When you’re ready to sell your home, there is a process involved, such as understanding your home value and targeting the right buyers. However, before you go ahead with those steps, you must prepare or stage your home to impress potential buyers.
The goal of staging is to prepare your home for sale on the real estate market while exposing its best assets and grabbing the best possible price.
Here’s how you can make it happen:
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1. Use Neutral Paints and Remove Wallpaper
While you may love your lime green or berry red walls in your living room, everyone’s preferences are different, and your buyer may not have similar tastes in colors.
Instead, tear down the wallpapers and work with neutral and warm colors. White won’t help them envision the house as their own, but neutral paints may provide a warming look that isn’t overwhelming or underwhelming.
2. Focus on Lighting
Natural lighting is perfect for attracting potential buyers because it shows that your home gets enough natural lighting, which means better sleep and possibly smaller bills for them.
If you have ample natural light, ensure that you pull your curtains, blinds, and open windows to let as much light in as possible. Regarding your fixtures, replace broken lights and turn on all lights during an open house, so buyers don’t have to hunt for the switches themselves.
If you’re showing your house after dark, make sure that you have enough lighting in the house and even outside if you have a beautiful patio or backyard.
3. Fix Walls and Ceilings
You can’t afford to have a shaky foundation when selling your home because they are significant red flags for buyers that need to be impressed.
It isn’t the best idea to leave cracks in the walls and ceilings because buyers will understand that they will need to put in work to repair that, affecting your selling price or making them wonder what else is in poor condition.
Repair any cracks to make your home look good if they have no root problem. But if there’s an underlying issue, you should make repairs before making cosmetic upgrades.
4. Understand and Improve Your Home’s Curb Appeal
Your home’s exterior is equally as important as the interior, if not more because it determines a buyer’s first impression of the house and garners their interest in deciding whether they should stop by. Here are some of the things that you can do to improve your curb appeal:
● Clean up your lawn and backyard– Remove any weeds, debris, and ensure that your trees or hedges are pruned.
● Make your Exterior Squeaky Clean– If you can, power wash the exterior of your home because it’ll make it look freshly painted with less expense and effort. If you can’t clean up on your own, you can hire professionals to help you out.
● Add Little Touches– You can add flower boxes to brighten up space, a friendly ‘welcome home’ mat for the front and backyard doors, and magnify your pool if you have one.
● Create a Fun-Space- If you have a large backyard space, you can pull together some fun furniture for the ideal barbecue and unwinding living space, or you can add some pretty fairy lights with a simple garden swing.
5. Clearly Define Spaces
While you want a buyer to envision the home as theirs, you don’t want them doubting specific rooms that have no clear purpose; this can make them more confused because they will have to put in more effort to make it work.
Even if your home is on the smaller side, uniquely defining rooms can go a long way to give you an edge over other homes. If you have an unused basement or garage space, you can turn it into a little workspace, or your attic can become an entertainment space, while an unused room can be changed into a guest bedroom.
The buyer may want to change the rooms’ purpose, but it is vital to show that all your rooms can be used, including every inch of space, such as window seats and nooks.
6. Don’t Forget About the Flooring
While cleaning is essential for staging your home, so are floors that are in excellent condition. Buyers may either see an expensive fix-it project or may negotiate a lower price for a carpet allowance. Have the carpet cleaned, or remove it entirely if the stains are coming off.
Linoleum flooring may be cheaper, but hardwood floors require little to no maintenance and are robust. They are also ideal for those with allergies, and many people will prefer hardwood floors.
7. Make Buyers Feel at Home
While it isn’t possible to remove all the clutter at home, especially if you haven’t moved out, ensure that you store away any family photos or refrigerator art.
Store away toys, clothes, and anything on the bathroom counters, except for soap. The buyer needs to envision themselves in the space, and it wouldn’t help if it still feels like your home.
8. Rethink Furniture
Don’t clutter too much furniture in rooms because it can make the room look smaller. Alternatively, using less furniture can make a room look too uninviting and large.
Make sure the rooms look homey, inviting, and comfortable. You can also opt for professional help at this time to help you out and make your room colorful.
Consider What’s Best for You
While there are many ways to stage your home, your goal should be specific to your locality and buyer’s demands. Ask your real estate agent to help you better understand what current buyers in your state are looking for and how you can improve your chances of a higher asking price.
Have Questions? Ask Marta!
Give Marta Beckett a call today at 612.840.1293 to learn more about local areas, discuss selling a house, or tour available homes for sale.
