Are you planning to put your house on the market? It’s normal to have mixed feelings of excitement and anxiety. Excitement on the life after the transaction, but you must also be going through those nervy moments wondering how long it might take for the house to get a buyer.
Well, there’s no need to fear. Let us give you some simple and effective tips in home staging that will help you attract buyers. Thank us later.
What exactly do we mean by home staging? This is a method of decorating your home to showcase its best assets in order to impress buyers and sell it quickly at the best price.
Why is Home Staging Important?
Although home staging is not a must, it should still be taken seriously. Selling a home is such a significant financial transaction and because of that, you look forward to getting the best price and minimum marketing period possible.
With respect to time and money, staging can be one of the most lucrative projects you’ll ever undertake. Potential customers will be looking for ways to improve their lifestyles and fulfill their dreams and not just buying a structure to inhabit. By staging, you are adding value and creating an emotive purchase for the prospective buyer, which can eventually fetch you a better price.
Another benefit of home staging is that potential buyers won’t find much that needs to be done after their purchase before inhabiting the house. Any visible problem may result in the buyer reducing the offer and if it happens, too much needs to be fixed. The buyers might drop their interests completely.
Steps in Staging Your Home
Staging can be done in many ways and it all depends on your budget. If you are on a tight budget, you should be focused on improving the most visible and eye-catching parts that will have a significant impact and add value to your home.
Exterior looks and the driveway should be given priority as they are the first things that the buyer sees while approaching the house. Other things that also need attention are the kitchen, bathroom, living room, master bedroom, and outdoor living spaces. Use the following techniques listed below with respect to your budget and time:
Clean
Give your house that spark by doing some cleaning. Start with the kitchen, make sure it’s spotless. If your budget permits, you can purchase new appliances and the ones that remain sparkly. Do some thorough cleaning on the bathrooms. Clean the toilets and sinks making sure they are sparklingly clean in all corners. Give attention to areas that you think are not easily visible. The primary goal is to make everything look new.
Declutter
Cluttered spaces are not attractive and they tend to cause distraction. So make sure you declutter interior and exterior spaces to not divert the buyer’s attention from your home’s features. Another problem with clutter is that it gives the impression that the home doesn’t have enough space.
Remove Personal Things
Give the house a neutral feeling by removing personal things. Remove all your paints, art collection, wall decor, family photos, and any other personal items.
Define Rooms
Give every room and space a purpose as this will help buyers to visualize how best they will be able to maximize the house’s square footage. You can set the basement as an entertainment room or transform an unused room into a guest bedroom. All these measures will help the buyer see that every inch of the house is usable although they won’t necessarily have to use them for the same purpose.
Paint
People’s taste in colors are usually specific and personal. You have your color choices that may seem strange to the buyer, so it is advisable to paint the house with warm or neutral colors as they have a tendency of creating a blank impression that will allow the potential buyer to envision their own decor.
Flooring
Floors are great at personifying a house. Great choices such as hardwood might be expensive but they tend to add value and elegance to a home. Hardwood floors are low-maintenance resulting in long-term value for investment. The living room and dining room are areas that need great attention when it comes to flooring, and hardwood will be a great choice for these places. In the kitchens and bathrooms, you can opt for ceramic tiles due to the nature of activities in these places involving water use.
Lighting
Natural lighting always feels great, so taking advantage of natural light at your home is advisable. Make sure your windows allow as much natural lighting as possible, plus the curtains and blinds as well. This is so useful when showing your home. If necessary, you can supplement the natural lighting with electric lights. Consider replacing all old and outdated light fixtures and the ones that do not need replacement should be cleaned free from dust or grime.
Walls and Ceilings
All cracks on walls and ceiling should be repaired as they are an eyesore, and buyers may feel that the house has foundation problems as cracks on the walls and ceilings are primary indicators of foundation issues. If it happens that your house has foundation problems, you should consider fixing them or make the potential buyers aware.
Exterior
The first thing that meets the eye of the buyers is your home’s exterior and that’s the potential buyer’s first impression. This first impression might also determine the buyer’s interest in viewing the interior. It is extremely important to make sure your terrace, fence, lawn, patio, pergola, and plants are well taken care of. Wash the windows clean, prune the flowers, clean the pavements, and paint the exterior walls if the paint has faded or pressure wash your home’s exterior walls to give them a freshly painted look.
The Bottom Line
Just because you have lots of cash, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should splurge it on the staging process. The primary reason for staging is to put some emphasis on your home’s best features, but you must remember that when it comes to homes there is no such thing as one size fits all so different buyers have different tastes. To get the best return of investment, your home staging efforts should focus on a mass appeal, so as to capture the widest possible attention of buyers.
