So you’ve decided to put your house on the market for sale. Congratulations! Now the work begins. Before your real estate agent comes to take photos for the listing, it’s always a good idea to think about how you want to present your home to potential buyers. This is commonly referred to as home staging.
If it’s done well, home staging makes your home more appealing and can help you to get a better price for your home. When staging your home, it’s important to view your home through the eyes of a prospective homebuyer and try to distance yourself from your beloved home and its contents and look at it as an investment. Here are a few basics that will help you to make your home more appealing to more buyers: 1. Curb Appeal – make a great first impression on the prospective buyer by cleaning up the outside of your house. Depending upon the season in which you are selling, mow your lawn, place colourful potted plants by the front door, paint your front door or make sure the entrance is ice and snow free.
2. Cut the Clutter – make sure the buyer can see what your house has to offer. Clear off cupboards and desks, clean out closets to showcase storage options and put away your knick-knacks. Some homeowners rent storage lockers and begin their packing up process before putting their house on the market. This is a great way to make sure the prospective buyer can see the features of your house and not your junk.
3. Squeaky Clean – A clean house demonstrates that you care for your home and its contents. While it’s not easy to maintain a clean house while showing it, especially if you have children or pets, it’s very important to keep it looking great. Make sure the kitchen and bathrooms are clean as they are key rooms in any house.
4. It’s Not Personal – Try to remove the majority, if not all, of your personal items like photos, treasures and documents. You want buyers to focus on the best features of your home and not your personal things or collections.
5. One room, one purpose – If your living room doubles as an office, consider putting the desk and equipment in storage while you are showing your home. You don’t want to give the buyers the impression that your house is too small to be functional. As well, removing furniture helps to cut down the clutter.
These tips should get you get started on “editing” your home for sale.
Do you have any tips to share about how you staged a home for sale? If so, share in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you!