When a house is put up for sale the first thing you’ll notice when you make a visit is that most of these houses look really nice and well decorated. This is not coincidental, most likely is the work of a staging professional working along the real estate agent to give the house a quick makeover to make it worthy of the asking price proposed by the seller.
If you’re looking to drive down the final fees of the sale you can choose to handle home staging by yourself by following a few basic tips that will make your property visually appealing and inviting to anyone who visits the place. Sit down and take a few notes, this will be helpful:
Aim for a Hotel Clean Look on your Home
This advice is especially useful if you are not living in the property while it’s being offered for sale. The feature regarded as a “hotel-clean look” are rooms that have the minimal needed furniture and appliances.
Remember that you are pursuing a look on your place that doesn’t let on how many years you have been there, so you better try your best to make it look as good as you can. If you are stuck with the resources, you can always look for suggestions on the internet.
Deal with Clutter by Depersonalising your Place
The best approach to this is taking every single piece of extra furniture and all the personal items and store them in a storage unit until you move to another home. The clean-up process might be arduous but as we mentioned in the previous point, you need to aim for the cleanest look to achieve a neutral ambiance that appeals to potential buyers.
Give the Exterior of your Home the Same Treatment as the Interior
A first impression is always the most solid imprint your property leaves when a potential buyer comes calling. And while the interiors are a strong selling point, the first thing most buyers will see is the exterior facade of your place. So, before the house gets listed for sale, have a look around and take notes for what needs to be repaired, replaced or cleaned.
Don’t leave any undesired items laying around such as toys or gardening equipment, make sure the numbering of your home is visible, as well as your mailbox if you have one. Keep in mind that the people visiting your place will do so with a very critical eye and while the estate agent will surely make everything good about your place stand out, the potential buyers will be looking for things that are not working as it should.
Make Your Place Feel Bigger than it actually is
One of the biggest difficulties of finding a new place for potential buyers is trying to get the most out of their money by buying what they perceive to be a “big” place. While you certainly can’t change the dimensions of your own home, you can use certain home staging tricks to maximise your property’s available space.
Most of them are very specific but they do help a lot to bring out the best qualities of the space you actually have. The first thing is to get rid of at least 70% of the contents of every room in the house, leave only what’s necessary on each one of them, even in the bathrooms. Mirrors are also a great idea to make each space feel bigger and luminous.
You should also empty your closets to at least half their capacity to point out just how much space the potential buyer will have to store their personal items. Finally, you can manage a good trick by using curtains that hang just above the frame of each window instead of on top of them, this will make the ceiling look taller than it is.
By using some of these tricks you won’t be needing a professional to handle house staging. Keep in mind that moving around your furniture and belongings is nothing personal, it is just a way to create the best conditions to sell your property.
