Home Staging: Making Your Home Sellable

You’ve listed your home and the agent wants to start showing it to prospective buyers. Here’s a few tips to help it look its best. You may have already read the importance of clearing out clutter. Well, that’s because it can’t be stressed enough. It is one of the most important aspects of making your home appealing to buyers, for two reasons. First, not just papers and dishes, clutter includes decorations and furniture too. Too much of it can block a persons view of the house itself.

If everywhere they look they see stuff, a buyer doesn’t see your home. It is imperative that they have a clear view, or they won’t want to buy. Second, all that clutter screams personality. Your personality. And this is not what a buyer wants to see. When someone is looking over a home, what they need to do in order to be motivated to buy is to imagine themselves living in that home. If the house is so full of the current owner, a potential buyer can’t get past that and make the mental leap to visualizing themselves in the home. Because of this, some sellers choose to box up a lot of their personal goods and put them in professional storage.

This gets it right out of the house, so even the boxes aren’t clogging up the spare rooms and closets, which are also important selling features. It is also important to fix things around the home. Keep in mind how well the doors around your home work, as buyers will almost always open closets and cupboards. If the doors are sticky or squeak, that gives a bad first impression. Obviously, your front door is the first candidate for a good hinge-oiling. While you certainly don’t want to enter into major renovations, a new coat of paint can really brighten up a home and make it more appealing. Consider both the outside and inside of your home. And as tempting as it is to choose trendy colors or things you are personally attracted to, neutral tones are best. White or off-white are your safest bets as they will help a home appear bright, and give a new owner a good base if they wish to paint the home more uniquely.

Speaking of a bright home, be sure to leave all the lights on when your home is being shown. Open all the curtains, too, so that viewers feel that your home is bright and welcoming, and they can see clearly. Dusting every surface also helps your home look brighter. Consider smell, an important sense that impacts our first impression. Do a good deep cleaning, especially if you have pets or smoke indoors. Air the home out a bit. You may wish to install some air fresheners, but be sure not to choose anything too overwhelming, as more and more people have sensitivities to scents these days.

Good luck with showing your home!