Home Staging Tips to Make Your Home Shine at Showings

You want to make your home stand out with potential buyers, but you also don’t want it to stick out like a sore thumb. So where’s the middle ground? Working with a home stager (get in touch and we can give you a recommendation) can have a huge impact on the amount of time your home is on the market and the offers you receive. If you are looking to pinch your pennies as a home seller or if you’re short on time, you can implement staging principles on your own.

Here are our 7 home staging tips:

Spend time in the bathroom
Bathrooms can make or break a buyer’s decision about your home. Buyers are looking for clean, update bathrooms. If you bathroom is a bit outdated, you can overcome this by ensuring it is spotless. Give everything a good scrub to remove any grime. Stag the bathroom with nice, fluffy towels, comfy bath mats and a simple and clean shower curtain. Replace the lightbulbs with new, brighter bulbs to make the room stand out.

Update your fireplace
While a beautiful fireplace is a selling point, an outdated fireplace is just an eyesore. Give your fireplace a quick and affordable update by removing any brass fixtures, scrubbing it down with soap and water and giving it a fresh coat of paint. If you’re feeling adventurous you can install a new mantle or surround to increase the wow factor (and see a strong return!).

Update window coverings
Blinds are functional, but they aren’t a wow factor. Update your windows with some simple window coverings. Don’t hang up anything too heavy or bold. Consider hanging thin, light colored curtains. Just enough to frame the window and still let light in.

Stage built-in shelving
Built-in shelving is a huge selling point for most buyers, but no one wants to see overcrowded shelves. If you have built-in shelving spend some time decluttering and staging. Pack the books away along with most of your knick knacks. A simple, well laid out set of shelves will really catch the buyer’s eye and allow them to think of all the possibilities.

Rearrange rooms by using tape
Moving heavy furniture around can be exhausting, so save yourself some energy by moving furniture out of each room and instead using tape on the floor to find the perfect layout. You want your rooms, especially the living and family rooms, to feel open. You may end up having to removing some pieces from each room to get the flow spot on. Using tape allows you to change your mind multiple times without doing all the heavy lifting.

Brighten it up
Before your first showing give your home a once over and replace any dull or discolored light bulbs. You want your home to feel light and bright. Leave the lights on and window coverings open when you know a showing is scheduled so that buyers can get the best first impression possible.

Scrub it down
As buyers walk around your home they will likely be touching most of your surfaces. Give all of your surfaces, and any tiled walls, glass doors and windows and good scrub. It’s never a good feeling to run your hand over a countertop to find something sticky or crusty.

These simple tips can push your home to the next level! If you are looking for more advice, get in touch today.