Home staging is an important step when selling your home. Proper staging will gather interest from qualified buyers both online and in person. The basics of staging are tried and true. They include cleaning, decluttering, depersonalizing, curb appeal, and painting. Consider the basics, make a plan and go over your plan with your seller’s agent. They are sure to point out ways to make your plan even more effective. Here are some of the top home staging mistakes to avoid when selling your home.
Not Starting with a Plan: Keep yourself organized and on schedule with a plan. Write it down. Follow the plan. You can do the work yourself, or hire it out. Just follow the plan.
Not Working with a Seller’s Agent: Hire a seller’s agent. They will be working with you every step of the way when you are selling your home. This includes the staging process. If you’ve already assembled a staging plan, present it to the agent. They will help streamline your plan by omitting items deemed unnecessary and including items you may have overlooked.
Not Cleaning Thoroughly: Clean, clean, clean, and clean some more. Clean the floors, clean the walls, clean the appliances, clean inside the appliances, move the appliances, and clean underneath. Clean all the bathrooms thoroughly. Clean all the rooms of your home. Clean your home inside and out.
Not Getting Rid of Clutter: Removing excess furniture and clutter is critical. We will sometimes recommend sellers rent a storage space for excessively large furniture. This will open up space in a home. It is also important to remove family photos and overly personal items. Buyers need to envision themselves living in your home. Excessive furniture and personal items are distractions that take up valuable physical and emotional space. Clear the clutter!
Not Painting Interior Rooms: The interior rooms of your home need a fresh coat of paint. You will want to choose a light neutral color for the walls. This will help walls to reflect natural and artificial light and make rooms appear more spacious.
Not Staging with Respect to Photography: A large number of interested buyers will first be viewing your home online by way of digital photography on a website. It is important that the staging works well both in person and in photographs. You want to draw buyers in virtually. They will then make arrangements for viewing in person.
Professional photographers have a number of tricks up their sleeves when staging homes. One trick of the trade is to utilize windows or the fireplace as a focal point. You can place furniture so these elements appear in the same shot, which will give viewers a proper sense of scale when viewing photographs of interior rooms online.
Not Maintaining Your Yard: Curb appeal is part of the staging process. This includes your landscaping. It is important that your front yard looks its best no matter the season. The grass should be mowed in the spring and summer. Leaves should be raked in the fall. Walkways need to be clear of snow in the winter. Basic yard maintenance is imperative for home staging.
Decorating with a Specific Style: Staging a home is different from interior decorating. Interior decorating will focus on a particular style and incorporate a number of elements to reinforce the chosen aesthetic. Hiring a professional designer to stage your home is often money well spent. They will know how to create inviting and interesting spaces and avoid overwhelming potential buyers with superfluous items and specific styles. When staging your home without the help of a professional designer just remember to keep things simple. Don’t over decorate. Less is more!
Removing all the Furniture: We always recommend decluttering spaces. This includes removing excess furniture. But you don’t want to remove all of the furniture. It will make rooms appear smaller. Too much furniture, or excessively large items such as couches, has the same effect. It is a balancing act. When uncertain, simply defer to a home staging professional, your seller’s agent, or a friend or neighbor with an objective eye free from emotional attachments. The antique dining table that has been in your family for over two hundred years and seats 16 guests comfortably might be a perfect staging element depending on the size of your formal dining room, or it might need to go. It’s a balancing act that can be achieved with careful judgment.
Phaidra McDermott is your exceptional and trusted real estate professional on Sanibel Island and Captiva Island. I look forward to helping you market and sell your home. Contact Phaidra today!