7 Tips for Staging Your Home For Sale
It's the perfect time of year to get your home ready to sell! Many prospective buyers have been cooped up during the winter months and are prepared to take a big step to obtain a change of scenery. Statistics show that selling in spring or summer can net you a more significant profit. Another advantage is that warmer weather makes staging a home for sale much easier.
Staging a home to sell means preparing it beforehand to show off its best assets to potential buyers. The goal is to make your house seem like a place that the buyers can turn into their home. There are many benefits of staging a home for sale. It can give you a considerable advantage over sellers who do not stage their homes, translating to a faster sale for a better price. Here are some tips for effectively staging your home.
First impressions of a property can be just as strong as first impressions of people. Therefore, you want to ensure that your home makes a strong positive impression on buyers, especially those who start by just driving by. Improve the look of your lawn by mowing, adding fresh sod or reseeding, and planting new flowers. It also involves re-staining the front porch, hanging easy-to-read house numbers, and power washing surfaces such as windows, walkways, and siding.
Decluttering means getting rid of anything that you don't need anymore. Depersonalizing means removing any personal items of the home's current inhabitants, such as toys, keepsakes, family photos, etc., and putting them in storage. Both decluttering and depersonalization have significant implications for your staging. Besides just being unappealing, clutter makes your home feel smaller than it is. Depersonalizing makes it easier for prospective buyers to imagine themselves living in the house.
While you don't want too many personal items around, you also don't want the house to look too stark and bare. Rooms should be furnished and decorated in a way that looks friendly and inviting. Sometimes this means clearing out all your furniture and decorations and renting others.
Chances are there are places in your home that you don't bother cleaning very often. However, prospective buyers are likely to look in these areas. Therefore, you should perform a deep clean of every room in the house, getting into all the hidden and hard-to-reach areas.
Painting the walls is one of the cheapest updates you can do, and it can go a long way toward making a favorable impression. Colors that are bright, bold, or contrast highly with one another can be off-putting to prospective buyers, so choose neutral colors instead.
Improved lighting makes it easier for prospective buyers to see all that the home offers. Replace any fixtures that are broken or outdated. Turn on the lights before showings, so people don't search for the switches. Don't underestimate the power of natural light. Open all the blinds and curtains.
Staging a home is a little like telling a story about the home's potential. Therefore, set up each room to communicate immediately to everyone who enters what it is used for, whether a bedroom, a home office, a game room, etc.
If you are in the market to either buy or sell your next home, check out ProFed Credit Union's mortgage rates and other loan rates.