Mon, 08 Jul 2024
Home Staging is the act of preparing a home to present it in the best possible light, usually to help it sell fast and at the best possible price. Sometimes even the most attractive property can sit on the market for months with little interest, but a little home staging can go a long way in attracting potential buyers.
Here are my top tips for home staging:
Not all rooms are considered equal when it comes to home staging. Focus your efforts on the rooms that have the biggest potential to influence buyers’ decisions, and spend less time on the rooms that won’t make much of a difference. The rooms that hold the most importance for buyers are the living room, master bedroom, and kitchen. These are the rooms that you want to focus the most on when you’re staging a home. Don’t worry as much about the rooms that have less influence, such as guest bedrooms, children’s bedrooms, and bathrooms.
One of the primary objectives of home staging is to help prospective buyers visualise the space as their own. The fastest way to accomplish this is to set as blank of a canvas as you can. You want the home to have style and charm, but it should be devoid of personal touches that suggest this home belongs to the seller, not the buyer.
Start by removing any personal photos, making sure to take down both framed photos on walls and surfaces and anything that’s hanging on your fridge. Keep clothes stored away and out of sight, and clear bathroom counters of personal items.
Clutter takes up space, and space is what sells. Make your home look bigger and more desirable by editing down to just the basics. You don’t have to get rid of things forever, but you should consider packing them up and getting them out of the house.
This includes any un-seasonal clothes (no need to crowd your front hall with winter coats in the summer), most of your décor (you can keep a few select pieces if they’re subtle or minimalistic), papers, games, and pretty much anything else that you don’t need on a day to day basis. The less clutter you’ve got in the space, the bigger it will look and the more appealing it will be to buyers.
Spring cleaning has nothing on the cleaning you should do when you’re putting your home on the market. You want every square inch to shine, from the skirting boards to the corners of your ceilings and everywhere in between. A squeaky clean home suggests to buyers that the current tenants took good care of the property, a notion that extends beyond the kitchen counter tops to the entire house. If you’ve neglected certain tasks, like cleaning the inside of your refrigerator or regularly dusting your window blinds, now is the time to tackle them.
Home staging is a good time to tackle the tiny nicks, scratches and holes that signal neglect to buyers. You may need to do some paint touch ups too, if you notice areas where previously applied paint has chipped. Just like with cleaning, the purpose is as much about showing potential buyers that you’ve put effort into maintaining the property as it is about making the place look nice
This is a bit more time and cost intensive, but it can make a major difference when it comes to your sale price and time on the market. Bright colours on walls help people express their personality in their homes, but they can be a major turn-off for buyers. Buyers might want bright colours themselves, but a neutral home gives them the option to do that – or not.
The first thing a buyer is going to see when they walk up to your house is the front entrance, so you want it to make a strong positive impression. Remove any sort of seasonal decorations, which can date a house in both pictures and during viewings. If you have a front stoop, consider power washing it, or at least scrubbing off any dirt. Then 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 do you no favours!). Keep the space simple but welcoming to start buyers off on the right foot and suggest good things are to come inside.
A few healthy, well-placed plants and flowers can add life and freshness into the space. Space them out so as not to clutter any one particular area, but try to have a couple fresh items in areas that matter. Place a vase full of big, bright flowers in the centre of your kitchen table, a small potted plant or some succulents in the living room, and perhaps a larger potted plant in the corner of the living room as well. Don’t have the time or green thumb to maintain fresh plants? Faux plants will do!
Also ensure there are no nasty smells. A deep clean should take care of any lingering smells, but also be sure to always clear out your bins before showings so buyers aren’t hit with any offensive whiffs.
Dark rooms are sad rooms. Brighten up by letting as much light shine in the house as possible. Open the blinds on all of the windows, which in addition to letting in more light will also make rooms seem bigger. Turn on all the lights in your house for showings, including lamps and cupboard lights. This well help make your home more welcoming, and also saves buyers trying to figure out which switches turn on which lights.
You want there to be as much open, walkable space as possible. This helps buyers navigate the space, and also helps them better visualise their own furniture in each room. Put extraneous furniture in storage to get it out of the way, focusing on getting rid of any oversized pieces, damaged pieces, and those that that don’t match the rest of the room. With the furniture that’s left, rearrange it to make the room look and feel as spacious as possible.
So, staging a home to sell doesn’t require spending a lot of money, it simply means making smart decisions.
Good luck with staging your home and if you would prefer someone else to do your home staging for you, drop me a line at michelle@giraffeinteriors.com.
Have a great day!
Michelle x
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