When you live in your home, you design and decorate it in your own way that reflects your personality and lifestyle and impresses your visitors and guests at the same time. But when you plan to sell the same abode, you want it to look absolute best for any potential buyer that walks through the door. And that’s where home staging comes in.
Preparing your home for sale takes a lot more than just putting up a ‘FOR SALE’ sign on your lawn, vacuuming all your rooms and fixing a few sockets and plugs here and there. When real estate agents talk about “staging a house”, they refer to a process that prepares you abode to showcase its best assets, and influence buyers to pay the highest possible price while getting it out of the market quickly.
While time and money will decide what level of staging is practical for your home, the following tips will help make sure your home is comfortably set and perfectly arranged to enter the market and get best price from potential buyers.
DECLUTTER
Clutter takes up space and space is what a buyer is going to pay for. When a potential buyer walks in, you want them to focus on the best features of your home around the entire space and feel that the property has been maintained and cared for properly. Not only does clutter make it look like that your house doesn’t have enough space to store things properly, but it also distracts the buyer from paying attention to the most impressive assets of your home.
So to make sure your home look more appealing and desirable, you must start with minimizing clutter. This involves removing unwanted things that haven’t been used in a year - from papers to clothes and furniture, toys and other items.
DEPERSONALIZE
From a buyer’s point of view, occupied homes are a representation of someone else’s taste and mementos. For prospective buyers to be interested in buying your property, they need to visualize it as their own space. The more personal stuff you have in your home, the more difficult it becomes for the potential buyer to envision themselves living in that space. That said, taking the ‘home’ out of your house (depersonalizing) your home becomes an important step of staging. You want your house to keep that aesthetic appeal of a beautiful home, but it should be devoid of any personal touches that make it look like the property belongs to the seller and not the buyer.
Begin by taking away family photos, personalized wall hanging and crafts and anything that’s hanging on your refrigerator. Clear bathroom of personal items like toothbrushes and magazines and keep clothes stored away and out of sight. Similarly, remove any toys and decorative collectibles that are suggestive of the home’s current inhabitants. Take away a lot of your personal stuff might make it look a little plain and weird to live in, but it will definitely help potential buyers to better connect with the property and focus on things they should.
REARRANGE FURNITURE
Remember the main purpose of staging or preparation is to get your property sold quickly for a good price. So it makes sense to make rearrange your living room sofa, kitchen chairs or other furniture pieces to make more space for buyers to conveniently move around and better visualize their own furniture in each room. Put any extraneous furniture, oversized furniture, damaged or old pieces or the ones that don’t match with the theme of the room out of sight. Rearrange the furniture that is left in a strategic way to make the space feel as spacious and organized as possible.
It is also advised to get rid of cheap furniture. It doesn’t take a lot of money to switch out your existing furniture, especially when you are investing in Amish furniture. Bringing in a couple of Amish dining chairs or adding a heirloom buffet and some bar stools to your kitchen setting, can instantly enhance the value of your home. Moreover, the aim is to make your furniture look impressive, functional and inviting and arrange it in a way that it feels homey and easy to navigate.
STAGE WHERE IT COUNTS
When it comes to preparing your home for real estate listing, not all rooms may have the potential to influence buyers’ decision. Spend less time and effort on rooms that don’t get much of buyers’ attention. According to the research, the kitchen, living room and master bedroom hold the most importance when it comes to buying a home. While guest bedrooms, kids’ rooms and bathroom don’t make much of a difference, but they should still be treated to basic cleaning and organization when staging your home.
THE TAKEAWAY
Not all home owners who intend to sell their property take up the staging step. This means staging your home will put you at an instant advantage. Moreover, remember that staging is not about splurging on new remodeling additions; it just requires making smart decisions and a few changes that emphasize the best features of your abode while making it look usable and aesthetic to the widest range of buyers.