The right staging can mean the difference between your home selling quickly or languishing on the market. Sometimes, buyers just need a little assistance with seeing the true potential of your home.
You spent weeks and months deciding to sell your house. You’ve signed a contract with an agent and started looking for your next home. Your agent has scheduled many open houses and tours of your home, but the views just aren’t adding up to offers. What can you do to ensure that buyers are giving your home more than a passing glance? Here are some simple staging ideas that can help potential buyers see themselves in your home.
5. Replace Family Photos with Artwork
You’ve spent years making your house a home and filling it with family photographs has been a big part of that process. Now that your home is on the market, it’s time to clear away those vacation photos and dance recital pictures.
Replacing family photographs with simple artwork will allow potential buyers to see their family in the home. Buyers need to be able to see how they can make their own stamp on the house, so select neutral prints that aren’t too loud or overpowering. This simple staging technique is an effective, low-cost idea to help make your home more appealing to buyers.
4. Go Neutral
Deciding what colors to paint your home is a fun step for every new homeowner. You may love the cheery yellow you selected for the kitchen and the bold plum in the living room, but now may be the time to consider toning those walls down a bit.
Light, neutral shades will not only make your home appear larger, it will also provide potential buyers with a blank slate to begin decorating the house in their own minds. Once a buyer starts to see themselves in the home, the likelihood of you selling begins to grow. Since painting your home is a simple DIY project for most people, it doesn’t have to be an expensive venture. Take a few days, roll up your sleeves, grab those paint brushes, and get to work.
3. Rearrange Furniture
Put your existing furniture to new use when staging your home for an open house. Grab that occasional chair from the den and put it on the landing, drape a soft throw over it, add a small table with a lamp beside it and voila – instant inviting reading nook.
Rethinking your existing furniture layout will give you the opportunity to open up more space, create interesting vignettes throughout the home, and help buyers see all the possibilities your home offers them. Talk about bang for your buck, this staging tip can be accomplished at zero cost.
2. Declutter
Look around your kitchen. Those appliances on the counter, the open storage of dishes, the basket of bread - you might see the beautiful mess of your everyday life, but potential buyers just see clutter.
Now is a great time to begin to take inventory of your home. Deciding what needs to be kept, what can go into storage for the move, and what can be tossed is a great start to decluttering your home. Open storage or general clutter may leave potential buyers with the idea that the home offers less than desired storage or that isn’t big enough for their needs.
1. Boost Curb Appeal
It’s the top piece of advice on almost every staging list for a reason. Your home’s exterior can make or break any potential selling opportunity. Showcase your home’s star power to buyers by making sure that the exterior appeal matches the beauty of the interior.
Something as simple as power washing the siding and planting flowers can help lure buyers into touring your home. Make sure to clean the windows so that buyers can see the views from inside the home without looking through grime. Another tip: Make sure that your house numbers are easy to read. Large metal numbers mounted to a simple dark wood backing offer a modern and minimalist solution without breaking the bank.
Selling your home can be daunting. You can make the process easier by taking some important steps to prepare your home for showing. With a little elbow grease, a few dollars and some time, you’ll be ready to showcase everything there is to love about your home to potential buyers.
Know any staging tips or tricks that we left out? Leave us a comment below and tell us all about it.