Take the advice of the professionals, 77% of buyer’s agents agree that staging the home made selling it much easier and faster. A staged home helps potential buyers to visualize themselves in the home.
It all sounds well and good – stage your home and it will sell faster. The problem is, what does staging mean? What should you do to highlight the best features of your home?
We have 10 home staging ideas to help you sell your home fast.
1. First Impressions
Let’s start with the front of your home. The curb appeal can make or break a potential buyer’s decision to even walk through the door.
Do more than the standard yard cleanup. Once you’re done painting, power washing, and pruning, take a moment to spruce up the front porch area.
Place some potted plants on either side of your door. Or hang a welcoming wreath or sign. You could also place a nice doormat in front of the door.
2. Declutter the Living Spaces
The easiest thing you can do to make your home look staged is to remove the daily clutter from your home. Start by creating three categories: storage, trash, and donation.
Now work your way through your home categorizing your belongings. Remove anything which is personal, such as photos and awards.
3. Neutralize Your Home
We understand it’s your home, and you want it to be an expression of who you are. But, your style is not everyone’s style.
You want your home to appeal to the widest range of potential buyers. To do this, you need to bring in a more neutral style.
This means painting the walls a tan, grey, or white. This will let people focus on the home and not on your bright purple accent wall.
The same goes for your furniture and accents. The idea is to take away anything distracting buyers from your home. You want them to see themselves in the home, not think about how unique your couch is.
4. Bring Back Some Touches
We know we just told you to remove all the clutter. But you don’t want your home to look stark and naked. Thoughtfully bring back certain pieces to accent your home.
You want the home to look livable. To do this you could place some fresh cut flowers in a vase on the dining table. Or a bowl of fresh produce on the kitchen counter.
Don’t limit yourself to the kitchen – you could put flowers in the bathrooms or bedroom. Or how about a coffee table book for the living room?
5. Set the Table
Back to your dining room table. A large table can look bare and cold when it isn’t set.
Instead, set it as if it’s ready for a family dinner. Use placemats to add an accent of color. If your table is long, consider using many small vessels down the middle instead of one big center arrangement.
6. Don’t Forget to Look Down
Cleaning, updating, or just covering your floors can go a long way. The least you should do is give all your floorings a deep cleaning.
If you have wood floors, consider having them refinished to bring them back to life. Have the carpets shampooed to refresh them and make them look new.
If you’ve cleaned and they still don’t impress, try using strategically placed rugs. They can cover any spots which don’t look good.
7. Go Gender Neutral
Continuing with the neutral theme, you want your home to speak to everyone, as in, both men and women. The bedroom is the most common place that tends to polarize people.
Go for fresh, clean and crisp linens in a cream or white. Then throw a blanket on the foot of the bed. Avoid using your flowery pink comforter.
Look at the artwork on the wall. Go for more neutral and tasteful artwork that will appeal to both men and women.
8. Don’t Hide Things in the Closet
When you have company coming over, you clean up by shoving everything in the closet to hide it away. This doesn’t work when you have potential buyers coming to look at your home.
They are going to want to peek inside to see what kind of storage space is in your home. The amount of closet space your home has can be a deal breaker for many buyers.
Address this by preparing your closets so you can open them up for buyers. You’ll need to clean out the bulk of the stuff you have in there.
You want to aim for 20-30% of open space in your closet. This will make it look lived in, without being overstuffed. Overstuffed closets make them seem smaller than they actually are.
9. Use the Empty Spaces
If you have empty and unused spaces in your home, figure out a use for them. Buyer’s struggle to imagine a use for a space. So if they see dead space, they will think of it as dead space.
Instead, hold their hand and give them an idea. This means you could create an office nook, a guest room, pet space, or a kids’ playroom.
You don’t have to go all out buying furniture. You could buy some cheap pieces, or borrow some items from a friend. You may even be able to stage the space with furniture you’ve removed from other rooms.
10. Don’t Forget the Backyard
We have worked our way from the front of your home to the back, just as potential buyers would. Take a look at your backyard and create a lifestyle.
This will make your home stand out on sites like needtosellmyhousefast.com as many people forget to stage their yard. You want to create a lifestyle and think seasonally.
If you are trying to sell your home in summer, plant some flowers and place some deck chairs. If it’s winter, you could place a fire pit with some logs in it.
Home Staging Ideas for Your Home
Remember, you want to clean up and neutralize your home. The goal is to make your home appeal to as many potential buyers as possible.
Use these home staging ideas to brighten up and decorate your home. You want to clean out anything making your home seem crowded and smaller than it really is.
At the same time, you want your home to look lived in. This means placing some strategic accents which will draw buyers from one room to the next.
Don’t forget your windows! Use these tips for updating your window treatments.