According to the National Association of Realtors, home staging had a positive effect on 40 percent of buyers' opinion of a home. And 83 percent of agents say that house staging makes it easier for buyers to visualize themselves in the home.
The downside of that? These agents spent an average of $400 on the staging process.
While it is generally recommended that staging a home for sale is a must, it can be hard to do when living on a budget. Keep reading to discover eight simple tips and get your home sold.
1. Deep Clean Everything
The first step of staging your home is deep cleaning everything.
When you're selling your home, it's not the time to hide everything in your linen closet or only dust the high-traffic areas of your home. A potential buyer will look in every nook and cranny of your home. If it comes down to two houses that are extremely similar, a buyer will choose the one that appears better-taken care of.
The good news is that cleaning is cheap, it just takes a few basic supplies and some time. Invite some friends over for a cleaning party and scrub every surface of your home. After your initial deep-clean, make sure to tidy up before every home showing.
2. Declutter
Once you finish cleaning, it's time to declutter the home.
Channel your inner Marie Kondo and remove all unnecessary items from your house. Does the buyer need to see five extra towels in the guest bathroom? What about all the shoes lining the bottom of your closet?
If you don't want to get rid of the clutter, simply pack and move it now while showing your home. This also means less moving later on in the process.
Then, organize whatever remains. Use tips from Marie Kondo to neatly fold and organize all your items so they are pleasant to look at.
3. Remove Personal Items
When staging a home, it's also suggested you remove any personal items from the home.
It's hard for a potential buyer to picture themselves relaxing in the living room when your large family portrait is prominently displayed. The same goes for hobby-related, religious, or political memorabilia.
You want your home to appear lacking in personality so the buyer isn't distracted. Picture the set-up at your local furniture store, these mock rooms make great inspiration for home staging.
4. Keep It Light
Very few people want to live in a dungeon. An inviting home features lots of natural light and well-lit rooms.
If you normally have your curtains closed or your blinds down, open them up or completely remove them when showing your home. Let us much natural light into your home as possible, even in private rooms like the bathroom or bedroom.
Rooms that don't have the best natural lighting should have supplemental light with lamps and overhead lights. Make sure these lights are already on before a showing so the realtor or buyer doesn't have to struggle to find the right light switch. It may increase your electricity bill a little bit but it could help land the right buyer for your home.
5. Go Fresh
You want your home to look fresh and new to potential buyers.
One of the easiest ways to do this is to apply a coat of fresh paint to the walls. This does cost some money, but you don't have to buy the most expensive paint since you're planning on moving out anyway.
A free way to bring freshness into your home is to cut fresh flowers from your garden and bring them outside. Not only does this brighten up the area, but it also gives your home a fresh, floral scent.
6. Group Your Furniture
One of the more common tips of home staging is grouping furniture.
This involves moving your furniture closer together and away from your walls. So if your couch usually sits against a wall, bring it closer to the middle of the room, along with the rest of the room's furniture.
This makes your room seem larger since it allows buyers to walk around the outer walls of the room. This little trick doesn't cost a dime!
7. When in Doubt, Empty It Out
Not the best interior decorator? Don't want to go through the process of staging your home only to have to move everything out when it sells? An empty, clean house sells better than a cluttered, dirty house.
Give your potential buyers a clean slate to look out by completing emptying your home of belongings. You can do this by moving into your new home early or renting a storage unit temporarily.
8. Skip Staging All Together
If you're staying up all night worried about how much does it cost to stage a house, just skip the staging step altogether. Instead, sell your home to a property solutions company that buy houses in any condition.
These companies work by offering you quick cash for your home in its current condition. This removes the cleaning, fixing-up, and stages steps from the home selling process. Instead, you set up a meeting with one of these companies, they buy your home, and you walk away with cash.
While you may end up getting less money for your home than you were expecting, sometimes it's worth it to save time and stress.
Beyond Staging a Home For Sale
Using these eight tips for staging a home for sale, you'll have a buyer in no time.
But, a nicely staged home isn't the only thing that will impact a buyers decision. Make sure that your home is appropriately priced for the current market, has great curb appeal, a good real estate agent, and adequate marketing.
For more budget-friendly tips during the home-selling process, check out the Real Estate and Money sections on our site.
