Staging Your Home

After you’ve decluttered, cleaned and repaired your home, now it’s time to stage it. Staging turns your home into a showplace where buyers can envision themselves living. It is yet another tactic to help you get top dollar for your home.

The first step in home staging is to depersonalize it. Buyers want to visualize themselves in the space with their things, and your stuff - your memories - can get in the way. Pack up anything that makes the home uniquely yours - personal framed photos, photo albums, scrapbooks - anything personal. Also pack up mementoes from past vacations, work, school or anything else that you save for sentimental purposes.

Also put away holiday-oriented décor. Not all buyers celebrate the same holidays. This is easier to do for spring and summer holidays than for winter holidays. If you go all out for Christmas, you might consider pairing back or even waiting until after the holidays before listing.

Do decorate your home with neutral décor. Showcase your most current, trendy pieces. But do so sparingly. And make sure those pieces sparkle like the rest of your home. Take a tour through a builder’s model to get ideas about what’s in style. Chances are buyers have toured model homes, and they’ll know what’s in style too.

After you’ve got your home looking good, you can focus on the more subtle aspect of staging. Your home should not only appeal to the eyes but the nose and ears as well.

A deep cleaning will help neutralize odors, but you can go a step further. Invest in an electric potpourri pot or fragrance warmers that you can plug into an electrical outlet. Choose clean scents appropriate to the season. I recommend linen or floral in spring, citrus in summer, wood or vanilla for fall and evergreen for winters.

For an open house, you can bake cookies and leave them on the counter in a decorative plate. You can also leave out a candle for your Realtor to burn. I never suggest leaving a burning candle unattended, even if you’re just stepping out for an hour or two while your house is being shown.

If you have pets, make sure to clean their spaces frequently - wash bedding, change litter boxes, etc….

No matter how clean a home looks, if it doesn’t smell clean, that’s one more chance for another home to jump head on the buyer’s list of favorites.

Finally, listen to what your home sounds like. Do you have humming appliances? Can hear traffic sounds or your neighbors? Barking dogs? Use your sound system or even television to mask over those sounds with background music. If you don’t have a sound system, turn to your cable provider. Many cable services have music channels that will work just as well. Select a channel that features light instrumentals. Tune all your televisions to the same channel for a cohesive sound throughout your home, but don’t blast the sound. You want it just loud enough to create ambiance.

When potential buyers walk into a house, they want to feel like they belong there. Staging is cost-effective way to quickly and easily improve your home’s appeal to potential buyers and make them feel at home.
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