mdolla: Five Smart & Cheap Ways to Stage Your Home to Sell

When you stage your home to sell you have to create the “wow” factor. Here are five easy tips that let you create the “wow” and keep your bank account intact.

1. Make It Bright, Cheery, & Inviting

These are the three must have’s when staging your home to sell. Bright simply means light it up! Clean the windows, use higher wattage bulbs and freshen up the paint.

One of the most cited wants of a buyer is light. You want as much natural light as possible to come into your rooms. Pull back your curtains, open your blinds, and make sure the window panes are spotless. If you have older blinds, it may be a good idea to either remove the blinds or replace them with inexpensive blinds. The discoloration of older blinds can be a turnoff to buyers.

Rooms should look fresh. If it has been a while since you painted it is a good idea to freshen up with a new coat of paint. Be careful of bold colors. They may not be as appealing to a buyer as they are to you. Instead, paint common areas neutral colors that are welcoming. Save your bold colors for interesting pieces strategically arranged throughout the house.

New bulbs in all of your current lighting will do wonders for a room. Try to have 100 watts every 50 square feet and mix it up with ambient and task lighting if possible. If a bulb shows through your fixture, consider an old fashion or decorative bulb that will add a touch of uniqueness.

2. Taking the Home out of the House

Selling your home is usually an emotional experience. Everywhere you look there are memories. Family photos line the hall wall and decorate your refrigerator. Your realtor advised you to put away the personal items that may remind a would-be buyer that someone else lives here. But, how can you take down and put away all of the items you hold so dear?

Although it is true you must depersonalize your house to increase your odds of selling quickly, it simply means you need to remove the outdated or personal items temporarily until the house is sold. Try and pretend you are visiting the house for just a short while. What items are important for your short stay? Any item that does not serve a purpose or add to the decor should be put away. After all, once you sell your house these items will need to be packed so think of it as pre-packing for your new home.

3. Remove any Unnecessary Items

It’s a good idea to rent a storage unit to remove any unnecessary items from your house. If you’ve been in your home for a long time, chances are you’ve accumulated a lot of “stuff”. Go through each room and make piles. One pile to keep, one pile to donate, one pile to store. Not only will removing unnecessary items make your house look bigger while it is on the market, but it will make it much easier to move once your house is sold.

If you are confused about an item being necessary, ask yourself if you would “need” that item if you were staying somewhere for a month or two? If the answer is no, then you can move that item to storage.

4. Play Room Swap and Be Creative

Just because the couch sat against that wall for the past twenty years doesn’t mean it has to sit against that wall. Think outside of the box when staging your home. Move items around to different rooms until you get the magazine look. If you struggle with this, you can ask a friend with a knack for decorating to help. If you don’t have any design savvy friends, hire a professional stager to help you out.

Professional stagers are not as expensive as you may think. Often they will charge around $125 an hour and be able to stage your whole house in a couple of hours with your own furniture. Sometimes something as simple as moving a chair to another room can open up an entire area. They can also help you understand better what is necessary and what is not. Simply move what is not necessary to storage if it is a keep item.

5. The First Impression May Be The Only Impression

Curb appeal cannot be overstated when you stage your home to sell. Lawns should be well manicured and bushes should be trimmed so that they do not cover windows.

Color scattered throughout the porches and yard will add pop. Use shepherd hooks and containers to stage your yard. The good thing about container gardening is if it doesn’t look right or your plants fade you can easily replace them with a new pot of flowers.

Another great idea for curb appeal is to paint your front door a bright color. Remember, the idea is that any would-be homebuyer that drives by for a peek prior to a showing is so impressed with the outside of the house they cannot wait to see the inside.

Featured photo credit: Romi via pixabay.com

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