Life Is a Stage So Is Your Home

How To Stage Your Home To Sell

In less than two years, my husband will be retiring. I’m not sure if we will be selling our home. Now is a good time for me to research how to stage my home in case we decide to downsize to a smaller home.

I would like to share some ideas I found.

What is home staging?

Staging your home is merely arranging your furniture in an appealing manner with the goal of staging  your home to sell. This may require heavy or light cleaning, getting rid of any clutter, and finishing up with a fresh interior and exterior paint job. It never hurts to think about curb appeal and make sure your front and back yard are appealing to potential buyers.

What are the benefits to staging your home?

According to Will Featherstone of Featherstone & Co., there are four key benefits of staging your home:

1. Staging your home will help the property photos stand out online.
2. Staging can help people better imagine themselves living in a space.
3. Staging shows a home’s potential.
4. Staging can make a space seem bigger.

These benefits can give you the edge that may result in a faster sale or a higher sales price.

First impressions can make or break the sale of the house, and a home that’s staged correctly helps to maximize your chances of a positive first impression.

Home Staging Tips: Declutter room by room and outside the home

It a good idea to make your room décor flow from the inside of your home to the outsideby having the same color palette inside and out.  As your prospective buyer goes from room to room, he will see a calm flow to your home. Before you pull out the paint brush for your walls, you may want to visit a new construction of a model home site. Ask the builder what color he uses for interior painting.  His company has already done the research as to what will make a house sell.

Clean Rugs and Carpets– You can Google how to clean small natural rugs (cotton or wool), small synthetic rugs, and larger area rugs. For wall-to-wall carpet, you can rent a steam cleaner from Home Depot or Lowes or hire a carpet cleaning service.

Furniture: Before you rearrange your furniture, know your room measurements so you will know the best place to place your furniture. When you are rearranging your furniture in your living room, focus on your focal point and reposition your furniture so that there is a conversational and a cozy feeling. Make sure the furniture is positioned so that the room feels very open.   If possible, place a table near a sofa or chair. The table serves as two functions, décor’ and a place for guests or family to use.

So you do not block the flow of the room, make sure you have identified the traffic patterns for each room.

Make your home brighter by cleaning windows and add LEDs light bulbs to your lamps, ceiling fans, or any other area that requires lighting. LEDS light bulbs emit great quality light, according to Vanessa Rhoades from threebearshomestaging.com.  Leave your lights on before an open house, so the buyers will walk into well-lit homes

By removing family pictures and adding regular pictures or mirrors, this will help a prospective buyer imagine their family living in this house.

If you have a few general repairs, you can  go to angieslist.com and hire a handyman to complete your list.

Kitchen:

• Clear everything off the counters.
• Wash and sanitize the countertop and cabinet doors.
• Clear all refrigerator magnets, calendars, kids’ art from refrigerator door.
• If you have a Microwave, make sure it is clean inside.
• Modernize your cabinet handles.

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Bathroom:

• Remove all toiletries from countertops, shower, and bathtub.
• Use a shower caddy for all your toiletries and keep under the vanity.
• Dress up walls with art work if the room is small; if space is larger, add a few decorative items to dress up the space.
• Remove old worn out towels  and replace with white new ones.
• Remove everything from the floor (ex. bathroom mats and rugs, toilet bowl cleaning set).

Bedroom:

• Make up your bed so that it looks warm and inviting by having all of the bedroom linen matching. Add a few accent pillows.
• Add photos above the bed.
• Add side a table with a lamp and a few things on it (keep whatever you use in a set of three on the table. Table lamp is included as part of the three, ex. table lamp, small décor, book).

Outdoors:

• Back and front lawn should be a healthy green.
•  If you have a flowerbed, makes sure to add a little bit of color by planting a few colorful in season flowers.  Keep your flowerbed weed free and add fresh mulch.
• Make sure your yard is trimmed and edged.
• Keep your yard mowed regularly; it will give a better curb appeal.
• If you have a patio or deck, arrange your patio furniture with a focal point and a purpose, for ex. formal living space or a casual feel. Pick which one you intend to create. If you don’t have patio furniture, consider checking out offerup.

Since I have been in my home for many years, it will be hard to separate from my neighborhood and family when the time comes for change. But the positive is I will know what to do when it comes to staging my home.