Home staging is a style of decorating meant to highlight your home’s most impressive assets and help buyers imagine themselves moving in and living there. In the real estate industry we do this to help make your home appeal to the widest possible audience of potential buyers. Do it right, and you should have no problem selling your home quickly and for top dollar.
While curb appeal improvements definitely help, the inside of your home is always the most important selling point. In today’s market most buyers will shop for homes online, making a home’s web appeal just as crucial as its curb appeal. To sell a home fast, staged photographs are an important tool we use to boost your home’s visual appeal and help it stand out in today’s competitive market.
Top staging tips from our real estate marketing team:
1. Stage Focal Rooms. Only stage the rooms in your home that are the biggest influence for a buyer. Studies show the rooms to focus your energy on are the master bedroom, living room and kitchen.
2. De-personalize Your Space. Remove all personal photos, seasonal clothing should be put away and out of sight and hide personal items in the bathrooms such as toothbrushes and hairbrushes. Prospective buyers need to be able to visualize the space as their own.
3. Remove Clutter. Edit down to just the bare minimum. Think of only what you need on a day to day basis. Keep only a few select décor pieces that are subtle and put in storage items such as games, papers, seasonal items to free up counter tops and closets. The bigger the space looks the more appealing it will be to buyers. Since you have made the decision to move this is a good opportunity to start packing the extra items into storage boxes.
4. Clean Clean Clean. Make everything sparkles and shine from the ceiling to the floors and everywhere in between. Having a clean and fresh smelling home shows potential buyers the home is well cared for.
5. Room to Room Touch-ups. Fix, touch-up with paint, scrub scuff marks, go from room to room and remove any imperfections that might turn a potential buyer away and show neglect to a property. Just like cleaning, it shows to potential buyers that you’ve put effort into maintaining the property.
6. Paint Neutral. This may take a bit more time but it can be one of the best things you do by eliminating any bold, loud colours that can distract from a rooms assets. Use tones in grey, white and taupe which gives buyers the option to paint their own bright colours if they wish.
7. Welcome. Curb appeal starts buyers off on the right foot to suggest good things to come inside. Ensure seasonal decorations are removed, power wash front stoop and add simple touches such as door matt and fresh potted plants.
8. Freshen Up. Add healthy flowers and plants to add life and freshness into your home. Place them strategically such as a vase full of colourful flowers in the center of your kitchen table and a small potted plant in the corner of the living room to add atmosphere.
9. Let the Sun In. Open up all your blinds which will make your rooms seem bigger and turn on all the lights in your house for showings including lamps, closet lights and turning on the fireplace to add an instant cozy touch. Ensure all bulbs are working!
10. Streamline Furniture. Open up your space to create walkable areas to help buyers navigate your home and visualize their own furniture in each room. Put mismatched, oversized or damaged pieces in storage. Re-arrange the furniture that is left to make the room look and feel as spacious as possible.
Our marketing team is practiced in the art of preparing a home for sale. Working with the ‘flow’ of the home to eliminate clutter and edit and arrange furniture to best show off a rooms size and finishes, allowing your home to make its best first impression to a potential buyer.
For more information on staging your home to sell, or to book a complimentary consultation give us a call!