Professional home staging is an important key to getting the offer you want and selling your home more quickly. Read our guide to staging your home and contact Sold and Listed in L.A. to schedule a consultation.
Your Guide to Staging a House for Sale
When it comes to selling your home, you want to get the right price at the right time. With that in mind, there are some steps you can take to help your home sell more quickly. Home staging is one of the most effective measures you can use to sell your property faster, and for a better price. In today’s post, we’ll provide a guide to help you learn how to properly stage your home, and achieve your goals.
At Staged and Sold in L.A., our team offers professional staging with interior designers to ensure that your home is set for success. Make your home look bigger, brighter, and more attractive with professional home staging services. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.
1. Stage the Rooms that Count
Since proper home staging takes time and money, you want to focus on the rooms in your home that are likely to have the biggest influence on potential buyers — the living room, master bedroom, and kitchen. While you’ll want to make sure that all of the rooms in your home look clean and inviting, these three are the ones where you need to focus your staging efforts. When potential buyers stand in your living room, master bedroom, or kitchen, you want to ensure that they are able to visualize living and spending time in each of these rooms. The more at home they feel, the more likely they are to make the offer you want. Professional home staging can help you accomplish this goal.
2. Depersonalize the Space
With the goal of helping potential buyers visualize the space as their own, you want to create a blank canvas in your home by removing all personal objects. The important factor is to strike the right balance between making sure your home exudes style and charm while removing items that communicate the home belongs to the seller. The first step involves removing all personal photographs from walls and shelves. If you have pictures on your refrigerator, remember to remove those as well. Neatly store clothes out of sight in closets and remove personal items, such as toothbrushes and contact solution, from bathroom countertops. The inconvenience this might cause will be worth it when you get the offer you want.
3. Clean, Clean, Clean
When you stage your home to list it, you need to clean it like never before. You want every square inch of your home to shine so that buyers can see that it has been well taken care of while you lived there. In order to accomplish this, you will have to do much more than cleaning counters and windows. You’ll need to clean the baseboards, walls, doors, everything. Certain cleaning chores are easily forgotten or ignored. If you can’t remember the last time you thoroughly cleaned the inside of your refrigerator or the window blinds, make sure you include these tasks on your list.
4. Eliminate Clutter
Decluttering your home is important because clutter takes up space, and space is what you’re selling. While there may be some items you should probably get rid of permanently, most of the items can simply be put in temporary storage. You don’t want to place too many items in the garage, because that is also valuable space to potential buyers, and it should look as clean and spacious as possible. Identify any seasonal decor, papers, games, or other odds and ends that can be placed in storage. Remember, potential buyers will open closets to see how much storage space they offer, so you don’t want to cram your closets full of stuff. Additionally, be sure to see what items you can remove from closets to help them appear as spacious as possible.
5. Perform Minor Repairs
Check each room for any minor scratches, dings, holes, or other flaws that might be a turn-off for potential buyers. While minor, these imperfections can signal neglect, which can negatively impact potential offers. Start with the easiest fixes first and use a melamine foam eraser pad to remove scuff marks from walls and baseboards. Spackle and caulk as necessary, and look for any minor paint touch-ups you can perform. The point of completing these repairs is to show potential buyers how much effort you’ve given toward taking care of the home.
6. Add Light
The more light you can add to a room, the more you will make it look big, spacious, and inviting. Open up all of the curtains, blinds, and other window coverings to take advantage of natural light. Turn all of the lights on in every room, including closets, since they will be using energy only during the showing. Look for opportunities to place mirrors on walls opposite of windows. Mirrors reflect light, which helps to make the room look even bigger and brighter. An added bonus is that potential buyers won’t have to fumble around in a dark room trying to locate the light switch.
7. Make a Good First Impression
One of the first things that will make an impact on potential buyers is the outside appearance of your home. You know that first impressions count, so make sure to look at the entrance to your home with a critical eye toward what you can improve. Remove any seasonal decorations, as these can date your house in pictures and viewings. Add a simple doormat, a few potted plants to create a sense of warmth. Make sure the potted plants are in good condition, since dying plants will have the opposite effect you’re trying to create. Regularly sweep your front porch and sidewalk, pick up any trash that may have blown in, and remove grass or weeds between the sections of concrete. Clean all of the glass surfaces in the front of your home as well — windows, door panes, storm doors, and any other surfaces that brave the elements.
Home Staging
Staging your home to prepare it for listing is an intensive process, and one that requires more work than the simple guide we’ve prepared in today’s post. Take advantage of the professional home staging services that we offer at Staged and Sold in L.A. by contacting us today to schedule a consultation. We will take care of all the work so you can relax and wait for the offer you want. Get started today!