Tips For Staging Your Home
As I wrote about in depth in my book, when your
home goes on the market, one of the most important
factors, aside from the way you price it, is the way
you stage it. The goal is not just to make it look
better, but to make it look bigger, as well. Buyers
consider three things in a home: size, condition,
and location. Staging affects two of these factors
(size and condition) and will therefore have a huge
impact on the sale price.
Remember that it’s the structure that buyers have
come to see; not your personal belongings. Don’t
take it personally! Your décor might be lovely and
it’s true that good décor helps sell a house. But
what buyers need most is a clear and unobstructed
view of floors, walls, ceilings, windows, and
countertops. If they cannot envision their own
things in your home, they won’t buy it.
Begin With Curb Appeal
Most people think of staging as something you do
only to the inside of a home. Actually, staging
begins on the outside - with your home’s curb appeal
- or, how it looks from the street. Here are some
tips to improve it.
- Lay fresh mulch
around shrubs, trees and plant beds.
- If the lawn is faded, sparse or dead, allow 2-3
weeks for new seedling to grow before putting the
house on the market.
- If the driveway is faded, you can use a sealant
made to coat blacktop surfaces. You can apply it
with a long-handled paint roller. Also available is
a combination squeegee/broom made specifically for
this purpose.
- Re-paint, clean or adjust shutters and gutters so
they hang straight.
- Move or put away extraneous items which are
visible from the street such as water hoses, lawn
art, garbage cans, children’s outdoor toys and
bicycles.
- Dispose of the cracked or unused planters strewn
about. Remove leaves and debris from around shrubs;
trim and edge the beds.
- Consider installing flower boxes on second-floor
windows with colorful flowers and/or hanging ivy.
(On the right house, this is an amazing
transformation in itself.)
- Create a circle of medium-sized rocks around the
perimeter of a prominent tree about three feet out
from the trunk and fill in with mulch. This really
helps define the property and draws attention to a
pretty tree.
The Interior
If you can do nothing else, the three most
important staging strategies are to: (1) de-clutter,
(2) let as much light into the house as possible,
and (3) make the home spotlessly clean.
To stage the interior, most sellers need to begin by
taking things out of the house - even pieces of
furniture. Too many items in a space make it appear
smaller than it really is. Having fewer pieces opens
a room up. I find that this is the hardest thing for
a seller to do. Once items such as family photos,
ottomans, unnecessary side tables, and even some
rugs are removed, the house may appear to you to be
empty, cold, or unlived-in. What’s important is to
not confuse decorating for everyday living with
staging to sell your house. They are very different!
Good staging showcases the architecture, space, and
amenities - the things that buyers are really
interested in.
Here are some other tips for the interior.
- Remove and store
pieces of furniture from crowded rooms and pare down
tabletop items and personal photographs.
- It’s very expensive to buy good-quality artwork.
Instead, try using a large decorative mirror over
the fireplace or above a couch. It’s a terrific
substitute for a painting and a much less expensive
way to create a focal point in the room. The side
benefit is that the reflection makes the room look
bigger.
- Turn certain pieces of furniture on an angle. Many
of us position things straight or flush to the wall.
Turning a piece on an angle makes the floor space
around it seem larger. (This can sometimes works
quite well for beds, too.)
- Update an old, ripped or faded couch (or arm
chair) with a neutral or solid slip cover. Add a
splash of color with modern pillows or throws.
- Give the fireplace an instant facelift. Borrow or
buy new tools to place beside it and sweep out the
inside. This really raises the bar for the whole
mantle area. For a clean look, place new firewood
inside—or arrange big tall candles inside. Don’t
overcrowd the mantle with too many objects. Less is
more.
- If your home has high ceilings or beautiful
moldings, put a tall vase, plant, or piece of art on
top of a cabinet or armoire to draw the buyer’s eye
upward.
- Consider removing a leaf from the dining room
table if the room. It’s a common problem where an
overly large dining table makes the room appear
smaller than it really is.
- Remove kitchen countertop appliances to make the
work space appear bigger.
- Remove everything from the outside of the
refrigerator, including magnets, schedules, artwork,
photographs, and calendars.
- Update old kitchen cabinets by replacing the
hardware with modern handles and pulls. You can find
unique or expensive-looking pieces in most major
chain stores now.
- One of the best and cheapest ways to make an old,
tired bathroom look crisp and fresh (no matter what
the color scheme) is to use stark white towels, a
white shower curtain, and a white window valance.
This brightens and gives a feeling of cleanliness.
- Clean or bleach the grout between shower wall
tiles and re-caulk the perimeter of the bathtub to
brighten an old bathroom.
- Make closets look bigger by removing at least one
third of the clothes and shoes. Organize the
remaining clothes by color or style.
- Wash windows and pull back drapes to allow as much
light in as possible.
- If you cannot remove storage items from the
basement and attic, put most of it in plastic
storage bins and line them up in an orderly fashion.
- Create outdoor “rooms” by arranging porch and
patio furniture in ways that foster conversation and
entertaining. This will make a small home feel
larger by bringing the outdoors in.
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