When selling a home, making a good first impression is very important, especially if you want to sell your home quickly and for top dollar.
In order to make the best first impression, home staging is often needed.
Here are a few home staging tips to make your house look its best for potential buyers in order to sell it fast.
photo courtesy of a51media www.sxc.hu/photo/313291Curb Appeal
The first thing a potential buyer will see is the exterior of your house, that is why curb appeal is extremely important in home staging.
A potential buyer will not even take the time to go inside your home if they do not like the outside.
To stage the outside of your house, make sure your lawn is mowed and flower beds are well kept.
Ensure that all toys, garbage cans, and other trash are not visible from the front of your home.
Add some color using groupings of seasonal flowers with fresh mulch.
Most of all, make sure your house numbers are easily readable so people can find your home.
If your home is not architecturally attractive, install extra lush landscaping to hide it a bit.
A home staging tip is to remember that curb appeal also applies to the neighborhood, so do what you can to encourage others to take care of their home (even if you have to mow your neighbor's yard, weed his flower beds, add flowers to the neighborhood entrance, or take in your neighbor's trash cans).
Front Porch
Potential buyers coming to view your house will spend several seconds standing on your front porch while the realtor opens the lock box and unlocks the door.
The front porch is where potential buyers get their first up close look at your home, so make sure it is staged well.
Ensure that the front porch is clean, in good repair, and there are not too many accessories getting in the way.
A home staging tip is to replace your plain doorbell with an updated one for a little extra charm, ensure all bugs are gone from that area, and make sure your door mat looks new.
Odors
Make sure bad smells do not drive away potential buyers when staging your home.
Remove cigarette, pet, trash, cooking, and musty smells.
Consider adding air fresheners or an essential oil diffuser #ad that have a light pleasing smell of cookies, vanilla, or fruit.
Plug in air fresheners that are motion activated work well for home staging.
Don't overdo the air fresheners, else the potential buyers might think you are trying to hide something.
Do not leave a candle burning while you are away from your house.
Consider turning on the whole house fan on your air conditioner to continually circulate the air inside your home so it does not smell stale and so certain rooms will not feel overly cool or warm.
Clutter
Clutter makes a home feel small, so the most important aspect to home staging is declutter and declutter some more.
Start by removing all accessories from a room and add back only a few.
Keep in mind that many people will be viewing your home listing from a tiny photo on their phone, so your home accessories should typically be no smaller than a cantelope.
If you take a photo of the room with your phone, you should be able to see areas of clutter on the small photo. If you can't tell what the item is from the photo, then it is likely clutter.
Have no more than one or two small appliances on your countertops.
Visit model homes to see the amount of accessories that is appropriate for a home that is on the market.
Depersonalize
Depersonalize your house during home staging.
Start to think of your home as someone else's.
Remove all of your personal photos, vacation souvenirs, and any items that may not appeal to most people, such as religious items or taxidermy.
Make sure the primary bedroom is not overly feminine or masculine.
Repairs
In order to get the most money for your house, make sure it is in perfect condition and is move in ready.
Fix anything that may be broken, worn, or outdated, including your personal items that are not for sale since those items show how you maintain your belongings.
Most every house will have tiny cracks in the walls and woodwork at the joints. Spend a good amount of time looking at all of the drywall corners of your house and caulk every little crack. Inspect your baseboards, chair rails, door and window casing, crown molding, and stairs for little cracks where the pieces of wood meet and caulk them.
Look for places where nail heads may be poking out from the sheetrock and repair it. Your drywall should look brand new when staging your home.
Touch up all of the paint on your walls so it looks freshly painted.
If all repairs are not made correctly, potential buyers may think that you did not care for your house and might be concerned that other parts of the home were not maintained properly.
Pets
Consider removing animals and any evidence that an animal ever lived in the house while home staging.
Many potential buyers do not care for animals and are concerned about pet dander irritating their allergies or pets soiling the carpets.
Colors
If you have a bold wall color, repaint it a neutral color so you don't offend any buyers.
If your bedrooms are gender specific, such as pink and purple, they will not appeal to potential buyers with all boys.
Art
Stage your home with artwork on larger walls.
Make sure the artwork would not be offensive to anyone and is colorful, light, and calming.
Use one larger piece of art instead of several smaller pieces of art that could look messy.
Remove Items
A home staging trick is to remove some furniture to make your home feel larger.
Your home will feel cramped if a potential buyer bumps into furniture while walking through your home.
If your bedroom is small, you might want to remove one of your nightstands.
You really just want the bare necessities when it comes to furniture.
Ask yourself whether this piece of furniture would be in a hotel room. If not, consider removing it while your home is for sale.
Closets
Closets are very important in home staging. Closets must be tidy, neat, and partially empty.
Another home staging tip is to remove 1/2 to 3/4 of the items from your closets. Also consider using identical coat hangers for a tidy and organized look.
An over loaded closet tells a potential buyer that the house does not have enough closet space.
Using only 1/4 of your closet tells a potential buyer that the house has so much closet space that you cannot even fill the closet.
Pantries should be treated as closets. They must be neat, organized, and no more than 1/4 to 1/2 full.
Spring Clean
Clean your home to sell it for top dollar.
Make sure to clean windows, window sills, gutters, baseboards, under beds, behind appliances, inside appliances, in your garage, and anywhere that does not get cleaned regularly.
Make sure your air filters are clean - a good home inspector will check.
Always Tidy
Once your home is staged properly, make sure to keep it tidy at all times.
Your beds must always be made, clothes put away, and no dirty dishes in the sink.
A home staging trick is to stash items in your car during home showings if you don't have room for them in your home or don't have time to put them away properly.
Light and Bright
Potential buyers like homes with lots of light.
Leave your curtains and blinds open, lights on, and make sure you are not home when the potential buyers arrive.
Consider adding mirrors to rooms in order to bounce the light around.
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