There was a time, a few decades ago, when the industry of professional home staging was in its infancy, and homeowners and their agents had to rely on outdated methods of showing off a house. Those days have long passed. Today, home sellers from all over the country are learning more and more about the significant advantages that come with staging your home to sell and working with a luxury home marketing specialist.
If you’re interested in learning about the importance of home staging, read all about it below.
Context: why home staging matters
The first thing to note is just how essential home staging is if you’re going to be selling high-end luxury real estate. According to the National Association of Realtors, 81% of all real estate agents in the country reported that they saw at least a 10% boost in offer values after investing in professional home stagers. This is welcoming news for sellers hoping for the highest return possible at the closing table.
However, it’s important to put this figure in context. Not all homes require the help of an expert stager. Even further, not every room of the house is served equally well by a professional stager, either. Studies show that the living room, primary bedroom, and kitchen are the most important areas of the house to stage correctly.
Home staging 101
Now that you’ve got a basic understanding of the advantages of hiring professional home stagers or firms, it’s time to dive deeper into the technical side and the various steps of home staging. Below, read a little bit about the most successful strategies for decorating and organizing your living space in a way that is sure to attract high-end buyers.
Deep clean and declutter
The first step to improving the visual appeal of your home is to do a deep clean and declutter in as many areas of the property as possible. Clutter, for lack of a better word, is distracting. Buyers entering a house that is overstuffed with personal effects, mementos, paperwork, toys, and family heirlooms may have a difficult time focusing on the positive aspects of living here. Take the time early on to remove excess items like books, superfluous artwork, or other objects that may impede your guests as they tour the property.
De-personalize the space
Related to decluttering, de-personalization (the term seems more complicated than it is) is another crucial aspect of home staging. It requires a light touch. Essentially, this step of staging the house is meant to help potential buyers feel at home right away in the property.
Open house guests and visitors prefer not to see a lot of evidence of the previous owners on the walls and generally on display when they move through the home. You can do your part to de-personalize your space by removing political and religious imagery from view, stowing away any personal photos, and swapping out your favorite artwork with a decorative floral arrangement or stack of high-end art books.
Invest in storage but in moderation
This home staging tip depends quite a bit on the floor plan and layout of your home for sale. If you suspect that you may need more storage space, you’ll certainly know for sure once you declutter and depersonalize. However, it’s also essential not to over-clean the interior, either, leaving it vacant and somewhat cold to visitors.
Instead, look at your storage systems already in place to see if they’re already overfilled. If so, you may need to invest in additional storage or off-site solutions. You should aim to have closets and cupboards that still have plenty of open space in view. Buyers will undoubtedly peak into these parts of the house, so these spaces must be presentable, clean, and well-organized.
Complete last-minute home repairs
Now, we move on past the cleaning and decluttering stages of home staging to more pressing concerns like home repairs. You likely have a long list of must-do improvements or DIY repairs to make before welcoming guests over. It’s best to plan ahead and organize your to-do list in two categories: repairs you can complete yourself in a day or so and all the rest that needs more attention. Tackle the more extensive repairs early on so that you can be sure they don’t set back your timeline. Essential repairs include projects like fixing a dripping faucet, patching holes in a wall, or repainting the space for a new breath of fresh air.
Rework the furniture layouts
The last piece of advice to try out if you’re staging your home to sell is perhaps more creative and mentally demanding than the others. One of the last things to do as a home stager in your own right is to reconsider the orientation of your furniture. Who knows? After meeting with your agent or a professional staging company, you might find out that there is a much better way to organize a living room, decorate a kitchen table, or position a vanity that will capture the attention of a luxury buyer.
Spend time on the rooms that get the most foot traffic, such as the living room and kitchen. Consider placing your seating arrangements on the bias or in an exciting configuration that allows natural light to penetrate the space and reflect off surfaces in new ways. Move chairs and loveseats away from the walls (in a method called “floating’ your furniture”) and ensure that there is enough negative space to host several open house guests walking around at the same time.
Get in touch with a local real estate agent today
With that, you’ve reached the end of this guide to staging your home to sell. To team up with a true professional, reach out to luxury property specialist and Realtor Tina Shaheen to get started. Working with Tina, you can expect top-notch advice and a commitment to your goals. Not only that, but listings $1 million and above have complimentary staging included in the listing agreement, so you can ensure that your gorgeous home is truly show-stopping.
If you have any questions or comments to share, or if you’d like to learn more about buying and selling luxury Prosper, TX, real estate, reach out today! Contact trusted Realtor Tina Shaheen for more information.
*Header photo courtesy of Tina Shaheen
