Home staging tips to increase your home’s value

Are you thinking of selling your home? If so, staging it for sale is one of the most important things you can do to ensure a quick, profitable sale. By staging your home, you make sure that buyers see it in its very best light, and can get a sense of what it could be like without requiring a complete makeover. In an industry where making a great first impression can make all the difference, it’s easy to see how staging has become such an integral part of the selling process.

Selling your home can be a daunting task. It’s hard to let go of something you’ve put so much time and effort into, but it’s important to remember that the goal is to get the best return on your investment. In order to do that, you’ll need to prepare your home for sale. This may include decluttering, removing personal items, and staging your home in a way that showcases its potential. Here are a few tips on how to do just that.

Here are four reasons why you should stage your home before putting it on the market:

1) You’ll sell faster – Studies have shown that staged homes spend less time on the market than non-staged homes.

2) You’ll get more money for your home – Staged homes typically sell for more money than non-staged homes.

3) You’ll create a better buying experience for potential buyers – By staging your home, you’ll help buyers imagine themselves living there. This can make the buying process much easier and faster for them.

4) You’ll be less stressed out – Staging your home can take some of the stress out of selling it. Instead of worrying about how to make your home look its best, you can relax and let the professionals take care of it.

Benefits of Staging a Home

Before you sell your home, you need to consider staging. Staging is the practice of making a room look its best in order to attract buyers and close deals faster. NAR’s 2019 Profile of Home Staging report lays out lots of good reasons for why staging a home offers benefits for both sellers and buyers. Here are some key stats and information from that report.

Cater to Buyers Who Know Their Needs

Staging your home can be a powerful tool to help buyers visualize the space and imagine themselves living in it.

74% of real estate agents report that staging makes it easier for buyers to recognize when a house meets their expectations, while a lack of staging could mean that they are unable to visualize the space—and what it can become—in relation to their vision. Among respondents, 40% said that home staging had an effect on most buyers’ views of a home versus just 6% who said it made no difference.

Sell Your Home’s Potential with Staging

If you’re like most homeowners, when it comes time to sell your home, you want to do everything you can to make sure it looks its best. And while there are a lot of things that go into preparing a home for sale, one of the most important is staging it properly.

According to 83% of buyers’ agents, staging a home makes it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home. Meanwhile, 38% of buyers’ agents say that staging made buyers more likely to go for a showing at a home they saw listed online.

Considering that half the battle of selling a home is just getting buyers in the door, it makes sense that staging would be a major help. Because while you can’t predict what everyone’s taste is going to be, you can stage a home so that it has much more broad appeal and is more likely to be attractive to potential buyers.

If you’re thinking of putting your home on the market, be sure to give staging some serious thought. By preparing your home in a way that makes it more appealing to buyers, you’ll be doing everything you can to ensure a quick and successful sale.

Stage the Most Important Rooms

If you’re preparing to sell your home, it’s important to know which rooms are the most important for home staging. According to a recent report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 47% of buyers’ agents say that seeing a staged living room is important to their clients, while just 19% say the same for bathrooms and 8% for guest bedrooms.

This means that you should focus your home staging efforts on key spaces in your home like the living room, master bedroom, kitchen, and dining room. Knowing which rooms are most important will help you prioritize your work and make the biggest impact with limited resources.

Staging can bring you more money

There’s a lot of evidence that home staging can actually increase the value of a home. For example, one-quarter of buyers’ agents told the National Association of Realtors (NAR) that home staging increased the offering price by 1% to 5%. Among sellers’ agents, 22% say the same and 17% say it actually increased the offering price by 6% to 10%.

Interestingly, 0% of sellers’ agents and only 1% of buyers’ agents said that staging had a negative impact on offering price. So, it seems like staging is generally a good idea if you want to get the most money for your home. This is likely even more true for homes with unique or highly specific décor.

If you’re not convinced yet that staging is crucial, this might be the kicker. One-quarter of buyers’ agents told the NAR that staging increased the offering price by 1% to 5%. Among sellers’ agents, 22% say the same and 17% say it actually increased the offering price by 6% to 10%.

Home Staging Helps You Sell Quicker

Staging your home can be one of the most effective ways to decrease the amount of time it spends on the market. 28 percent of sellers’ agents note a slight decrease in days on the market for staged homes, and 25% report a substantial decrease. Only 12% of sellers’ agents reported that staging a home had no effect on days on the market.

There are a few reasons why staged homes tend to sell faster. For one, home staging helps buyers evaluate whether they can see themselves in a property and what the potential for the space is. It can be a lot more productive than expecting them to do the heavy mental lifting themselves.

Additionally, staged homes look more inviting to buyers and make it easier for them to imagine living there. This can help speed up the buying process and lead to a quicker sale.

Get Rid of Clutter

There are a few key ways to declutter your home before selling it. The most important is to get rid of any excess furniture or belongings. This can be done by holding a garage sale, giving items away to friends and family, or donating them to charity. You should also clean and organize your home so that it looks tidy and inviting. You should look to organize your closets, cabinets, and pantry, as well as cleaning your floors, walls, and windows.

Countertops in the kitchen should be void of appliances and food. Instead think about a potted plant or a bowl of colorful fruit. You want the counters to look clean and show off the amount of space available. The same goes for your bathrooms…less is more. Put the shampoo and soap away. put out nice clean hand towels and leave the sink clean from items.

Depersonalize

When selling your home, it’s important to depersonalize it as much as possible to make the new homeowner feel comfortable and at home. This means removing all of your personal items from sight – including photos, family mementos, and even rugs and furniture with personal touches. By depersonalizing your home, you make the buyer feel like it’s their home now, which can help speed up the sale process. Buyers want to visualize their family photos and their mementos. Art pieces and decorations are good within reason but should help to improve the aesthetic of the home.

Fix Those Items You Always Meant to Fix

We all have those projects we meant to take care of but never got around to. That light that doesn’t work, the switch that needs to be replaced, or the touchup paint that is needed. Now is the time to finish the honey do list! You don’t want to give a prospective buyer reason to think something is wrong with the home. If you are not handy a local handyman can handle most of these projects and would be worth every penny of the investment. You want your home to be seen in the best light so handling those minor fixes when working on your home staging is critical.

Deep Clean

You can spend a lot of time and money making sure your rooms are set up well, you depersonalized and declutter and it won’t matter if your home is not clean! This is sometimes an easily overlooked step of the process but has a major impact. Buyers will think that you don’t properly take care of your home if it is not kept clean. We suggest that you bring in a service to do a thorough deep cleaning to be sure every nook and cranny is attended to. This will leave a fresh, clean impression on potential buyers and show your home in the best light.

Go Neutral

Paint colors can make a big difference in how a home is viewed by potential buyers. When preparing your home for sale, it is important to use colors that will appeal to the greatest number of people. Using bright or bold colors can be a risky move, as some people may find them too overpowering. Neutral colors, on the other hand, are universally appealing and will make your home look more inviting to potential buyers. Buyers not always love your color choices but the add to the clean, warm feeling we are trying to accomplish with home staging.

Lighting is Key

Lighting is one of the most important aspects of staging a home. It can make a room look bigger or smaller, warmer or colder, and more or less inviting. It is important to use bright, warm lighting in rooms that you want to appear spacious and welcoming. In contrast, using cool, dim lighting can make a room feel smaller and more intimate. When staging your home for sale, it is important to use lighting to create the right impression for potential buyers.

You don’t necessarily need to change all the lighting in your home to accomplish this goal. Adding accent lighting or changing the brightness of the bulbs can make a big difference.

Color Accents

We spoke about neutral colors earlier but we also don’t want the home toi feel bland. This is where simple touches of color can help. You accomplish this with flower arrangements on the dining room table, counter top or master bathroom. You can add subtle accent walls to add dimension to a room or place a bowl of colorful fruit on the dining table. These little touches will make the home feel more like a home and an inviting place to live.

Create a Home Office

In this age of telecommuting a home office has become a must have for buyers. Even for those that still commute to work many want a dedicated space for work, school work, or just a place to surf the net. You can get creative in offering this space. It could be as big as turning a bedroom into a full office or retooling a closet with a desk or repurposing some basement space for a desk area. using your imagination and creativity can show the new potential of your home as a home office opportunity which is on the top of many buyer’s wish list in the 2020s.

Get a Storage Unit

A storage unit can be a great option to begin the packing process and rid your home of clutter and unneeded items. this can include off season cloths clogging up your closets, holiday decorations, and furniture that makes a room feel small. Storage units many times have the first month free so if you only need a unit for a few months it can be an economical way to get items out of your home and help with home staging.

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If you’re thinking of putting your home on the market, be sure to give home staging some serious thought. By preparing your home in a way that makes it more appealing to buyers, you’ll be doing everything you can to ensure a quick and successful sale.

=>If all of this sounds intimidating and you want help enacting these principles, let us know. Our team of experts are ready and waiting to partner with you to help you prepare your home for sale and to get it SOLD!