How to Best Stage Your Home for Sale
Image credit: tracishulkin.com
By Philip Piletic
There are always a lot of things to think about when selling your house, but presentation is key. To get the best value for your property and impress a buyer, you're going to have to make your home look as ideal as possible, both inside and out. Staging a house properly to sell can be difficult - you don't want it to have all of your personal effects in it, but you also don't want to have the house entirely bare in most cases. Generally, the best way to think about it is to stage your house like it's a model home.
Have A Plan
First off, you will want to come up with a strategic list of things you want or need to do to your house before you actually take action. Identify your potential buyers and try and think like them. Think how you're going to stage your home in order to best appeal to your target audience. Listen to the advice of any appraiser, inspector or retailer and incorporate it into any plans you may have come up with. Also be realistic when it comes to your budget and your time. How much money and effort do you want to put into getting your house sold? Are there more serious structural issues that need to be addressed? What exactly is worth fixing and what isn't? Those are all questions you will want to answer and address.
Let's Start With The Outside
Houses and other buildings for sale have what is called "curb appeal." It basically means that your home should look appealing on the outside, or "from the curb." Power wash your siding, clean or replace your gutters, mow your lawn, weed your garden and paint exterior surfaces to make your home look more appealing. Something as simple as repainting your front door can make a world of difference. The old adage is true: first impressions are important.
Moving Indoors
Inside, the first thing you'll want to do is get the place as clean as you can make it. Get rid of all clutter, vacuum rugs, sweep and mop floors and scrub kitchen and bathroom surfaces. Be very conscious of smells: don't cook anything in your kitchen on a day when you're showing that will leave a strong odor. Your usual house odor will likely be difficult if not impossible for you to detect, so bring over a friend or someone else neutral who doesn't live at your house all the time to point out any scents that might hover in the air.
Make The House Feel Open
After removing clutter, take out or rearrange any furniture that makes a room feel too small. Open blinds and shades to let as much natural light into your house as possible, as it allows people to see more details and makes spaces feel open and bigger. Open floor plans and plenty of space are "in" with modern home buyers, so it's important to do what you can to give your home the illusion of being roomier than it actually is.
Arrange Stuff Simply And Neatly
For example, most buyers feel that the more closet space, the better, so either remove your clothes and other items from closets or arrange them neatly and with purpose. Arrange furniture and wall furnishings simply. Buyers want to envision the house being theirs, so anything that is too personal, such as family photos, should be kept out of sight. Leaving personal possessions around can make buyers feel as though they are intruding on your space. As pointed out here, you shouldn’t assume that potential buyers will be in love with your possessions as you are. Keep your decorating generic and simple. Any unusual or attention-grabbing furniture or items should be removed. Also take out any old or tarnished furniture - it will not leave potential buyers with the best impression of your house.
At the end of the day, listen to your real estate agent, if you chose to hire one. He or she can give you the most specific professional advice on how to go about staging your home to appeal to the types of people who will be most interested in buying it. If you're having trouble staging your house or it's been on the market for a while, there are even specialized professional home stagers who can be enlisted for their services. With a little bit of imagination, you can easily stage your home to best appeal to buyers.
Have A Plan
First off, you will want to come up with a strategic list of things you want or need to do to your house before you actually take action. Identify your potential buyers and try and think like them. Think how you're going to stage your home in order to best appeal to your target audience. Listen to the advice of any appraiser, inspector or retailer and incorporate it into any plans you may have come up with. Also be realistic when it comes to your budget and your time. How much money and effort do you want to put into getting your house sold? Are there more serious structural issues that need to be addressed? What exactly is worth fixing and what isn't? Those are all questions you will want to answer and address.
Let's Start With The Outside
Houses and other buildings for sale have what is called "curb appeal." It basically means that your home should look appealing on the outside, or "from the curb." Power wash your siding, clean or replace your gutters, mow your lawn, weed your garden and paint exterior surfaces to make your home look more appealing. Something as simple as repainting your front door can make a world of difference. The old adage is true: first impressions are important.
Moving Indoors
Inside, the first thing you'll want to do is get the place as clean as you can make it. Get rid of all clutter, vacuum rugs, sweep and mop floors and scrub kitchen and bathroom surfaces. Be very conscious of smells: don't cook anything in your kitchen on a day when you're showing that will leave a strong odor. Your usual house odor will likely be difficult if not impossible for you to detect, so bring over a friend or someone else neutral who doesn't live at your house all the time to point out any scents that might hover in the air.
Make The House Feel Open
After removing clutter, take out or rearrange any furniture that makes a room feel too small. Open blinds and shades to let as much natural light into your house as possible, as it allows people to see more details and makes spaces feel open and bigger. Open floor plans and plenty of space are "in" with modern home buyers, so it's important to do what you can to give your home the illusion of being roomier than it actually is.
Arrange Stuff Simply And Neatly
For example, most buyers feel that the more closet space, the better, so either remove your clothes and other items from closets or arrange them neatly and with purpose. Arrange furniture and wall furnishings simply. Buyers want to envision the house being theirs, so anything that is too personal, such as family photos, should be kept out of sight. Leaving personal possessions around can make buyers feel as though they are intruding on your space. As pointed out here, you shouldn’t assume that potential buyers will be in love with your possessions as you are. Keep your decorating generic and simple. Any unusual or attention-grabbing furniture or items should be removed. Also take out any old or tarnished furniture - it will not leave potential buyers with the best impression of your house.
At the end of the day, listen to your real estate agent, if you chose to hire one. He or she can give you the most specific professional advice on how to go about staging your home to appeal to the types of people who will be most interested in buying it. If you're having trouble staging your house or it's been on the market for a while, there are even specialized professional home stagers who can be enlisted for their services. With a little bit of imagination, you can easily stage your home to best appeal to buyers.
Author Bio: Philip Piletic is a freelancer, writer and traveler who loves to share his experience with others by contributing to several blogs and helping others achieve success.