Staging Your Home for Sale

By Jeff Wellman

Staging your home for sale will help it sell faster and bring in the best offer possible.

What is home staging?

If you look through real estate ads, you might notice photos of beautifully decorated homes void of clutter and personal items like family portraits. These homes are staged for sale. Home staging is a method of interior decorating used to present a home in its best possible light while allowing prospective buyers to visualize themselves living in the home. Perhaps most importantly a staged home looks better in photographs. These days most prospective buyers see a home for the first time online.

There are companies that provide home staging services. They evaluate your home and determine any simple improvements that can be made to the outside of the home, such as landscaping to increase curb appeal. Inside the home, they’ll provide furniture and decor suited to the target market of your home. You can, however, tackle home staging on your own if you prefer.

Tips for Staging your Home

1. Clean – Clean everything from top to bottom. Make the windows sparkle. Even if the appliances are older they should be spotless. Touch up paint on walls where there are marks. On the outside, weed flowerbeds, mow the grass, and powerwash the siding. Consider adding small shrubs or perennials to the flowerbeds if they’re empty.

2. Get rid of the clutter – Clutter makes a home look smaller. You want buyers to think they’re getting the most space for their dollars. Clutter is also distracting. It’s hard to see what a house really looks like if it’s packed full of furniture and knickknacks. Try to create mostly empty spaces with just a few pieces of furniture.

3. Remove the personal touches – You want prospective buyers to think of the house as their house. So remove things like family photos and children’s artwork from the fridge. Try to hide clothing as much as possible. If you have children put their toys away where they can’t be seen.

4. Add fresh greenery – A few potted plants or fresh flowers in a vase brighten up the room and give it a fresh, airy feel.

5. Perfume the air – Eliminate any unpleasant smells like pet odor or strong cooking scents like garlic. If you can, pop a pan of cookies in the oven just before a viewing to give your home a cozy scent. If you can’t bake cookies, light a nicely scented cinnamon or apple candle.

6. Place appropriate furniture – Use furniture to define the purpose of each space. If an extra bedroom could serve as a home office ad a desk and chair. If you are in a neighborhood where most prospective buyers are young families, set a bedroom up as a nursery. This helps the buyer envision the home’s potential. Also, make sure the furniture is the right size for the room. Oversized furniture will make the room look smaller. Don’t overload a room with furniture, either. Two or three pieces are enough to demonstrate the room’s purpose.

7. Neutral walls – If you have bright, unusual colors on your walls or wallpaper, paint the walls a light neutral color. It might seem like extra work, but buyers could be turned off by colors and patterns that don’t fit suit their tastes.