How to Stage Your Home
Bring the potential buyers inside and make them feel at home
Here are some simple tips one can do when preparing your home for those potential buyers. By now you have figured out what market you are trying to appeal to. You have prepared the outdoors. Let's get the indoors ready as well. The first thing to remember is that you want your viewers to feel at home. Don't make them feel like they are in someone else's home. This can be accomplished with proper staging.
- Give the buyer an emotional attachment to your home. Take down family photos on the hallway and living room walls. Let the buyer imagine their own photos on the wall. Make it look like the buyer's future home, not the sellers. Professional stagers recommend family photos in the bedroom on the dresser for example and even around the entertainment center. These help increase the intimacy of such areas. You want them to feel like a good family place. To get top dollar you need a buyer who wants it to be their home.
- New paint is another added tool. It also will help remove odors of time from cooking we may not recognize. Get rid of those white walls. Walls with color tend to add to the feeling of emotions. Another point to remember is if buyers happen to be "empty nesters" or older, they don't see some colors well, like gray. Use blues, greens and pinks for example.
- Give the house a thorough cleaning. This includes the baseboards and small crevices. Hardwood floors looking dingy? A new coat of polyurethene can go a long way. Make your home pop! Make it look neat and detailed.
- To begin staging, the seller should choose one room to concentrate on most. This can include the backyard. Remember back to who you are trying to sell the house to. Who is your target? Is this room going to benefit the buyer most? Next, remember that the kitchen and bath are two areas the buyer will visit often. Make sure that these are up to date and in working order. Faucets should not leak. Insure that drains flow freely, and all appliances work. Stove have stains that cannot be removed? It is better to invest a few hundred dollars here than to leave something looking unfinished. Buy a new stove. Another tip is to make the kitchen look like furniture as well. Give them an updated look. Paint or stain the upper cabinets one color and the lower ones a deeper shade of the same color. Make sure grouting around sinks and tub are not cracked or peeling. If stained or lifting, freshen it up with new. Use cleaners to remove hard water stains from glass shower doors. Give the impression that the bath is new and unused. Another simple way to give cabinets an update is to simply change the door / drawer pulls. These get stained and discolored with time. Something this simple can help make the cabinets appear new. In the wintertime, add linens like towels and rug to add warmth and softness to the kitchen.
- Master bedrooms are an intimate place and should feel like one. Remember, less is more. DOWNSIZE! Closets should not be cluttered. Extra items like a TV in the bedroom should be removed. Soft warm colors feel more intimate. Children's bedrooms need to be picked up and the bed's made.
- Leave a couple smaller pieces of furniture in each room and remove the rest. Less furniture will make the rooms look larger and allow the buyer to imagine their own items in the room. Most wall accessories should be removed. You want the buyer to take the room in and move on and not focus on details.
- Now it is time for showing. Yellow is a very inviting color and draws the eye. Place yellow flowers near the entry to help buyers feel welcome.
The first thing buyers do when they enter a home is cross the threshold. They will immediately look up and down at what is directly in front of them. A nice entry rug will draw buyers indoor. Once inside, they will typically spend about three or four minutes in each room. The more time a shopper spends in a room, the more potential to interest them, increasing the opportunity to sell the home.
Ever hear about fresh baked cookies? It's true. Fresh baked scents make the house feel more like home. It helps to give the buyer a deep emotional connection. It will make a powerful impression. Some stagers like to use fresh baked bread, others cookies, and some simply use a cookie sheet sprinkled with cinnamon.
Have a fireplace? If it is cold outside, light your fireplace. The image of a warm fire is usually appealing to buyers.
A pleasant odor in the bath is a good idea. Don't use potpourri as many people are allergic to it and airfresheners as well. Use something like fruity bubble bath instead. Run a tub of hot water with the bath. Let the water out and the room will have a pleasing atmosphere.
Something to keep in mind is to reduce the clutter in the garage as well. Some people remove items from the house and cram it into the garage. You may want to rent a storage facility. Cars can clutter the view of the property. Put them in the garage during the day. And leave them out when your home is to be shown.
Your presence can make a buyer uncomfortable. They may not linger long enough, or be honest with their agent. You want them to explore the home. If the shopper thinks you can hear their conversation, they may just move on.
You are now ready to sell your home and have taken all the necessary preparations necessary. Congratulations! Good Luck. |
