If you’re in the process of selling your home, you’ve probably set what you believe to be a reasonable price based on its location, size, etc. But are you still not getting the great offers that you expected?
Your home might not look as appealing as it could because you haven’t been staging it! Staging your home is the process of increasing its value based solely on its aesthetic appeal. You set it up in such a way that it looks like the idealistic, best possible version of the house. Think of it as the set to a play or movie that everyone wants to be in.
You don’t have to put a lot of money into staging your home, but even a small investment can get your big returns from the sale. Here are some of the easiest ways to stage your home for potential buyers.
1. Create an Idealistic Kitchen
We can’t all have the kitchen we see in catalogues. It just isn’t practical. You’re using your kitchen all the time, and so some items need to stay out for optimal use.
But when you’re selling your house, you’re selling the idealistic version. As long as your house in on the market and people are coming to look at it, keep your counters clear. Hide away all your appliances in cabinets and keep out only the most visually appealing pieces of cookery.
Dry goods should be kept in the pantry or in decorative containers on the counter, but if your counter space is limited hide it away. You want to make your kitchen look as spacious as possible.
There are areas of your kitchen that you can update on a budget. Replace any dingy hardware such as cabinet knobs with new items. A fresh coat of paint to the cabinets in a neutral color also does wonders.
If you’re backsplash has seen better days, replace it with easy stick and peel tiles. They look just as good as a new tile job, and you don’t need to worry about them lasting for very long.
2. Remove Excess Furniture
When people are wondering how to sell a house, they often don’t consider how small they’ve made their home feel.
You can make your square footage work a little harder for you by removing unnecessary furniture. Bring it down to an attractive yet functional number of seating options and tables.
When people come to tour your home they won’t be spending a lot of time hanging out in each room, and they certainly won’t be entertaining anyone. So there’s no need for all that extra furniture.
This is also an opportunity to get rid of any furniture that doesn’t quite match the decor of the room. Remember, you want your home to be inspiring and show off it’s potential for design. So make it look like it was easy to design for!
Plus, with less furniture you can arrange it in such a way that the space is easier to move about. Space to walk between the couch and the coffee table. Imagine that!
3. Create a Specialized Room
That little extra space in your house that you could never figure out what to do with? Find a purpose for it!
Even if you haven’t needed it, your buyer could be inspired by its potential. It doesn’t quite matter what you turn it into as long as it makes the potential buyer realize all that they could have if they buy your home. Excess space and specialized rooms say luxury.
You could make it an office, a children’s playroom, a crafting room, a library, or a workshop. The possibilities are endless, but consider what types of people are likely to be buying your home. If your home doesn’t also have room for a children’s bedroom or is located on a busy street, a playroom might not make the most sense.
4. Depersonalize
Tips for staging your home can sometimes sound confusing – especially when you get to the topic of depersonalization. There’s a tricky balance between removing the items from your home that make it difficult for someone else to imagine as theirs while still maintaining an eye catching and unique charm.
The first step is to remove family photos. No one needs to know what your family looks like while they’re imagining their own family moving in.
Other items you should remove are anything with significant sentimental value or anything that you know is really only to your specific taste. Play into the current design trends and remove that poster from your favorite obscure band or college banner.
5. Staging Your Home for All the Senses
Up until this point all the tips for selling your house have been about sight, but what other senses can you appeal to when staging your home?
The other two sense that come into play while selling a house are mainly touch and smell.
For touch, make sure everything is completely clean so that no one touches a counter to feel something grimy. You can appeal to touch even more by adding interesting and pleasant textures to your home. Place your nicest throw pillows and blankets on the couch. Set the table with your engraved silverware. Hang soft curtains in the windows.
Scent is also important, but you want to be careful. Too strong scents can be overwhelming to certain buyers or even cause an allergic reaction. Yikes!
The first thing to do when trying to appeal to the sense of smell is to clean everything. Make sure garbage is outside, bathrooms are clean, and all the dishes are out of the sink. Once your home has reached a neutral scent, you can add on top.
Subtly scented flowers are pleasant as well as wall plug ins with scents like cotton, vanilla, orange, or cucumber. These are generally universally accepted scents.
Selling Your Home Fast
By staging your home with these tips, it’ll be out from under your hands before you know it, and you’ll have a great deal more money in your pocket too. Remember to make it into an ideal version of a house with luxurious room options and appeal to all the senses.
Does this sound like a lot of work? We can get your home sold even faster! Contact us today for a price quote on the cash value of your home!
