Staging Your Home

Properly staging your home is a proven method that can help you sell your home faster than homes that are not staged or are empty.  Staging your home presents the opportunity to bring more attention to the features that make your home desirable and unique.  Here are a few ideas to help you prepare your home for staging.

Make Buyers Feel at Home

Start by packing up your personal items like family photos and other heirlooms and knick-knacks.  When a buyer views your home, they should be able to envision it as their own.  Buyers have a hard time visualizing furniture placement when they see an empty room.  Therefore, it is also important to leave beds and other furniture in place so that buyers can visualize how rooms were used by previous occupants.

Become a Minimalist

Less is more!  While a buyer will want to see how you lived in your home, they will also want to see every inch of a home before buying.  Clutter or large objects that can’t be moved only raise suspicion of what lies beneath or behind once it is all cleared out.  Plus the more items that you remove before you start marketing, the less you will have to pack up for your move!

Deep Clean Everything

Presenting a clean home may seem obvious, but it is important to take the extra step to deep clean everything.  That includes cleaning everything from the baseboards to the ceiling and everything in between.  You should also move large items to clean under and behind where they normally sit.  

It is also important to plan for light maintenance cleaning to keep everything nice and clean up until the closing.  This can be one of the most difficult aspects of selling your home, especially if you have pets or showings on bad weather days.  Remember to think about how you would feel if you were a potential buyer viewing your home. 

Curb Appeal

Depending on the season, you should keep your exterior and landscaping looking neat and clean.  First impressions are everything and it all begins with your home’s exterior.  Keep your lawn mowed and plant colorful plants and flowers in the spring.  

Highlight Uniqueness

Take advantage of any unique features that your home may have.  For example: If you have a whole-home music system, turn it on for showings.  If you have under cabinet lighting in the kitchen, keep only those lights on so that buyers notice them during showings.  

Anything you can do to show off your home’s advantages can help result in a quicker sale.