Simple home staging techniques can have a big impact on how quick you sell your home. After your home hits the market, among the next steps is deciding on how to present your property to showcase its best attributes. Create the perfect presentation with these easy home staging tips:
1. Declutter
Clear out anything that doesn’t need to be there. This is your best home staging start. Anything without a clear purpose should be removed, whether it’s a mess, furniture, storage, gym equipment, clothing, broken electronics, and/or anything else that might be waiting to be tossed. For inspiration, check out Marie Kondo’s Netflix series Tidying Up.
2. What’s that scent?
Smells count for a lot. Baking a loaf of bread, a tray of cookies, or setting out some coffee are all traditional ways to give a space a warm, inviting, and homey feel. People base a surprising amount of behaviour and emotion around smells so just remember to get rid of anything that could funk up the place. Say goodbye to any gym clothes or smelly shoes!
3. Furniture that fits right
When you’re staging your home, give your furniture an honest look and if something doesn’t fit, remove it. Every piece of furniture should fit the space perfectly. Although you may be attached to a piece of furniture, selling a home is not about showcasing your story in the space. Instead, any home should be presented as a neutral space wherein prospective buyers can see themselves.
4. Fresh flowers
Fresh flowers add another buy-friendly fragrance into the air but perhaps more important, they make for a nice aesthetic. Flowers can establish a presentation in the entryway that immediately catches the eye and gets prospective buyers wondering what’s coming up around the corner.
5. Kitchen/bathrooms
Kitchens and bathrooms are two rooms every buyer is going to be interested in seeing. For kitchens, remove any small appliances or anything cluttering up the counter. In a bathroom, you want to remove any medications and get rid of any toothpaste stains. For kitchens and bathrooms, these are rooms which should have counters empty and be as clean as possible.
6. Outside the entranceway
We focus so much on the interior of our homes, we sometimes forget what the outside looks like. Any patio furniture should be presented in the best way. You may want to add in some bright colors to help give the property a livelier and more inviting look.
7. Landscaping
Curb appeal should scream ‘wow!’ and set a high expectation for the buyer. Moving and trimming the lawn, ensuring gardens are used just right, weeding and patching the driveway, and ensuring the roof is clear of debris and clean are all strong strategies to maximizing curb appeal. This can come at a high expense however is well worth the investment.
8. Clear away personal items
Family photos and similar personal items should be removed from a space. Although you don’t want a home to feel uninhabited, to a prospective buyer, you don’t want anything that’s going to break the illusion that this home could be their home. Keep artwork, side tables, coffee tables, and similar areas prepped accordingly.
9. A home’s nuts and bolts
Sometimes, we invest so much time into making our homes look impeccable in aesthetic that it becomes easy to forget about a lot of the details. Check all your appliances to make sure they look great, any wear on carpets or flooring should ideally be cleaned and/or handled, toilets and sinks should be working, no leaks on any water fixtures should be present, light fixtures and electrical should all be working, and fire and carbon monoxide alarms should be operative.
10. Closets
It might seem nosy but yes, people oftentimes will look in the closet. Give your wardrobe a thorough look and try to keep the closet 20-30 percent empty if possible. You don’t want it to appear messy or overcrowded.
11. Re-painting your interior
For some homeowners, they may choose to re-paint certain rooms in neutral, brighter colors to make things look newer. Doing so can be a great way to cover up any marks on the wall. Remember, bright rooms lead to sales-friendly activity. The brighter your rooms are, even if it’s accomplished by something as simple as letting natural light in, the better equipped you are to close someone right then and there.
12. Patios
If you have a front porch or patio, don’t forget to give these areas a glance to declutter them as well. Storage boxes or bins, or messes here, should be removed as it will be an immediate red flag to any experienced buyer that your property does not have enough storage – even if it does.
13. Be strategic in what you highlight
Go for minimalism. You don’t need to fill every part of the house in amazing details. Be selective with what you include and think about things like shape, color, and size. Try to arrange your furniture so that the most social areas of the home are emphasized.