If you ask any Realtor for tips for selling your home, they’ll bring up home staging at one point or another. Home staging is the act of making your property more presentable to potential buyers.
Contrary to popular belief, home staging doesn’t need to be expensive. It can be as simple as tidying up and rearranging the furniture. The whole point is to highlight your home’s best features.
Here are a few real estate staging tips for sellers.
Use natural light
Natural light from windows, skylights, and enclosed outdoor spaces can have a positive effect on people’s moods and overall well-being. When staging your home, draw people’s attention to sources of natural light in the home. Open the curtains and highlight areas with skylights.
If there are few windows, or if the lot’s orientation prevents natural light from coming in, you can make the home look brighter by turning on all the lights during property viewings and while real estate photos are being taken.
You can also decorate the interior with shiny, reflective surfaces that can help scatter light across the rooms. Examples include wall mirrors, chrome lamps, metal sculptures, metallic photo frames, and stainless steel appliances.
Highlight the home office
In addition to the kitchen and living room, the home office has become an important area to stage. Experts will either stage a room that was specifically built as a home office or redesign a space for use as one.
With more people working from home, it’s crucial for sellers to show a space that can be used for remote work. This means investing in ergonomic chairs, desks, and other office items for this purpose.
Emphasize outdoor spaces
With people travelling less and spending more time at home, there has been renewed interest in livable outdoor spaces. Home staging should extend to these outdoor spaces for sellers to showcase a property’s full potential. From patios and porches that create a wonderful first impression to an exquisite garden where homeowners can relax for hours on end, home staging should cover the entire property.
This will require sellers and stagers to choose high quality outdoor furniture and pay more attention to landscaping and lawn maintenance.
Play up curb appeal
First impressions definitely matter when it comes to real estate. Every property needs to have superior curb appeal to attract potential buyers. Maximizing your home’s curb appeal doesn’t need to be expensive either – something as simple as power-washing or repainting the exterior walls can make the property look as good as new. Clean the driveway and make sure that the grass and shrubs have been cut. You can also add new hardware to the main gate and front door and replace an old with new tiles or pavers.
It’s also about choosing your season carefully when deciding when to sell or take real estate photos. Spring is usually a good time, when all the greenery has grown in.
Declutter and depersonalize
Decluttering is the practice of removing excess items that take up too much space, or which don’t serve a clear or practical purpose in the home. If you’re not sure where to start, you can try removing something – anything – from every room to see the difference.
Too much furniture and bulky pieces can make your rooms look smaller. Shelves and tables full of knick-knacks can be visually distracting. So put as many items as you can into storage.
Consider selling or donating objects that no longer serve you, but which are still in good condition. Clear out the kitchen and bathroom counters, and invest in a few storage bins to organize household supplies.
Just a word of caution – you’ll still want your home to feel inviting and live-in. Don’t remove so much stuff that the home starts to feel cold and sterile. If you’re not sure about what to add and what to take away, consult with a home staging company.
Home staging also requires you to depersonalize your home to make it easy for potential buyers to see themselves and their family members in the property.
Create a cozy vibe
They say coziness is the new luxury when it comes to real estate. Potential buyers want that relaxed and homey feel when looking at properties for sale. That’s why professional stagers are paying more attention to place settings on dining tables, draping throw blankets over beds and sofas, and displaying tasteful books and magazines in living areas and home offices.
Offer remote or contactless property viewings
Consider offering a virtual tour of the home to make it easier for potential buyers to decide whether they’d like to view the property in person. Provide contactless property viewings like live streaming and self tours. This gives buyers more options to view your home.
If you’re selling a home in State College, PA and the surrounding areas, feel free to contact the Heritage Realty Group, Inc. You can also reach us at 814.231.0101 and RLHoman363(at)gmail(dotted)com
for inquiries. We’ve been guiding sellers in Pennsylvania since 1987. We can’t wait to help you find qualified buyers for your home.