More than 6 million homes are bought and sold in the US every year.
For first time home sellers, helping your home stand out from the crowd can be intimidating. Mastering the staging of a home will help buyers see the house as a potential home, hide the home’s weak points, and ultimately sell your property.
If you’re a first-time seller, keep reading to learn 9 staging techniques you need to know.
1. Leave No Corner Untouched
The most important thing you can do when staging a home is too deep clean it from top to bottom.
Nothing will end a sale faster than a potential buyer finding mold in the bathroom, caked in the dirt in the corners, or pronounced stains on the carpet.
Even if they plan to change these elements of the home or the dirt could be cleaned away, it will leave an impression. Buyers may worry that the lack of cleanliness means you haven’t maintained the home as a whole.
2. Focus Your Staging on a Few Main Rooms
If you plan to stage your home with rental furniture, new decorations, or other elements, you don’t necessarily need to do so throughout your home.
Instead of spreading your budget thin, focus your efforts on a few important spaces within your home.
Buyers are often most interested to see the master bedroom, the main living room area, and the kitchen. If your home features unique rooms that you think helps it to stand out, like a big office or a formal dining room, you might stage these areas as well.
You can leave the rest of your rooms as is, empty, or with very light staging. Buyers will be focused enough on the main areas that they won’t care if the entire home isn’t outfitted.
3. Open Your Space
Whether you’re renting furniture to stage your space or using your own, it’s important to make sure that you aren’t overcrowding your space.
You want your rooms to be as open as possible. This will help make them look larger and keep your potential buyers from feeling claustrophobic.
Open floor plans are all the rage right now. Even if your home doesn’t have one, with a little smart furniture placement, you can fake an open appeal in your space.
4. Don’t Forget Your Curb Appeal
The curb appeal of your home is incredibly important during a listing.
When you’re staging a house for sale pictures, a photo of the exterior of your home is often the first one on every realtor listing. When it comes time for open houses or walkthroughs, the outside of your home is the very first thing potential buyers will see.
First impressions are important. If buyers aren’t impressed by the outside, they’re going to carry that negativity with them while they tour the inside of your home. Even if the inside is impeccable, they may have trouble seeing past faded paint, old siding, or sloppy landscaping.
Cleaning up the outside of your home is a must, especially if you want to sell your home for top-dollar. Check out this website to learn more about exterior paint services to refresh your home’s facade.
5. Clear Away Clutter
Sometimes you have no choice but to continue living in your home while it’s listed for sale. If you won’t be moving out, there are a few important things you need to know about how to stage a house for sale while living in it.
The most important thing you need to do, even before you start staging your home, is to clear away clutter.
Pack away picture frames off of shelves and end tables. Clear away paperwork or other belongings that have accumulated on your kitchen or dining room table. Put toiletries away in drawers and cabinets and keep them off of countertops.
It will be impossible to hide the fact that you’re living in your home. But you don’t want potential buyers to be so distracted by your personal belongings that they can’t see the home itself.
5. Un-Gender Your Master Bedroom
In many couples, the wife controls the interior decorating, and her personal style is rarely more pronounced than in the bedroom.
If your master bedroom features feminine colors, frilly bedspreads, and cutesy decorations, consider doing some light remodeling to make the bedroom attractive for any gender.
Even though these are cosmetic and the buyer could easily change them on his or her own, it can sometimes be tough for buyers to see past the surface in a home, and especially in an important room like the master bedroom.
You don’t want to scare away bachelor’s, gay couples, or even women who aren’t a fan of overly feminine decor.
7. Keep it Neutral
Your own personal style may not necessarily be the style of a potential buyer. And while they could certainly change the paint, floors, and decor if they buy the home, the decor of your staged home has a big effect on buyer perception.
Buyers want to be able to imagine themselves living in a home. To make this easier for them, keep your staging style as clean and neutral as possible.
8. Let the Light Shine In
Nothing will complement your fresh, clean, neutral staging than natural light.
Pulling back the curtains, opening the shades, and letting sunlight fill your home during open houses or walkthroughs will brighten your rooms and put your buyers in a better mood.
In rooms that don’t get a lot of natural light, repainting the walls in light colors and adding plenty of artificial lighting will help keep them from looking dark and boring to buyers.
9. Don’t Neglect the Basement
Whether it’s finished or not, a basement is a great asset to buyers. But if you’ve been using your basement for storage, especially while listing your home for sale, buyers won’t really be able to see it.
You don’t necessarily have to stage your basement. However, by clearing out clutter, cleaning the space, and lighting it well, you’ll allow buyers to see the area as usable space.
Staging Techniques that Help Sell Your Home
Implementing as many of these staging techniques as you can help your home look its best and attract more potential buyers.
But if you aren’t sure whether some smart staging will be enough to sell your home as-is, you might be considering a remodel. Check out this post next to learn when a renovation is worth it and when to sell as-is.
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