10 Staging Tips to Get Your Home Ready to Sell

Ready to sell your house? Here are a few staging tips to get your home prepared for the market. When listing a home that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, you want to make sure it is presented in the best light. You wouldn’t buy a $50,000 dollar car if it was filled from top to bottom in someone’s mess and personal affects. This is the same mindset you need to carry into selling your home that will be worth well over a $100,000.

1. SAY GOOD BYE TO CLUTTER

The best thing you can do for your home is to get rid of all of your clutter! Make a rule for your home that for every new piece that comes in, one must go. One of the biggest problems with a cluttered home is too much furniture. Generally, in a professional staging, half the home owner’s furniture is removed to make the house look much bigger. Look around your house and see what you can pack away. It will be worth the investment to get a storage unit for a couple of months to store away unneccessary furnishings and goods.

2. FURNITURE GROUPINGS

It’s a common misconception that furniture pushed directly up against walls make a room look bigger, but this is far from true. Instead, you’ll want to float your furniture away from the walls. Position your sofas and chairs into cozy conversational groupings. Be sure the furnishings are placed to make the traffic flow in a room obvious. This will make the room more inviting and will make it look larger.

3. TRANSFORM ROOMS

If you have a room that has only served to collect boxes or other junk, it’s important to purpose the room for something that is functional. You can make it into an extra bedroom, home office, reading room, etc. If it’s in the basement, hide the boxes and turn it into a gaming room or family area.

4. HOME LIGHTING

Great lighting is the trick to making a staged home look warm and welcome. Most homes are suffer from poor lighting, which makes rooms look dark and dreary. There is a quick fix to this issue. Increase the wattage in your fixtures and lamps, aiming for about 100 watts per 50 square feet. Add three different types of lighting to each room: ambient (general overhead), task (under cabinets or pendants), and accent lighting (table lamps and wall accents).

5. GO NEUTRAL

The simple trick to toning down dated finishing in any space is a little bit of fresh paint. You don’t want to go stark white, but look into neutral grey and beige colors. Beige colors can also consist of warm honey-like colors, soft blues and greens, and a variety of undertones that add a little life to a general neutral color. If you do want to use bold colors, be sure to only keep it on accent walls to help enhance structural features.

6. MAKE IT LOOK BIGGER

If you want to make a room bigger than it is, paint the room the same color as an adjacent room. For small kitchens and dining rooms, a seamless look will make the space feel like one, much larger, open room. Using drapes that match the wall colors can also add an emphasis to the room’s size.

7. USE YOUR GARDEN

Staged homes often feature fresh flowers and beautiful floral arrangements. If you don’t have the money to go all out on florals, you can get this same effect by taking advantage of what’s in your garden. You can DIY beautiful pieces with fern fronds, tulips, daffodils, and more. Use the spring and summer months to find cheerful flowers and use them in your arrangements.

8. GET A FACELIFT

So you can’t afford new cabinets? Just get new doors and drawer fronts. Then paint everything to match and add new hardware. Instead of replacing the entire dishwasher, you may be able to get a new front panel, go for stainless steel if you can. Check with the manufacturer to see if replacements are available for your model.

9. MAKE NECESSARY REPAIRS

Unfinished home projects can scare off potential home buyers, so you’ll want to be sure to wrap up your repairs. Missing floorboards and large cracks in the sidewalk on the way to your door tend to be a red flag. Holes in walls and scratched up door frames look unattractive. These repairs cost you less to fix than buyers might deduct from the asking price.

10. CLEAN YOUR HOME

Aside from decluttering, the most important step to staging your home is to clean it. A dirty house is a quick turn-off for potential buyers. Many homes have a smell that may go undetected to home owners, but are quickly picked up by newcomers. Be sure to have your home professionally cleaned prior to staging to make the best impression on the buyers who will be seeing it.