Staging to Sell
Staging your home is one of the most effective strategies for attracting and appealing to buyers. It reinforces the value and desirability of your home, which backs your asking price.
Keep it Neutral
Keep your style and color palette neutral. Keeping a neutral approach to your furniture selection, color and pattern introductions will help your home appeal to more buyers.
Furniture
When making decisions on what pieces of furniture to add to your home or assessing if your existing furniture is right for staging, stick with furniture that is a good size for the room. Adding big, bulky furniture can make the room feel smaller. You will want to avoid a piece of furniture that is too big for the space.
Let’s take the living room as an example. In here, choosing a bigger couch may mean you skip adding chairs if the space does not accommodate it all. When asked about the staging impact on buyer perception during a recent showing, this is what Associate Broker, Karen Haug, ABR, CRS, from Sell4Free Welsh Realty, had to say, “the biggest complaint was that the living room was too small. The room was a nice size, but the section couch and chair made it look VERY tiny!”
After receiving Karen’s suggestion, the sellers removed part of the sectional couch and kept the chair. The results were immediate. Karen continues, “instantly that living room was a bit bigger. The sellers got an offer within a couple weeks.”
Arrange your furniture pieces so that they are facing each other, instead of the TV. This creates conversation spaces and increases the space in the room.
When staging the dining room, again avoid furniture that is too large for the space. We suggest setting the table to help the buyer envision family dinners or hosting a party. Make it simple. Do not add too many things to the table or the room. This will make the room seem cluttered and smaller.
Stick to a Single Purpose
Quite often, rooms in your home may have multiple purposes and may contain different types of furniture to accommodate those different purposes. To help the buyers envision themselves in each space, keep the furniture pieces and decorations specific to each room’s purpose. For example, keep the selection for the bedroom specific to bedroom furniture.
Avoid Personal Touches
Help the buyer envision themselves living in the space by removing personal pictures and items. If there are a lot of your personal items throughout the house, it is much harder for the buyer to envision their life in your home. Make sure to put away the kid and pet toys, too. This can be distracting to the buyer.
Don’t Go Overboard on Decorations
To keep your house looking attractive to buyers, do not add too many decorations. This will keep your house from looking cluttered. Another tip is to avoid fully stocking your storage spaces. By leaving some empty space, your home will look like it has more room for storage. When it comes to the right number of pillows, picture frames, or other decor, interior designers suggest intervals of odd numbers, like 3, 5, or 7. This helps break up symmetrical spaces in a home and gives the buyer a more interesting space to look at.
Don’t Ignore the Kitchen
Show how big and open your kitchen is by reducing the number of items that are out in the open. Do not put things on the counter that take up a lot of space. You want to have simple kitchen items out, like flour and sugar jars that can sit against the wall. If you have open shelves or glass doors on your cabinets, add items to fill up some, but not all of the space. Because of the open visibility, display nice plates, bowls, and glassware that you would find to be of dinner party quality.
Staging a house to sell is a very important step to getting the best price for your home. Remember to keep things neutral and to display furniture that fits the room. You want to make sure that each room has furniture that is specific to that room’s purpose. Put away personal belongings and toys to help the buyer envision themselves in the space.
We’re here when you need us,
-Your Perfleek Team
