There is an art to selling homes, especially as inventory in late spring and early summer is expected to rise. While a large portion of that pertains to your agent’s expertise, don’t discount what you, as a seller, can do as well! Once a seller has the right agent, one of the next tasks will be to prepare the home for sale by staging it for showings and listing photos.
Hiring a professional stager is an option, but it isn’t a necessity. If there is furniture in the home, you can easily stage it yourself! Once the house is prepped, usually by deep cleaning, making repairs, and updating paint on the walls, it’s ready to be staged.
Staging essentially means setting up the home to visually please viewers and make it more likely to sell. Staged homes are more likely to sell because the overall layout of the home is maximized by strategically placed furniture and decor, making potential buyers feel more comfortable and able to picture their belongings in there. A few simple changes can make a big impact, without the cost of a professional stager. Here are some easy staging tips you can accomplish this weekend!
1. Declutter your Home
This is the perfect opportunity to complete your spring cleaning and prepare your home for potential buyers! When showing your home, it can be hard for buyers to imagine themselves in your home if they’re surrounded by all of your extra stuff. Create a decluttering action plan and go through every room in the house, including the basement, attic, and garage, and get rid of superfluous items. This will not only make the space seem cleaner and larger, but it’ll also work to your benefit when it comes time to move because you’ll already be organized. You’ll need one pile for donations, one pile for packing items you want to keep but don’t need on display, and one for trash. Everything else stays out.
Take your personal items, wrap them, and box them up. Get rid of anything that’s broken, has missing pieces, and is non-functional. Donate items that are in working, gently-used condition that you don’t need and don’t want to lug into your new home. Keep out items that serve a purpose. Nice wall art, plants, decor, and furniture need to be neutral, not personal, and they need to help the viewer understand how each room can look and feel when they move in.
Remember, less is more. It is often the case that rooms have too many pieces of furniture. Pack away the extra bean bag chairs and side tables. Recycle the old magazines and pack away the magazine rack. Fold away the Disney kids’ table in the dining room. Less furniture makes the rooms seem larger and allows for better flow when buyers are walking through.
2. De-Accessorizing: Create a Blank Canvas for Buyers!
Now, go through your home and make the same piles of your accessories. Trash old notes, lists, papers, and magazines. Doing this makes space for the furniture and neutral decor to speak for themselves. Pack away kids’ artwork and trophies, clear away bottles and medicines from the bathroom sink, and pack books and family photos into boxes for moving. This is especially important in order to depersonalize the home. You don’t want buyers feeling like they’re visiting someone else’s home; you want them to feel like they’re in a clean slate, and to do that, envision a furniture store that is decorated but not packed with knick-knacks or personal items.
3. Make Easy, Yet Impactful Updates
Many sellers don’t realize how many little updates and fixes can add to the appeal of their home, and increase its value! Walk around your home and see if there are any opportunities to make these small upgrades!
- Give your home’s interior a fresh coat of paint. Updated paint, and even certain paint colors, can have a massive effect on how a buyer views your home.
- Replace outlet and light switch cover plates. It might seem like a silly fix, but when a potential buyer enters a room and notices missing or broken cover plates on outlets and light switches, it can leave an unfavorable impression of the property’s overall condition. If the seller hasn’t tackled a small project, such as replacing the cover plates, what other big issues can’t be seen?
- Consider adding multiple light sources to add warmth and brightness to rooms. Use white or clear bulbs instead of ones with yellow or blue hues. Well-staged rooms have layers of light; create ambiance by using overhead lighting, table lamps, and accent lights. Remember to light the outside of the home, too. Most buyers work during the day and do not have the chance to drive by a house except at night. A well-lit home will give the home exterior a warm and inviting appearance.
- The final touch should be a few accents in each room. Instead of stacking folded bath towels, roll them and tuck them into a pretty basket. Set the dining table and make sure the kitchen smells of something delicious. A vase of flowers on the kitchen island and in the front entry goes a long way to make people feel welcome. Tired cabinets can feel instantly refreshed if you change out the hardware. Add a few complementary throw pillows to the couch and to the beds to give the home a plush feel.
4. Do a Deep Clean, and Rearrange Each Room!
Once you’ve gone through every room in the house to declutter and de-accessorize, you’re left with what buyers will see in pictures and for showings. Moving all of your stuff around and packing creates dust, so make sure you do a very deep clean of the home. Remove all the dust, cobwebs, grime, and stains from the floors, surfaces, and walls, and then you’re ready to rearrange.
In each room, you’ll have to organize the furniture so the room seems bigger and so it’s easy for viewers to walk through. Symmetry is important in making people feel that a space is balanced. Place the larger items against the walls and the smaller items in the center. Decorative items can be situated in groups of threes- envision a triangle and vary the heights. Wall art should be appropriately scaled to the space; anything too small looks awkward, and anything too big looks out of place. Make sure the overall appearance is neutral with a neutral color palette so buyers have an easier time imagining their belongings in the home.
5. Consult with your REALTOR® for staging tips, and Potential Photo Enhancement Options!
If there is anyone who knows exactly what it takes to sell your home for the most amount of money in any market, it’s your expert REALTOR®. Consult with them, ask for their tips on how to make your space as functional and visually pleasing as possible. Some agents even have connections to professional photographers to help capture stunning list photos. Additionally, in the age of AI technology, some real estate companies offer list photo enhancements like virtual staging and virtual decluttering. Talk with your REALTOR® and inquire about these options. Remember, marketing your home is one of the most important pieces of the selling process, and effective staging plays a huge role!
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