How to stage a home for sale is one of my favourite parts of selling a home for buyer. It’s incredible to witness how even a few small changes can have a dramatic impact on the final sale price.
So grab a coffee, a tea or your preferred beverage and enjoy the read!
Home Staging
Regardless of the type or size of your property – be it a stand-alone house, a unit within a complex, a cottage, on acreage, a heritage, or contemporary home or an investment property – it is vitally important to stage your home for sale.
Staging ensures your home will appeal to the widest and biggest pool of potential buyers. This is important in any economy, and particularly Australia where the real estate market is beginning to steady after rapid growth.
You can engage professionals to do this for a fee, but if you take the information contained in this article seriously, you will save yourself a lot of money. It’s not rocket science, but it is very important.
Follow these tips to attract as many buyers as you can and make a quick and profitable sale of your home, with minimal effort and almost nominal outlay.
At first, inspections and open homes seem exciting; but let me tell you that if the sale process drags on for weeks, these interruptions to everyday life become very arduous.
So What Exactly is ‘Staging’?
Staging – also known as property-styling or property presentation – is the art of setting up your home to look its finest, by minimising flaws and emphasising your home’s best attributes for a sale. Simply put, home staging is the process of presenting your home to appeal to your target market.
Its main purpose is to get buyers to imagine themselves living in the house, and feel a sense of urgency about making an offer before they miss out. It also has them forming a strong emotional connection to the idea of being in your home.
The strength of a buyer’s emotional attachment is usually directly linked to the amount of money they are willing to pay for it.
It is a fact that staged homes bring in about 15% more revenue than those that aren’t. For this reason, home staging is an excellent investment for those preparing to sell.
First impressions Matter
First impressions have a huge role in making big financial decisions. A buyer will have already made up their mind whether or not to buy your home within the first eight seconds of entering your home. The rest of the time spent inspecting your property will be based on those all-important first impressions.
Presentation is the keyword to keep in mind while putting your home up for sale. Always remember that ‘you’ll never get a second chance to make a good first impression’. To ensure that your home does make a good first impression, you need to address all those things in your home that might just give a poor impression to buyers.
As someone living in the home, many dysfunctional things might seem normal to you, simply because you have become used to them. The trick is to see those things as an outsider might.
Anomalies such as broken, damaged and dirty surfaces and items, if noted by any potential butter, might just work against you and your power to negotiate a higher price. Any crack in the ceiling, or an obviously broken piece of furniture, must be fixed before you start showing your home to outsiders.
The last thing you want is for prospective buyers to feel unwelcome or as though they are intruding in someone’s personal space – you want buyers to spend as long as possible in the home and feel,well, at home!
Well-showcased homes sell 84% faster than those that aren’t. So I urge you to read on.
What Does Home Staging Involve?
Simply cleaning a home and doing routine maintenance is only a small part of staging.
Home staging involves:
De-cluttering
This is the removal of our personal belongings from the viewer’s sight. It helps in taking away the personality that comes with your own belongings. Usually, buyers try to visualise their own belongings in your home, so de-personalising it by removing your family photos and holiday trinkets, and replacing with carefully selected art and décor items, will make your home appear fresher and more spacious.
Clutter is off-putting, not only to prospective buyers but even to a person who loves to be neat and organised. Clutter makes a place look unnecessarily busy, and the room’s dimensions look and feel much smaller.
Remove old ornaments, personal certificates, newspapers and magazines, vases, photo frames, bits and pieces etc. Remove as much as you can; if you’re not sure, put away at least half of it (also known as the 50% rule). If you need to, pack things away in cupboards or in a storage area within the garage. It is entirely acceptable to have things neatly stored in your garage for the duration of the sale – it’s got to go somewhere!
Effective tips for de-cluttering your home:
- Identify the problem areas. Usually these are spaces you haven’t used in a while and are covered in dust; piles of items that you cannot even identify how old they are, for example, piles of newspapers or magazines, little bits of debris all over the bench-tops etc.
- Start with the area you feel like not doing at all. This way you free up energy for the rest of your cleaning efforts. The satisfaction and relief of de-cluttering an area that actively makes you feel annoyed, guilty or overwhelmed is very therapeutic.
- Once all is sorted out, you don’t want to go back and have to de-clutter again in a few weeks. Take care of clutter as it comes in or starts to build up. Basically it’s easier to deal with it immediately by either filing, sorting or throwing it away.
- Set a due date or expiry date for all the stuff you keep. If after a period of time, you haven’t used or needed any of the items, then get rid of it. Give it away, bin it, recycle or find someone who needs it and will make use of it. Otherwise, all this stuff will be occupying space and cluttering your home for no good reason. Ensure that everything has its rightful place in the home where it fits best and has the most usefulness.
- Carry a basket around with you while cleaning in which to put all the clutter. This will speed up the process and make it easier to keep up momentum. The items can be sorted and restored to their rightful locations later.
- Reward yourself for a job well done! Find something nice you like doing to treat yourself with, after you’ve done battle with clutter and are satisfied with the results. Whatever it may be, just reward yourself so that you feel inspired to keep dealing with it on an ongoing basis until your home is sold.
Cleaning:
It is believed that cleanliness is next to Godliness. This is the first and most obvious necessity, especially just before inspections. Your home must be spotlessly clean, so buyers can look forward to moving into a sparkling and healthy home.
Dust, grime, stains, slime and spillages are some of the major turn offs. So are dirty carpets, scuffed and scummy looking floors, cupboards with food spillages on the doors, dead insects, dirty window sills, grubby light switches and door handles etc.
Wash and put the dishes away, stow the washing basket, make the beds and arrange shoes. Ensure all surfaces gleam and keep away anything a potential buyer might not want to see or touch. This goes for all the rooms and surfaces in the home.
Before showing your home, employ these simple tips to give a super clean impression:
- Pour bleach down your kitchen sink, it will make even old stainless steel sinks look shiny again.
- After cleaning, line your oven with aluminium foil. Splatters will hit the foil and make cleaning it in future so much faster and easier.
- Don’t allow shoes on your carpet after having it professionally steam cleaned. Make the clean last longer.
Re-arranging, removing and/or replacing furniture
Usually, if your furniture is stylish and fits well with the room, then you can go ahead and place it in the most suited locations to create room and give a welcoming feel.
If not, you have the option of renting furniture to ensure you show the best. The key is to choose the most appealing, quality pieces and arrange them to give each room a stylish and welcoming feels.
Optimise Space
This is ensuring that every space in your home is put to good use. The efficient use of space ensures that even homes that are small in dimension can still offer areas with specialised purposes and functions. Once can easily create extra living areas, a home office, a study room, an entertainment room, spare rooms for guests and children, all without knocking down any walls.
To achieve this, take out any unnecessary furniture and fixtures. If there’s room under a staircase for a compact office, place a desk and chair there so that the buyer can clearly see the potential.
For an unused patio or balcony, have some comfortable chairs or a hammock to suggest room for relaxation.
Accessorising
Use of bright and fluffy cushions and contemporary bedding, or an elegant table setting, can add to the warmth and appeal of your home.
Complementary wall hangings will also add to the appeal. I recommend sticking with fairly neutral bedding decor, and relying on accessories and art for colour. Theme rooms with one colour accent to keep things simple yet stylish.
Light it up
Natural light should be featured as much as possible in the staging of your home. Open curtains, blinds or window coverings to let it in. It gives the room a fresh, airy and wholesome atmosphere.
Although artificial lighting can be used to enhance the interior of your home, it can sometimes leave a gloomy impression. Fluorescent lights can seem alienating. To create a warm impression, down lights, lamps and studio lighting can be used.
Ensure every bedroom has at least one, if not two, bedside lamps. These will frame the bed in photos and send light upwards on the main wall, brightening the whole room.
Fresh air
Airing of the entire home before an inspection is essential. Locked up, sealed or poorly ventilated homes smell stuffy and have an unwelcome feel to them. Air the home daily, or at least several hours before an inspection. Light neutrally scented candles just prior to showing the home – these give additional mood lighting as well as fragrance.
Organising
Have the contents of your walk-in wardrobe, drawers and pantry neatly arranged. Some buyers are nosy enough to want to look inside, partly to ensure a lack of wear or damage, but also to ensure there is enough space. A well organised home gives an impression of order; hence, the buyer feels a sense of an orderly life once settled in.
By organising, you will reassure the potential buyer that there is ample storage space for their needs and inspire confidence that your home is well taken care of.
Landscaping
Yard maintenance is essential if you are to achieve maximum price potential. Remove any overgrown areas, trim back shrubs, trees and hedges, mow and edge lawns. The biggest investment here is usually your time and elbow grease.
Small enhancements to the fence and general outdoor look can also aid in attaining the maximum impact and create a positive first impression.
Leave Your Home
Buyers want to feel comfortable when it comes to asking questions and thoroughly inspecting the home. Not everyone will love your home and negative comments can be upsetting. At the same time, interested parties may not feel at ease discussing their interest in the property if the seller is within earshot. It is an emotional time for both sellers and buyers, so it’s best for all if you’re not present when inspections are being conducted.
Part One in Summary
There’s a reason why I’ve split Staging Your Home for Sale in two parts! There’s a lot to write about however I hope you’ve gained more knowledge on how small improvements can make a difference to the sale price of your home.
Join me in Part 2 for the conclusion of this exciting and creative topic 🏡