7 Home Staging Tips to Help You Sell Fast

Home staging is quickly becoming a standard with home selling in the Daytona Beach and Orlando North real estate markets. A home stager comes in on the front end before the house is listed as a home inspector comes in at the back end before the final sale.

We all “oooh and ahhh” when we watch the miraculous changes to homes on HGTV. The changes occur through the two-part home staging process. The first step is through a home staging consultation where a professional home stager makes recommendations to go from “blah” to “oooh and ahhh.” The second step is to actually stage or showcase the property which is the “icing on the cake.”

When your home is in a great location, is priced right, and is presented well at the beginning before you list, you will capture the audience of many potential home buyers resulting in a quick sale and extra cha-ching in your pocket. It may take sweat equity, but you will reap the benefits of home staging.

We’ve all heard “clean and declutter” but what exactly does that mean? Clean until spotless, make the beds, take out the trash and okay, you’re ready for your home to be viewed. Not quite so fast, there are other things to tend to as well. Following are several tips to get extra cha-ching in your pocket when you are selling your home in the Orlando North and Daytona Beach real estate markets.

Clean and Declutter – Clean and clean again; that’s pretty basic. Declutter means put things away.  Clutter eats equity!

• As you declutter, ask: Do I keep, donate, or discard? If you’re keeping the item, is it something I need to use now to live with? An example is if you’re marketing your home in the summer, is it necessary to keep your winter clothes in the closet? After all, you’re moving so take advantage of your preparation time and begin packing away things you will not need. Also keep in mind the possibility of having a garage sale.
• Removing everything from the top, front or sides of your refrigerator.
• Pack up personal items such as family photos, as well as sports affiliated articles or religious symbols that may be found in your home. The goal is to capture the most potential buyers and items of contention should be packed away.
• Unstuff your closets and drawers – home buyers will look in here to determine if there’s enough space for their items.

Curb Appeal – An inviting exterior shows compassion for your landscape and welcomes home buyers in. Trim shrubs, mow grass, add colorful flowers and mulch. Remove cobwebs, wasp nests and pressure wash if necessary. If your exterior looks well kept on the outside, the inside must also. Perception of the outside is how a potential home buyer thinks of the inside. You want to get them in the door.

Lighting – Enhance the outside of your home by adding solar lighting to a created focal point (more on that below). Make sure your home’s interior has adequate lighting and does not look dark and dreary. Increase the wattage on your light bulbs, or add more lighting with table or floor lamps. Remember any purchases you make now can go with you to your new home.

Focal Points –When buyers view your home, you need to provide a purpose for each room and give potential buyer’s eyes a place to land in the room. This is called creating a focal point which draws potential buyers into the room.

Conversation Groupings – One of the goals when staging your home is to show that the amount of space is adequate. When a home buyer is viewing your home, they want to envision how they will live there and how easy it is to move from room to room. This is called flow and this is done by creating conversation groupings with your furniture. Most people fill up their homes with furniture. Since it’s going to be moving time anyways, pare down the amount of furniture and put your excess items in storage. Re-configure your furniture so that you have conversation areas. The first one you create should be around the room’s focal point.

Vignettes – In the interior design world, a vignette is created by grouping similar accessory items. You will want to create strategically placed vignettes. Their purpose is to “help” the eyes move around the space.

Simple Home Staging Tips –

• Use baskets to store items while your home is being viewed.
• Group accessories in odd numbers. If your accessories are bigger than a melon, pack them away. Smaller items become a distraction when potential buyers are viewing your home.
• Neutralize your wall paint so that your spaces look larger and are unified from adjacent rooms. A color choice from the neutralized color pallet is best. Do watch for undertones in the color choice to make sure it blends well with your existing elements.
• Remove wall paper or wall border as these are both personal in nature. You want to appeal to the most potential buyers.
• Fix or repair obvious items. Don’t make home buyers ask for concessions and bid less than your asking price. Today’s buyers want move-in ready.
• Add fluffy white towels to your bathrooms. Provide a spa-like feel as if the potential buyer has just walked into a five-star hotel. Make sure toilet lids are down and shower curtains are open, with the lights turned on.
• Update light fixtures and hardware if your home is more than 20 years old.

Thanks for dropping by and reading 7 Home Staging Tips to Help You Sell Fast. I hope you find these home staging ideas useful. Please feel free to “like” and “share” to help others prepare their house for sale.