When you think about interior design and updating the space in your home, often you think of it in terms of what you like, and what you want to see in your space. While this is perfectly fine if you plan on staying in the home for any length of time. If your plan is to sell the house, then it’s best to take a whole other approach. When preparing your house to sell, it’s not about what you like, what designs speak to you, and what you think looks stylish. It’s about staging your house for what the masses will like and what will be eye-catching to them.
It doesn’t matter if you live in a hot market or not. When your home isn’t properly staged you’re bound to run into issues trying to sell it. It may be that it takes longer to sell, perhaps you have to accept less money than you hoped, or you find it’s just going to take a lot more effort and knowledge on the part of your real estate agent to drum up interest in your property.
Rather than end up with a less than desirable outcome, here’s a look at ways you can make your home attractive to buyers. Home staging will ensure that the entire process goes a whole lot smoother.
Bring in a Experts Early in the Game
A seasoned staging designer, such as All About Interiors, can add all kinds of input and advice into the process. So rather than wait for one to hopefully find your property listing and offer their assistance, why not be proactive and hire a qualified home designer from the start?
Not only will they have all kinds of contacts and a built-in network that can help improve your home, but they can actually walk through the house with you and offer staging advice on what you can do to make the house appear more inviting, modern, stylish, and just generally more attractive to buyers. They can act as fresh unbiased eyes and sometimes see things more clearly than you can since they don’t have that emotional attachment to the house.
Now, before you hire the first real estate agent that you come across, there are a couple of things you will want to ask. Be sure to ask how the real estate agent markets their properties and what kind of advice they are getting in that arena, what the plan would be for your property, how many listings they have at the moment, how long they have been in the business, and how they typically go about finding new clients.
Remove All Your Personal Items
The next step before you start making any sort of design changes is to remove any and all personal items. Personal items can include things like family photos, artwork that your child has created, and any other items that have that personal touch to it. The idea is to create a clean slate in the home where prospective buyers can envision themselves in the space. This is really hard to do if they are constantly bombarded by family photos.
When you are selling your home, you are basically selling a dream, a lifestyle, so the buyer needs to be able to see how they would fit into it without any sort of interruptions, if you will.
Get Rid of Clutter and Unnecessary Items – Create the Illusion of Space
Next on the list should be to get rid of any clutter and unnecessary items. Not only does this create a feeling of mess and disarray, but it gives the impression that the house is smaller than it actually is. Buyers may wonder why things aren’t put away and will assume it’s because there is a lack of storage space, or space in general. In other words, you can end up scaring off buyers.
You want the space to feel open, bright, fresh, and well-organized. This will not only help you to sell faster, but it can help you to get more money since buyers will believe they are getting the space they need.
Go with a Neutral Color Palette
If you’re on a fixed budget as far as renovations and design goes, then one of the ways to maximize your dollar is to give all the rooms a fresh coat of paint. This will instantly brighten up the space and modernize it. As for what colors to pick, it’s always best to stick with a soft neutral color palette.
Again, it’s about creating a space that buyers can see themselves in, so you need to make it as pleasing and non-jarring as possible. Neutral colors will work with any furniture style or color and any type of décor. Also, by carrying the color palette throughout the entire house you will create flow so the rooms won’t feel disjointed.
Give Attention to the Front Entry
One area that can often be overlooked but is extremely important in setting the tone for your house is the outdoor front entry, and then the immediate foyer inside the front door. As the saying goes, you only have one chance to make a first impression, and this is where it is made.
Tips to keep in mind are to ensure that it is clean and tidy. This means trimming any overgrown hedges or bushes outside that are in front of the door. Possibly giving the door a coat of paint. On the inside, you want to take away anything that is taking up space and creating clutter. Making it as welcoming and grand as possible.
Experts recommend you remove things like shoe racks, umbrellas, coat racks, key racks, etc. Try to envision how it would look if no-one lived in the house yet and then create that vision.
Simple Tips that Can Lead to Greater Success
These staging tips are relatively simple enough. When you use them all you will be paving the way to success in selling your home.
This post is a collaboration and may contain relevant affiliate links. All opinions are our own and for informational purposes only.