Aside from remodeling your home, home staging is another way to increase your home value during the sale process. The act of making your house look attractive to buyers is said to affect how long a property stays in the market, as well as how much buyers are willing to put down for it.
But many sellers still do not agree. To these sellers, home staging is optional. But this shouldn’t be so. If you want the best out of your house’s sale, it is wise to go all out for it. To help you understand better, let us start by looking at why it makes sense for sellers to put in the time and effort to stage their home.
Does staging help sell a home?
Emotions play a large part in our decision-making process, and home staging is the best way to appeal to a homebuyer’s emotional sense. Homebuyers aren’t just looking for a place to live; they are also looking to fulfill their dreams. By highlighting your house’s best features, you make it easier for buyers to imagine your home as their dream house. Because not all sellers will stage their homes, doing so puts you at an advantage when selling your house. But how true is this? Well, according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2019 Staging Statistics:
- 40% of buyers’ agents say home staging affects buyers’ views of a house.
- 83% of buyers’ agents believe home staging makes it easier for buyers to visualize a property as theirs.
- On the sellers’ agent side, 25% report that home staging decreases the total amount of time a home is on the market.
- When staging a home, 40% of sellers’ agents reported an increase between one percent to twenty percent of the dollar value offered by buyers when compared to similar houses.
If you are a seller who wants to stage your home, we are glad to tell you that the best home staging tips don’t require spending much money. Whether you are getting ready to sell your house or are just trying to spark up an inactive listing, we present the most effective home staging tips to embark on. These changes can increase your home value and help it sell faster.
7 ways to stage your home on a budget
1. Declutter your home
When showing your home to buyers, it is vital to show off how big it is. Buyers want to know that they have enough room to do everything they want and more. This is why one of the first rules of staging your home is removing the clutter. Clutter does two things to your home: distract buyers from appreciating its unique features and make it seem like your house does not have enough space. An average buyer would change their mind if they see your home scattered and littered, regardless of the price offer or house features.
Start by collecting your possessions and moving them out of the house. This should include most of your clothes, your kid(s) toys, papers, and any other thing you do not use or need daily. Remember, it is not wise to hide all of these things in your closet as buyers are interested in seeing closet space. Next, you remove any miscellaneous items. With no clutter around, buyers will find your house spacious and, most importantly, appealing.
2. Deep clean your entire house
We are very sure you won’t buy a property that does not look clean. So, do not expect your buyer to do so. A clean house implies to the homebuyers that the home sellers took great care of the property. And that could be enough motivation for some buyers to consider purchasing your home.
The cleaning you do when staging is similar to what you do when you’ve just moved into a new home. You have to make sure you clean every nook and cranny from the ceiling to the floor. Do not forget the bathroom, the corners of the tub, or behind the toilet where no one can see. If you haven’t cleaned your refrigerator in a while, now is the time to do it. It would wise to get new appliances and utensils for your kitchen, but if you can’t, make sure the ones you have are spotlessly clean and polished.
3. Depersonalize your home
One primary purpose for home staging is to enable prospective buyers to visualize your home as theirs. And there is no best way to do this than removing as many personal items as possible. According to the NAR 2019 Staging Statistics, 70% of agents recommend depersonalizing your home during staging.
First, remove all the personal pictures from the walls or shelves. Try as much to get them out of sight. Next, rid the bathroom and toilets of anything personal: toothbrushes, medications, towels, and any other thing you use. Items in and on the refrigerator are also not left out. Remove overtly colorful, personal, or disturbing paintings or wallpapers should and leave the neutral or abstract ones.
We understand that it may be weird to live in a house with no personal items. But remember, staging is the best way for buyers to envision themselves in your home. Ensure that everything in your house serves only one of two purposes: your immediate needs or to attract the buyer. If you’re still living in your home, you can keep any critical items in a suitcase to allow you to easily remove them when a potential buyer is visiting. However, it’s always best to live in a different location, such as with family, when marketing your home.
4. Take care of your walls
Let’s be honest – homebuyers are likely not to love whatever wallpaper or paint you have on the wall because people’s taste in colors is different and personal. But it would be best if you still made your walls appealing and attractive.
You could start by removing your old or worn-out wallpapers. We suggest you don’t paint over them or put another wallpaper on top as that may make it look rough, sending a wrong signal to the buyers. Instead, after removing the old wallpaper, paint your walls with light and neutral colors. Going for white will give the room a bland look, and going for bright colors may distract buyers from your home features. By adopting light and neutral colors, your buyers will feel welcomed into your home and visualize the colors they will use when they buy the property. While this tip may take time and money to implement, it can make a big difference in property value and how long it stays in the market.
5. Your flooring
Your carpet plays a role in how buyers see your home. No one, not even you, wants to live in a house with stained or dirty carpet. So you should ensure to clean or replace the carpet and tiles in your home before staging. With that said, shampooing carpet tends to bring up any foul smells in the carpet, so be sure to deodorize. Be sure that nobody walks on the carpet while it’s wet, and keep the windows open while it’s drying to vent humidity that will cause the carpet to stay wet longer. Remember to focus your attention on the living room, the bathroom, and the kitchen during this process.
If you want to increase your home value, do not go for materials like linoleum. Instead, use luxury vinyl plank or imitation wood ceramic. They are durable, affordable, low maintenance, and easy to clean. For the bathroom, consider using ceramic tile if you can afford it. If not, use high-quality vinyl tiles that mimic these more expensive materials. (It’s always best to consult with an expert Realtor to determine if it is worth investing the extra money into higher quality flooring for a house like yours before spending the money.) To learn more about what modern buyers look for in a home, check out this article.
6. Rearrange your furniture
Currently, your furniture is probably arranged in a way that makes it difficult to walk around. When staging your home for sale, that will have to change. Your buyers need to be able to move around each room easily. Also, they need to be able to visualize their furniture in those spaces.
Next, you should remove damaged, oversized, or mismatched furniture. Damaged furniture is an eyesore; oversized furniture makes the room look small, and mismatched furniture makes the room less attractive. If none of your furniture looks presentable, get new ones or rent them to stage your home.
Your subsequent focus should be on putting away any extra furniture. Keep only the furniture you know buyers would love to see. However, make sure that you don’t have too little left as that would make your room feel empty to buyers. With the furniture left, rearrange your rooms to make them as spacious, homey, and detailed as possible. For example, in your living room, your furniture should be set up in a way that signifies that a gathering is about to take place. A nice rule of thumb is to group furniture into groups of three as the picture above depicts .
7. Lighting
Lighting is very vital when staging. Before staging, replace broken light fixtures and clean any grime and cobwebs on them. During staging, take advantage of your home’s natural light by opening the blinds on all your windows and turning on all the lights in your house, lamps, and closet lights. Doing this will add value to your home as lighting makes rooms look big. It will also give your home a more welcoming aura to buyers. Lastly, lighting saves buyers from stumbling around or having to fumble for switches in dark places.
Let Bost Redevelopment help you sell your home
Effectively staging your home will increase your home value. If you hire Bost Redevelopment to sell your home, we involve professional stagers for your home who will strategically arrange furniture and decorate your home in just the right way to create that extra “wow” factor for your potential buyers. They can also provide you with a rental option if you need to rent furniture to get the best impact.
We are also experts at handling every home selling problem you may be facing. We would use our marketing expertise to ensure you get the best buyer for your home at the maximum value possible. Want to talk more about your options? Please leave us a message below with your contact information and let us know how we can help you.
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