10 Staging Tips to Get Your Home Sold

Photo courtesy of MLS - 48 Orange Street, Nantucket, MA 

Some of you may have seen on my instagram account that I recently became an Accredited Staging Professional.  Staging is so important when it comes time to sell a home because it helps buyers visualize themselves in the home and helps sellers to get a higher price. (Who doesn't want more money? I know I do!) A complimentary staging consultation is now something I offer to all of my sellers. Here are some ideas to get your home prepared for the spring market. 

1. Furniture Groupings It's a misconception that furniture pushed directly up against walls make a room look bigger. Instead, you'll want to float your furniture in each room away from the walls. Position your sofas and chairs into cozy conversational groupings. Be sure the furnishings are placed to make the traffic flow in a room obvious. This will make the room more user-friendly and will make it look larger.

2. Say Goodbye To Clutter The best thing you can do to sell your home is to get rid of clutter! Make a rule that for every new piece that comes in, one must go. One of the biggest factors to a cluttered home is too much furniture. Generally, in a professional staging, half the home owner's furniture is removed to make the rooms look larger. Look around your house and see what you can pack away. It's worth the investment to get a storage unit for a couple of months.

3. Transform Rooms If you have a room that has only served to collect boxes or other junk, it's important to repurpose the room to something that is functional. You can make it into an extra bedroom, a cozy reading room, etc. If it's in the basement, hide the boxes and turn it into a gaming room or family area.

4. Home Lighting Great lighting is the trick to making a staged home look warm and welcoming. Most homes are poorly lit, which makes rooms look dark and dreary. There's a quick fix to this issue. Increase the wattage in your fixtures and lamps, aiming for about 100 watts per 50 square feet. Add three different types of lighting to each room: ambient (general overhead), task (under cabinets or pendants), and accent lighting (table lamps and wall accents).

5. Go Neutral The simple trick to toning down dated finishing in any space is a little bit of fresh paint. Stark white may not be the best option, but neutral grey and beige work wonders. Beige can consist of warm honey-like colors, and soft blues and greens add a little life to any neutral color.

6. Make It Look Bigger If you want to make a room bigger than it is, paint the room the same color as an adjacent room. For small kitchens and dining rooms, a seamless look will make the space feel like one, open it up, and make it seem much larger. Using drapes that match the wall colors can also add an emphasis to the room's size.

7. Use Your Garden Add fresh flowers. If you don't have the money to go all out on florals, you can get the same effect by raiding your garden space. You can DIY beautiful pieces with fern fronds, magnolia clippings and more.

8. Get A Facelift So you can't afford new cabinets? Just get new doors and drawer fronts, then paint everything to match and add new hardware. Instead of replacing the entire dishwasher, you may be able to get a new front panel, go for stainless steel if you can pull it off. Check with the manufacturer to see if replacements are available for your model.

9. Make Necessary Repairs Unfinished home projects can really scare off potential home buyers, so you'll want to be sure to make required repairs. Missing floorboards and large cracks in the sidewalk on the way to your door tend to be a red flag. Holes in walls and scratched up door frames can really look unattractive. These repairs cost you less to fix than buyers might deduct from the asking price.

10. Clean Your Home Aside from de-cluttering, the most important step to staging your home is to clean it. A dirty house is a quick turn-off for potential buyers. Most homes, especially with children, pets, and smokers, have a smell that may go undetected to home owners, but are quickly picked up by strangers. Be sure to have your home professionally cleaned prior to staging so that your home is nice and fresh and appealing to buyers.