Home Staging Tips

 

Preparing your house for selling can be a daunting and overwhelming task whether you have lived in your home a few years or many. The longer you have lived in your home the more things you will have acquired.  In preparing your house for selling you need to take a step back and have the mindset that this is no longer your home but an investment for your future.  You want your home to have broad buyer appeal to your target market.  Staging your home will help you sell your house sooner and possibly for more money than if you did not prepare it for selling!  Remember most people want to move into their new home without having to make updates to it.

 

Curb Appeal

Stand back and view your home as if you were seeing it for the first time.  This is the ‘first impression’ stage.  Depending on the season you may want to have pots of colourful and attractive flowers to greet buyers; a clean and inviting door mat; new and shiny door handles and/or knockers; a freshly painted door.

 

Declutter

Start your pre-pack as soon as possible.  You need to decide what you are going to keep, give away, sell or throw away/recycle. Many clients will rent storage lockers or have pods delivered so they can start to clear out what is not going to make the house look good.

 

Clean

A clean home translates into "They must have really cared for their home.”  Focus your efforts on bathrooms and the kitchen.  Remove the dust from the furnace room as this demonstrates your care for the mechanics of your house as well.

 

Depersonalize

We know you love your family photos and your personal treasures but for selling pack them up carefully so you can showcase them in your new home.  For selling you want buyers to focus on the best features of your home and not your personal items or collections.

 

A neutral colour scheme is the way to go for selling

Choose only 3 colours or less to paint your house for selling.  If you have an open floor plan then paint the main floor all the same colour.

 

Highlight your home’s best architectural features

Place your furniture in each room so that you have very obvious focal points that show off the home’s best selling features. For example, if you have a beautiful fireplace then places the furniture in a parallel grouping so that the eye is drawn to the fireplace.

 

Decide on the function in each room

If you were using your guest bedroom as your den for living, for selling turn it back into a bedroom with bedroom furniture in it.  If you do not have the right furniture for each room consider renting it.  There are more and more rental furnishing companies opening up every day.  If you don’t want to rent then borrow.

 

Lighting your home to its best advantage

Spend money on new light fixtures if they are outdated.  There are many low-cost lighting stores to select from so there are no excuses for having dated light fixtures.

 

Window treatments that sell your home

Blinds should be in good repair and dust free.  Decorative side panels will do the trick if you need to add warmth and colour to a room.

 

Flooring is a good investment for updating the look of your home

Tile or linoleum is great for entranceways, bathrooms, kitchens and laundry rooms.  A good quality laminate or hardwood is perfect for living rooms and family rooms.  Bedrooms are attractive in a neutral carpet but carpet free is usually preferred.

 

A little bit of planning and budgeting on your part can go a long ways to being “Open House” ready.  The vast majority of prospective buyers have already looked at your listing on the internet.  Be sure they like what they see!