10 Tips for Staging Your Home
1. Your curb appeal is your first impression
A few plants and a new doormat for the front porch may be the best ROI you ever invested in. If you have a large porch, fill the space with a relaxing furniture setup. Grab a few LED bulbs instead of using traditional florescent, and keep the porch lights on to illuminate everything at its best.
2. Clean countertops and crevices
Make sure that all surfaces that show are clean. This means you need to get in the grout of your floors and underneath your cabinets; you never know the angle from which your potential buyer will view the infrastructure!
3. Make some white space
The less clutter that your house has, the bigger it looks to your buyer. Decluttering also leaves more room for the imagination of your buyer. Remember that you are trying to give them the best indication of what this home could be, not set up an entire arrangement for them.
4. Create a great traffic flow
If you need to rearrange your furniture so that you can move from room to room and showcase the spacing of the house in its best format, move the furniture away from the walls a bit. Make sure that you have plenty of space from room to room, because the modern trend in interior design is all about the New York style open flat.
5. Keep everything well lit
With today's wide range of LED bulbs, you can choose different lighting structures for different environments. Choose a brighter white for the kitchen area and a more pensive yellow for a study room. Lighting makes a huge difference in the way things are perceived, so use it to your advantage.
6. Depersonalize
Make sure that family photos and religious items are packed away. Make sure that your staging is seen as beautiful, but generic. Too much specificity can scare away a buyer.
7. Play off neutral colors
You can increase the perceived spacing in your rooms by painting adjoining rooms similar colors and focusing on neutral colors for your walls. If you are having trouble deciding on a theme for your color scheme, an investment in rich mid-tone neutral colors can never go wrong. Make sure that you give your woodwork the same attention as the rest of your backdrop.
8. Set for guests
Keeping with the advice to set each room up for its purpose, your dining area should be set up to receive guests. If the house has a formal dining room, use the good china.
9. Empty out storage spaces
The more space the buyer sees in storage, the bigger the entire house looks. Clear out closets, basements and bookcases. This will also help to depersonalize the space and let the buyer put his or her own mark on the property.
10. Smell is everything
If you hosted a pet as an owner, then you have some work to do! Make sure the yard is clear of pet "products" and pay special attention to the indoor smell. It is likely that you have become used to it and may not be as sensitive to it. Give your space a neutral or pleasing odor by doing some baking just before buyers arrive. Your preparation can now pull double duty: You now have a delectable pastry to serve your buyer on the house tour.
Contact your agent today!
