furniture in each room. Put unnecessary furniture in storage and focus on getting rid of any oversized pieces, damaged pieces, and those that that may clash with the other furniture. With the furniture that’s left, rearrange it to make the room look and feel as spacious as possible.

Home staging doesn’t require spending a lot of money – it’s really about making smart decisions. Your real estate agent should be able to help guide you in making changes that will add value to your home and entice the buyers who request viewings. If you don’t have the time to make these changes, there are service companies that can take care of every little detail – just ask your agent for recommendations. Once you know you have staged your home to showcase its best features, you can sit back and wait for just the right buyer to stop by for a showing and they just might make you a wonderful offer!

Source: https://www.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/documents/2019-profile-of-home-staging-03-14-2019.pdf