Not everyone knows how to stage a house to sell and that is okay. This post will help get you started on what you need to do to home stage and get your house sold.
What is Home Staging?
Home staging is preparing your house to appeal to almost everyone who walks through your door. You want the prospective buyer to walk in and feel like they are walking into a home that they could comfortably live in. Make them have the feeling of “Welcome Home”.
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How to get started staging.
Getting started is the hard part. The first step to successful home staging is decluttering. This sounds like a big task but it is something that needs to be done. Decluttering actually helps you out with the moving process anyway. Just think doing the decluttering now helps out with the packing process later.
Decluttering needs to be done before you actually home stage.
Particularly before you bring any professionals in. This includes real estate agents and professional home stagers. A cluttered home can sway the price for the worst. Some real estate agents will not see past the clutter and price your house too low.
With Home Staging, if you decide to hire it done instead of doing it yourself the price goes up on the staging fees by adding decluttering fees on top of it.
Don’t worry I have written a post on decluttering that will help you out. I won’t get into the process of decluttering in this post but here is a link to an article I wrote on it “Where to Start Decluttering”. Check it out and it will help you on your way to less clutter.
Decisions to be Made
Now the process of staging your home needs to start.
There are two ways you can go.
Either home stage yourself or hire a Professional Home Stager to do the work. Look at the post that lists the pros and cons of Professional Home Staging and staging yourself “DIY Versus Professional Home Staging“. Make sure you read it to help you decide which way to go.
It’s up to you which way to go. If you stage your house it will help you sell it.
Deciding on Professional Home Staging
Have you decided on having your home professionally home staged? (Next paragraph is about DIY Home Staging)
Make sure you do your homework before hiring someone. What I mean by homework is first to choose at least three that you would like to interview. You want to make sure that they will be easy to work with. Check their pricing. See if it is competitive with the others. Don’t pay top dollar if they don’t have good ratings. Look at some of their past projects.
If they are just starting out they might have lower prices. Using someone just starting out will save money. While helping them get started too.
You have choices with professional home staging. You can have them do it all or have them just do a consultation. It depends on how much you want to spend. A lot of their websites will have the price for a consultation. Start with the consultation and see if you want to go any further.
Remember some things that they will be saying might rub you the wrong way. You are hiring them to stage your home. They are not coming in to tell you how wonderful your house looks. It probably does look wonderful but they are there to stage your house to sell. Remember everyone who walks through needs to feel like they want to live there.
Home Stage it Myself
I won’t sugarcoat it. This is going to be work. But in the long run, it will save you money and make you money. Be patient and know if you are going to do it right this will take some time. As I said in the first paragraphs decluttering is the first step. If you haven’t already done that do that first.
DIY Home Staging Steps
- Declutter
- Repair
- Depersonalize
- Rearrange
- Decorate
I’ll skip over the decluttering since I’ve already covered it and go straight to the repair.
Repair
Look and see what needs to be repaired. This also includes the outside of the house. Check for leaky faucets, dirty walls, doorknobs that are loose and chipped paint, etc. You want the house to look great and move-in ready for the buyers. If you were the one looking to buy your house what would you notice? Once you do that, go ahead and repair what you see.
Depersonalize
Depersonalization is the key to making everyone see themselves living in your home. If you have family photos, team souvenirs, deer heads, and such on your walls this says you live there. It doesn’t let the potential buyers imagine themselves in the space. You want decor that is neutral so it says I can live here in this space.
Walk around and start packing those items up to move to your new place. Don’t worry, you won’t have to live without them long if you home stage your house. Remember this will help you sell faster and for more money.
Rearrange
Rearranging your furniture is essential in home staging. Where the way your furniture is arranged now fits with your lifestyle. At this time place the furniture where it shows off the room. Make sure there is a traffic flow through the room.
You don’t want prospective buyers bumping into furniture like a pinball game. Have the flow carry them from room to room.
Furthermore removing some furniture and putting it into storage for a while might be necessary as well.
10% off Free shipping on EVERYTHING big & small!* At Overstock.com. Shop Now!Decorate
Next is the fun part. Go around your house and collect items that would make for good home staging decor. Then remove items that add too much noise in the room.
This is a great time to start packing. This will help you out later in the move.
After you are done, go around and gather all items that you have pulled for the staging decor. Next start placing them around the house.
Change things up a bit. For instance, that picture you had hanging on the wall in the living room, might just be a great addition to the bedroom decor.
Make little vignettes around your house. By putting someplace setting on the dining room table it will look like an intimate get-together. In addition, add a book on a chair with a blanket. This will give the idea of a great place to curl up and read a book. Try to show the prospective buyers what each area can be used for.
Example:
This Happy Day plate would be great sitting on a countertop with or without a cake.
With the purpose of brightening things up and showing the comfort to be had in this space, think about getting a new comforter for the master bedroom.
Therefore make sure a story is created for the buyer. People need to be shown what a great place it will be to live in.
This “Home Staging Decor on a Budget” post has some great tips on what decor should be used.
Home Staging will change the way you live in the house.
That’s okay, above all you are staging to sell. Get everyone to fall in love with your house and get it sold quickly. Then you can live comfortably in your new home.
Follow the steps above. Get your home sold!
Need help with your move check out this post on “How to Make Moving Easier“.
