Staging Tips When Selling Your Home

You don’t need granite countertops and state-of-the-art appliances to sell your house. A few home-staging concepts put into practice can help your home sale get off the ground.

1. Declutter
To get decluttering right, remove all items that are smaller than a breadbasket (and of course, personal photos, too). Be aware that clutter may also come from crowding larger items, too. Look for clutter on floors, walls and even in closets. You want to make homebuyers envious of your organized home — and you can’t do that if it’s filled with clutter.

2. Arrange for space and flow
Once all the rooms are cleared out, focus on arranging what’s left. To make rooms feel bigger, rely on the “Rule of Three.” You only need three pieces of furniture to stage a room and three decorative items (of varying size) to stage a surface, such as a mantel or dresser. Apply the rule of three with flexibility. For example, in the living room, the rule of three applies separately to soft and hard furniture.
When you’re done staging furniture and décor, there should be ample space to move into, out of and around furniture in each room. Also, the pieces you’ve selected should illustrate a purpose for each room (i.e. don’t blend office furniture into your living room).

3. Add warmth and comfort
With the clutter gone and the space opened up, the next phase of staging turns the house into a home. Most of the warmth in a room comes from painted walls and lighting, as well as fabrics such as window treatments. If you need to repaint cheaply, Home Depot and Lowe’s sell mistake paints for about $5 a gallon.Portable lighting such as floor or table lamps enhance both warmth and brightness. Also, colored bulbs are an inexpensive tool to perk up dull, dark or small rooms. Use blue daylight bulbs to brighten and pink bulbs to warm and flatter.

4. Clean and freshen
The last major home staging element is cleaning. Once the house is clean, keep that fresh, clean smell. Smells wield a strong influence over our opinions, so homeowners should not assume that all buyers are warmed by the smell of cookies, your favorite spices or beloved pets.

Home staging might feel like a lot of work, but the effort pays. You might be signing that contract in no time!

Source: AOL Real Estate

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