7 Staging Tips for Selling Your Home

For sellers trying to increase a home’s selling price and decrease selling time, home staging may be one of the best solutions. Home staging is arranging furniture and decor to showcase a home for sale in the best possible light. Home staging isn’t decorating, but rather setting the conditions so that prospective buyers can imagine themselves in it. You can hire someone to stage your home for you, or can you do it yourself. Most experienced Realtors will know who the best home stagers are in your area. Generally speaking, it is best to meet with your Realtor before you consider hiring a home stager.

Hiring a Professional Home Stager

 
Average home-staging fees range from around $500 to a few thousand dollars for homes priced under a million dollars. However, that price can go up quickly if extensive staging such as new paint and furniture or expensive landscaping is needed. If you’re already strapped for cash, adding this expense to the mix may not be possible, so see the tips below on how you can do it yourself. One benefit of home stagers is that they often have their own supplies: furniture, accessories, rugs and art that you can lease while your property is on the market. This saves you the time and expense of looking for “neutral” items. They also provide objective insight, which is often the one things most sellers are unable to do for themselves.

7 Valuable DIY Home Staging Tips:

Tip #1 – Ask family and friends for honest opinions about what needs to be changed. Most homeowners are too emotionally involved to be objective about their home’s contents. It’s best to think of your home as simply a product on the market.

Tip #2 – Spend little to no money on extra furniture and accessories. There are three major exceptions:

1. If you’re selling a multimillion-dollar property, inexpensive or outdated furniture will negatively affect the sales price. Rent upscale furniture for a few months.

2. Out of date appliances will also drop the home value. Buyers like to see stainless steel, but as long as everything looks current and is in excellent working order, you should not have a problem selling the kitchen area.

3. Extreme color in your home makes it difficult for buyers to imagine themselves living there. Violet carpets, orange counters, pink tubs and blue toilets put off buyers due to the time and expense of replacing them. Most experts recommend investing in neutral paint and floors and replacing unusual furniture with less eye-catching pieces.
Tip #3 – Rent storage space. Although you may have the space to stash everything you need to hide, you’ll want to free up that space so buyers can see it. A storage unit is a better alternative.

Tip #4 – Clean, clean, clean. This is the cardinal rule of home staging. This means much more than just vacuuming and scrubbing the bathroom. Clean under the countertops, replace shower curtains, clean the grout between tiles, steam-clean the carpets, wash the windows (inside and out), dust the ceiling fans and crown molding, polish all fixtures and clean then interior and exterior of all appliances. Eliminate every sign of dirt. Some homeowners miss spots because they forget that places even exist — for instance, windowsills and closet interiors. Hiring a professional maid service is a good investment if you’re not up to doing all this yourself.

Tip #5 – Showcase the space, not the stuff. Clear out your things so buyers don’t have to look past your family photos to see your home. To prevent potential buyers from getting distracted, you should remove all memorabilia. Clear the kitchen counters of appliances so buyers see the counter space instead of the appliances. After purging, you may be left with empty walls, so many home stagers will find cheap art outside — it can be as simple as gathering leaves and enclosing them in simple frames. Most stagers also recommend depersonalizing bathrooms by replacing personal hygiene items with plants or pottery.

Tip #6 – Let there be light. Maximize natural light by opening curtains and shades. Weather permitting, open windows to let in fresh air, an added bonus because it removes your scent, which can further distract buyers. Also, turn on all the lights in the house to make rooms appear brighter and bigger.

Tip #7 – Arrange furniture so it’s easy for potential buyers to navigate a room. Remove excess furniture that make a room feel overcrowded. (Put it in the storage unit – see tip #3.) If there’s too much furniture or decor on one side, it can feel lopsided. Move pieces to make it feel balanced and so there is good flow for walking through the home. Group decorative objects in sets of three at varying heights which is pleasing to the eye but not distracting or cluttering.

Bonus Tip – How to get rid of carpet dents. After rearranging your furniture, you are left with dents in the carpet. Simply put an ice cube on each indentation. After the ice melts and dries, fluff up the carpet fibers with the edge of a spoon.

At Linton Hall, Realtors we offer home staging options to our sellers that are seeking to achieve the top level in showcasing their respective properties. We work with only the best local stagers. Our team will point you in the right direction and assist you with merchandising your home for all it is worth!

About Ashley Leigh
Ashley Leigh is one of North America’s most productive residential Realtors of all time selling over 4,500 homes and over $2 Billion in sales in his 20 year career. Ashley’s highest level sales performance has earned him mentions in The Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, and The Washington Post. Ashley continues to work full-time along with his local sales team.