Styling your home for sale can be one of the most important factors in how quickly it sells. To offer the most appeal to prospective buyers, you’ll need to keep an eye toward design and distance yourself from your personal decor.
Of course, you can hire a professional to give your home that “magazine” look. Or, you can follow these home staging ideas for a similar effect. Either way, you’ll be bound to come out ahead, and fast!
CONTENTS: In this article, you will learn the best home staging ideas so you can sell your house fast, including:
- What is Home Staging
- Why is Styling Your Home for Sale Important
- Which Rooms You Should Stage | Step By Step
- General Staging Tips for Your Home
- Staging Your Bedrooms
- Living Room Styling
- How to Style Your Kitchen
- Home Staging the Bathrooms
- When to Style Your Home for Sale
- Final Thoughts on Styling Your Home to Sell
What is Home Staging?
Home staging is when you accessories, minimize clutter, remove personal belongings, rearrange furniture and otherwise “dressing” the rooms in your home. Also called “styling,” the result is a more pleasing space that will better appeal to buyers in:
- Online real estate photos
- Open houses
- Walk-throughs
Why Styling Your Home for Sale Important
Before putting your home on the market, it’s important that you take some time to make sure it looks it’s very best. You only get one chance to make a good first impression with prospective buyers and you need to ensure that it’s a good one.
Hiring renovation companies for home renovation before putting it up for sale will help to garner more interest in your property, speed up the selling process, and even get you a better price for your home.
And when you style your home, you have a better chance of the house selling quickly.
For one reason, a house that has been staged convinces as much as 40% of prospective buyers to visit the home they see online, according to the National Association of Realtors.
And because staged homes look better — sometimes like they are from the pages of a magazine or upscale catalog — the perceived value of your home increases.
Staging your home properly also allows prospective buyers to more easily envision themselves living in your home. This is the emotional connection you want that often leads someone to buy your home. When your home is full of your personal belongings and reflects your lifetime of living, that can be a long leap for buyers to take.
But don’t worry.
It’s not a long leap for you to go from your family home to a staged home. Keep reading to find out how to go about it.
What Kinds of Things Should You Do to Stage Your Home?
We’ll get into suggestions for reach room, but some of the general home staging ideas you’ll want to do include:
- Thoroughly clean every corner and maintain it while your home is on the market.
- Remove most of your personal belongings–at least 2/3rds–from the home, as well as any extraneous decor items.
- Arrange furniture in a way that gives the impression of space. (Hint: remove a few chairs from the dining room table.)
- Add cozy touches, like decorative pillows, a chic throw blanket, scented candles, fresh flowers, and serving wear. That will make the space inviting.
- Make sure all your plants look well-cared for and healthy, indoors and outdoors.
- Open up curtains and blinds to bring it lots of natural light.
A Room-By-Room Guide to Home Styling For Sale
When you are preparing your home for sale, you will need to ensure that you are detail-orientated in everything that you do. Potential buyers will be viewing your home with a critical eye and you need to be sure that there are no issues for them to find.
Each room in your home will require a slightly different approach so it’s best to go to style each room one-by-one when you are prepping your home for sale.
Continue reading to learn how you can style your home for sale, one room at a time.
Staging Your Bedrooms
When styling your bedrooms, it’s important to focus on creating a calm, comfortable and spacious feel to the room.
The bed should be the centre of attention and should be accompanied by a bedside table if two if it’s a double.
An oak bedside table is a great choice, as the natural materials will make the room feel more warm and cozy.
Stage a bedroom console table with a few well-chosen accessories to achieve the look of professionally-designed decor.
Be sure to clear away any clutter and make sure the room is neat and presentable.
Built-in storage can add to the appeal of the room, too.
How to Style Your Living Room for Sale
The living room is a key area of the house and a chance for you to make a comfortable impression.
Many buyers are guilty of subconsciously judging the rest of your home based on the standard of your living room so it’s important to give it plenty of love and attention.
Clear away as much of the clutter as possible to make the room feel more spacious.
If you really want to go the extra mile, paint the walls a neutral colour.
Have your carpets cleaned to eliminate any lingering odors and to make sure they look their very best.
You should also ensure that your furniture fits the room well and that it doesn’t make the space feel cramped.
Add throws, cushions, carefully selected artwork and vases to add some final flourishes.
Related Article: Creating A Minimalist Decor for Bookshelves
Styling Your Kitchen to Sell Your House
While many people might tell you that you should give your kitchen a complete makeover before selling, this can cost thousands of dollars and is not always feasible. You’ll unlikely get a return on investment from the renovation when it comes to the sale, either.
Instead, make sure that your kitchen is thoroughly cleaned from top to bottom, leaving no stone unturned.
Remove any unnecessary appliances, cookbooks and other items from the countertops to make them appear more spacious.
Check your kitchen walls for splatters and be sure to clean up or repaint if required.
Be sure to fix any broken appliances.
Finally, it’s worthwhile to paint your cabinets a neutral colour to make the room feel bigger and brighter.
Stage Your Bathrooms
In the bathroom, hygiene is king.
Just like in the kitchen, you need to roll up your sleeves and scrub until your bathroom is spotlessly clean.
Scour every inch the sink, toilet, shower, and especially the whirlpool tub if you have one.
Fix any cracked or broken tiles and be sure to repair leaking faucets.
Finally, make your bathroom feel a little more inviting with one or two houseplants, scented candles, fresh towels, and some luxury soap to add an extra touch of class.
Below, you’ll find a quick guide to the average return on investment you can expect by making kitchen and bathroom upgrades.
By HomeLight Homes
Get Your Ready For Sale Ahead Of Time
While cleaning and adding finishing touches to your home can be done in a few days, repairs, landscaping, painting and other bigger jobs will need a little more time.
Be sure to start preparing your home for sale as far in advance as possible to make sure things go smoothly in the day leading up to your home finally going on the market.
Final Thoughts on Staging Your Home to Quickly Sell
With all the work completed and your home on the market, you can start getting excited about showing your property to potential buyers and finalizing the sale.
And if you’re thinking of moving to a new country, you can click here to discover the best places to live for American expats.
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Good article! However, it seems like you didn’t mention lighting. Proper lighting has a huge impact on people. Poorly illuminated spaces can seem depressive and dull and can hardly make people want to own them. Use the light to highlight the best parts of your home. You can also install dimmer switches to create the right atmosphere in your home by changing the light intensity.
Thank you! You can certainly open up curtains and blinds to bring it lots of natural light, but the creative use of lighting makes good sense. And, dimmer switches are definitely a great feature!
I like that you suggest improving the bathroom and kitchen. It’s really worth it. The bathroom and kitchen are rooms that strongly influence the impression of a potential buyer. Being well-equipped and having updated plumbing, they can add value to the house.
Thanks, Esco! I couldn’t agree more.
Such great and helpful tips here – thank you! Also, check the entire plumbing system in your house including pipes before putting your house for sale. Even though replacing pipes and plumbing fixtures may seem pretty troublesome, it’s worth your time. I heard and read million times that it’s not advised to buy houses with old plumbing. The old and faulty plumbing poses a great threat to your property but plumbing repairs are not cheap and need much effort what can scare a potential buyer.
Glad you enjoyed this info!
Thank you for sharing such an interesting and informative article! The beautiful look of your home is definitely important when selling a house, but you also shouldn’t forget about other fundamentally important things. So, preparing your home for a sale, don’t forget to check your plumbing system including pipes, plumbing fixtures as well as a water heating system. I heard and read many times that it’s not recommended to buy houses with old and faulty plumbing. The thing is it’s pretty expensive to repair and some plumbing issues have severe consequences if not fixed promptly. It may scare off a potential buyer.
Agreed!
Good suggestions! By the way, many people decide install a swimming pool to add the value to their property. In fact, a swimming pool installation doesn’t pay off when selling a house. BUT. If you already have a swimming pool, you can improve it. For example, install a solar-powered heating system. Or convert your chlorine pool into a salt pool, which is easier to maintain. Usually, people appreciate it.
Absolutely a great tip!