Home Staging Tips To Help You Sell Your House Fast
Home staging is an important element in house selling, fail to do it right or at all and you’ll be left waiting much longer to make that sale. Good home staging can also lead to an increase in the price, get more people interested in the home and the price goes up. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recently released their 2017 report on home staging which found that (among other things) 39% of seller’s agents believe staging reduces a property’s time on the market and 21% reported a price increase of 6-10%.
A small increase like that might not seem like much but considering how little investment it takes to stage your home properly, that can add up to a tidy ROI. If it’s to be successful though, it’s important to understand what home staging is trying to achieve. You want to entice the imagination of a prospective buyer by letting them imagine themselves living in your home. It’s not just about making everything look tidy and pretty, but creating a neutral space that can allow buyers to envision what they could do with it.
There’s a lot to home staging but a great place to start is with these useful tips.
- Perform A Deep Clean. Before starting on anything begin by doing a deep clean of each room you’ll be staging. The most important rooms for staging are the living room, master bedroom, and kitchen, so focus on these. Remove all clutter and anything that doesn’t serve a purpose or add to the aesthetics. If you have a carpet you might consider having a professional deep clean done.
- Depersonalize Each Room. It’s hard for buyers to imagine themselves living in the home, if there are family portraits and other personal items in sight. Remove anything that doesn’t add to the functionality and aesthetics of the room. If you have a particular style or theme, then scale it back a bit. The final result should look simple, organized and inviting.
- Set Table In Dining Area. A small way to show the functionality of the dining room or kitchen is to set the table, as if for dinner. This allows prospective buyers to imagine themselves living there. It also makes the home look warmer and inviting. Just a simple white tablecloth and your best wine glasses and cutlery will do.
- Lighting. Natural light always looks better, so try to arrange a room to make the most use of it. Pull back all the drapes and curtains and strategically place furniture where it will be most easily seen in the light. You can use this to draw attention to those areas you want buyers to see, while distracting them from others. If any area looks too dim, add a fluorescent light to create a warm and sedated glow.
- Furniture. The furniture in each room, should look new and modern looking where possible. You don’t have to shell out a lot of money, to upgrade some furniture pieces. You may be able to rent them, through a staging agency.
- Re-Purpose Unused Rooms. If you’ve got a room that you rarely use and usually only for storage, you can try re-purposing it into something that can add value to your home. All it takes is a bit of cleaning, some new furniture, and good lighting to transform dingy and dark rooms into something else entirely.
- Some Final Touches. On the opening day, add few final touches to the home to make it feel more inviting. Place a welcoming mat at the front entrance, leave a bowl of fresh fruit on the kitchen table, have a nice scent and have freshly folded towels in the bathroom.
Staging a house, doesn’t call for a huge investment. Just a few small improvements, can completely transform the way your home looks and how buyers look at it. If you need some guidance, it can be well worth hiring a professional stager. If you’re trying to save money though, you can get away with a few small improvements like these.