If you’re in the process of selling your home and not having much success you may want to consider hiring a home staging company. Staging a house can make all the difference in getting it sold. If hiring someone to stage your home is not in your budget. There are a few steps you can do on your own to help get your home sold.
Best Home Staging Tips You Can Do It Yourself
Tip #1 Remove your personal taste
It helps to remove your personal style from your home to make the house appeal to more of a general market. This includes taking down personal photographs as these can be distracting to potential buyers as they may be more focused on who lives in this home instead of the house itself. Other items that should be removed are those of personal views such as politics and religion you don’t want your buyer making a decision based on your views.
Tip #2 Remove clutter
Get a head start on packing! Pack up those dvds, books, magazines, old exercise equipment, and nick knacks. In this case less is definitely better. If you don’t need all your kitchen appliances pack them up and showcase the counter space. By removing clutter your buyers will be less distracted and the house will appear larger, brighter, and cleaner.
Tip #3 Clean
No one wants a dirty home, and no one wants to buy someone else’s dirty home. Remember you’re trying to appeal to a large market this includes clean freaks. I don’t think anyone would complain about a house being too clean but some may be turned off if it’s not clean enough. So if your carpets are a little dirty get them cleaned. Also keep in mind some potential buyers may have allergies so if you have pets be sure to keep up after them.
Tip #4 If something’s broke fix it.
No body wants to think about the improvements they are going to have to make to turn a house into their home. They are probably already thinking of things to change so this may just add to their list and when a list gets to long it could be a turn off. Not to mention when potential buyer sees improvements that has to be made they immediately think money that will come off of your offer. And in their mind they may believe that it will cost allot more then it really does
Tip #5 Curb Appeal
Make it clean and inviting. Unfortunately some people do judge a book by its cover. Same goes for a house. If you already do your lawn care kudos to you. If not remember no one wants to be the ugly house on the block. I’m not saying that you could go out and put in new landscaping but take the time to cut the grass, trim the bushes, and pull the weeds. If the front still looks a little bear add a couple potted plants on the patio or both sides of the walkway remember you can take them with you when you leave. If the exterior is looking a little faded you may want to add a fresh coat of paint to the shutters and front door. Hows your lighting? Most time a potential buy will drive by to take another look and to see how the neighborhood is when everyone is home. So keep your lights on to showcase your exterior.
Tip #6 Paint
A fresh coat of paint will give a room an instant inexpensive face lift. Color can be fun but as a suggestion if you’re not a professional and just not sure keeping in neutral is a safe bet. No ever one might like a blood red color but with a neutral pallet they see it as something they can live with even if they decide to paint later down the road when they have more time and money.
Tip #7 Upgraded
There are some cheap upgrades you can make to a home that can make big impact. Look at your finishes. Do you need new hardware? How about lighting if you have an out of date chandler in the dinning room replace it for under $100 it could make a huge change to the room. When I sold my 1st home I even put in new appliances that completely updated my kitchen grant it I got a great deal from a model home sale but its good to keep your eyes open for deals like this that can help you add some upgrades for little money.
Tip #8 Highlight your homes features
Do you have a fireplace? Don’t block it with furniture make it a focal point. Do you have a beautiful view? Open the blinds for potential buys to see. Remember when you bought this house what sold you? What features stood out most to you? Is there an amazing feature in your home but not up to par it may be worth putting in some work on that feature.
Tip #9 Set the mood
When you have a potential buyer coming to view the home make sure the atmosphere is welcoming. Check your lighting, if it’s to dark open your blinds and let in some natural light. Instead of turning on the harsh over head lighting I usually turn on an accent light like the lamp on the entry table and the built in lamp on the microwave.
Now how does the house smell? Hopefully clean Many real estate agents believe in creating that homely scent with baking cookies before potential buyers arrive. I don’t think you have to go that far besides you don’t want them to think you’re trying to impress them. However you may want to add some plug-ins or air diffusers. I don’t recommend candles because of course you don’t want to leave them unattended.
Music can be very soothing. If you want some music playing you’ll want to keep the volume low so its only background music. Remember not everyone loves hard rock, rap, or country. Try to keep it soft maybe something like light jazz.
Tip #10 – Get Out!
When you have a potential buyer coming to view your home get out for awhile. The fact of the matter is a potential buyer may not feel comfortable talking and asking questions in front of you. Also potential buyers may walk around several times trying to envision them selves living in the house.
Keep in mind that not everyone has the same taste, and you cant always satisfy everyone. So do your best to impress the largest market as possible. Keep the potential buyers focal on the house and not on you and your lifestyle. Remember that when they our viewing your house they are trying to envision that house as there home so lets not distract them.
