Preparing your house for selling can be a daunting and overwhelming task whether you have lived in your home a few years or many. The longer you have lived in your home the more things you will have acquired. The intent of this Top 10 Tips for Successful Home Staging is to help you save TIME, MONEY and ENERGY.
In preparing your house for selling, you need to take a step back and have the mindset that this is no longer your home, but your investment for your future. You want your home to have broad buyer appeal to your target market. Following these 10 Tips for Successful Home Staging will help you sell your house sooner and possibly for more money than if you did not prepare it for selling! Remember most people want to move into their new home without having to make updates to it.
- Curb Appeal
Stand back and view your home as if you were seeing it for the first time. This is the ‘first impression’ stage. Depending on the season, you may want to have lots of colourful and attractive flowers to greet buyers; a clean and inviting doormat; new and shiny door handles and/or knockers; a freshly painted door.
- Declutter
Start your pre-pack as soon as possible. You need to decide what you are going to keep, give away, sell or throw away/recycle. Many clients will rent storage lockers or have pods delivered so they can start to clear out what is not going to make the house look good.
- Clean
A clean home translates into ‘they must have really cared for their home.” Use environmentally friendly cleaners where you can, for hard cleaning areas, tsp is a good product. Bathrooms and kitchens must be sparkling clean at the very least.
- Depersonalize
We know you love your family photos and your personal treasures and for living they are perfect. For selling pack them up carefully so you can showcase them in your new home. You want buyers to focus on the best features of your home and not your personal things or collections.
- A neutral colour scheme is the way to go for selling.
Choose only three colours or less to paint your house for selling. If you have an open floor plan then paint the main floor all the same colour. Bedrooms look good in light sage greens or warm blues.
- Highlight your home’s best architectural features
Place your furniture in each room so that you have very obvious focal points that show off the home’s best selling features. For example, if you have a beautiful fireplace, then place the furniture in a parallel grouping so that the eye is drawn to the fireplace.
- Decide on the function in each room
If you were using your guest bedroom as your living room, turn it back into a bedroom with bedroom furniture in it. If you do not have the right furniture for each room, consider renting or borrowing it. There are more and more rental furnishing companies opening up every day.
- Lighting your home to its best advantage
Spend money on new light fixtures in brushed nickel or stainless steel. There are many low-cost lighting stores to select from so no excuses for having dated light fixtures.
- Window treatments that sell your home
The most popular on the market are the 2” faux wood in a white tone to go with your trim. Decorative side panels will do the trick if you need to add warmth and colour.
- Flooring needs special attention and is a good investment for updating the look of your home
For entranceways, bathrooms, kitchens and laundry rooms, tile or linoleum is a great choice. As for living rooms and family rooms, a good quality laminate or hardwood is perfect. Consider a neutral carpet to make your bedrooms attractive.
By planning and budgeting, you can get yourself to the “OPEN HOUSE READY” stage.
Remember that the vast majority of prospective buyers have already looked at your listing on the internet. Will they like what they see?
Happy Selling!
