When you need to sell your home, it needs to look its best to potential buyers. This is hardly groundbreaking news, but what is alarming is that many sellers and real estate agents don’t know how to stage a home. It’s not as easy as many think, and just because they’ve seen some examples on social media, does not a staging expert make! Here’s what expert-level real estate agents and highly motivated sellers do when staging a home for sale.
“De-personalize” your home
The experts from moving.com (a part of realtor.com) will tell you a major tip for staging a home is to “de-personalize” it. A primary objective of staging a home is to allow potential buyers’ imaginations to run wild. The best way to get this to happen is to set as blank a canvas as possible in your home. Sellers should want the home to retain some style and charm, but be clear of personal touches that suggest prior ownership.
To start “de-personalizing” a home, remove obvious personal items like photos. Ensure clothes are in closets or stored out of sight, and bathroom counters cleared. Remove anything religious also as this will ensure you won’t polarize potential buyers. Finally, make sure there are no piles of anything or clutter around.
Curb appeal matters
HGTV says that first impressions matter when selling your home, and that’s not when buyers enter the home, rather when they pull up outside. Add some sweat equity before buyers arrive and make the exterior look nice. Pressure washing sidings and other exteriors, cleaning the gutters, and washing the windows are highly recommended.
Remove weeds and dead plants from garden areas and try to remove leaves if it’s a certain time of the year.
There are a few other cosmetic things you can do also. Ensure all the outdoor lights work, the number of the house is visible, the welcome mat isn’t too shabby and worn, and make sure the doorbell works.
Not all these features are going to be touched or looked at by potential buyers, but it’s those small details being complete that suggest to buyers the house they are buying was looked after.
Let there be light
Investopedia recommends you take advantage of your home’s natural light when buyers are inside. So open up all the blinds and curtains and let those freshly cleaned windows do their job.
In more dimly lit areas of the house or rooms that don’t get much natural light, make sure the lights are on. Brightness adds to the positive aura of the house, thereby making it a more attractive purchase.
Dust the lights off and ensure all the switches are working. Replace globes and remember to use soft lighting, as neon lighting can be overly stark and annoying.
Focus on extra rooms
North of NYC says that not enough sellers utilize the extra or spare rooms properly during the staging process. Don’t treat spare rooms as dumping grounds whilst staging, as it will come across to buyers that the seller is poorly prepared.
Each room in a home should be shown to have a distinct purpose. If it’s supposed to be an office room then make it look like one with a desk and chair at the very least. If it’s a guest bedroom or kid’s bedroom, it should look like one.
If this means you need to borrow furnishings just for the staging, then call in some favors with friends or family.
When it comes to finding genuine experts in real estate, especially when it comes to staging a home, Lantern Real Estate Group is the best in the metro Atlanta area. Let us help you stage your home and every other step in the selling process today.
