Whether you’re planning to move across town or across the country, the first thing you have to do is sell your current home. Even in a seller’s market, there are benefits to staging your home for sale, especially if you want top dollar, and to get the house sold quickly.
Why stage your home? According to the 2021 Profile of Home Staging by the National Association of Realtors, 47% of buyers’ agents stated that staging the home helped the buyers view the home as their own.
The Basics
While you can stage your home yourself to save money, sometimes it’s worth paying a professional to stage your home with the buyers in mind. As much as 23% of buyers’ agents advised that home staging increased the final sale price by between 1%-5% compared to similar-sized unstaged homes for sale.
From the buyer’s perspective, there are several benefits to viewing a staged home:
- Easier to visualize the home as theirs
- More willing to do a walkthrough after viewing online
- Ready to offer a higher sale price if the home décor is to their taste
- Easier to overlook other faults in the property with proper staging
According to the buyer’s agent, staging is most important in the living room, master bedroom, and kitchen. From the sellers’ agent perspective, the living room, kitchen, master bedroom, and dining room are the most commonly staged.
What should stay and what should go when staging your home for sale with these rooms in mind?
What Should Stay When Staging Your Home for Sale?
The most important thing to do when staging your home for sale is to declutter each room. Furniture items that are well maintained can stay. Still, you should arrange them to provide open spaces and neutrality throughout the room. Remember, you want to help the buyer visualize your home as theirs, and if your taste isn’t neutral colors and patterns, you could lose the sale.
If your furniture isn’t in the best shape or has a distinctive pattern that could turn buyers off, consider borrowing some from friends or family. You could also buy slipcovers in neutral tones to cover your furniture temporarily. Minimalism is key when staging your home, so you may have to store some of your furniture and personal items while going through the selling process.
Leave open wall space and keep decor to a minimum, using neutral colors and simple decorations. Consider walking through the thrift store if you don’t have the right pieces.
Keep appliances to a minimum on the kitchen counters. Consider putting fresh flowers in a pretty vase on the dining room table for showing days.
Long curtains can help a small room feel more extensive, and so can skinny mirrors strategically placed or tall lamps and indoor plants in the room’s corner.
What Should Go When Staging Your Home for Sale?
Decluttering is usually the first order of business when staging your home for sale. Getting a thorough professional house cleaning is a worthwhile investment. Remove all personal photos to allow the prospective buyers to visualize their own family in the home.
If your outlet and vent covers have seen better days, consider replacing them with brand new white ones to freshen up the room. If you prefer bright colors in your home, repainting with neutral colors in key rooms can make the home feel more open and help with neutralizing your own tastes.
Make sure walkways are clear and remove pet beds and toys when showing the home. Don’t leave your pets at home during showings, and be sure to do a last sweep and clean surfaces before anyone comes to check out the house.
The Moving Process
Moving can be stressful, and hiring professionals for home staging and moving services to help can be money well spent. Whether you just want help packing or prefer someone do the moving for you, Freedom Moving in Pasadena, Maryland, is ready to help.
Contact us today to get a free estimate on packing and moving services.
