Home Staging – What is It?

You may only have one chance to make a great first impression on a potential buyer for your home, so it’s important to make sure that your property is up to the task. One of the ways to help make your property stand out from the competition is through home staging. This term refers to the process of preparing your home for a sale, and can help you market your property more effectively to potential buyers. There are many different levels of staging that you could pursue, from a thorough cleaning to a complete renovation.

The ultimate goal of staging your home is to show off your property’s best features, while giving your home a clean, modern appearance. It should appeal to the widest possible range of prospective buyers. To help facilitate this, you’ll want to consult with a real estate agent who is knowledgeable about your local competition. You can compare proposals from agents using the free online dashboard at LocalAgentFinder. Register your details to get started with finding a professional to advise you with this important step in the selling process. With the right home staging, you may benefit from more inspections and a correspondingly high rate of offers. Staging can give you a good return on investment when it leads to a faster home sale and a higher ultimate sale price.

In most cases, you’ll want to hire someone to help you with home staging. It’s worth using a real estate agent who can add value to your home by using their extensive experience and industry knowledge. A good real estate agent will be able to look at your property with an objective eye, comparing it to similar properties on the market. They will have professional affiliations with resources like furniture rental companies, which can give you a more impressive final effect. Yet even those on a budget can improve their home’s value with minimal repairs and a good cleaning.

What Goes into a Home Staging?

To get started with the process of determining just how important staging is, you’ll want to put yourself in the buyer’s shoes and see your property through their eyes. Those eggplant walls in the bedroom that seemed so appealing through your own eyes may not be as universally appealing to strangers, for example. One of the key aspects of home staging is taking away these personal accents and making your home clean, neutral, and full of possibility for potential buyers. To attract the widest range of buyer interest, removing any sign of your own lifestyle from the home is an important part of staging. Other pet lovers may be charmed by animal beds or doggie dishes, but those who don’t like animals will find this a turn-off.

Basic maintenance and cleaning goes a long way in a home staging. Taking the time to ensure that every room is spotless and well-polished will help make the property more attractive to visitors. If it fits into your budget, repainting the property in light, neutral colours can open up the space and make it look brighter. This neutrality allows potential buyers to think about what they would want to do with the property, and gives the illusion of a new property.

Vignette Staging

With a clean, freshly painted home, it’s time to start thinking about the furniture arrangements and decorations to include. If you have already moved your possessions out of the home, one option is to opt for vignette staging. This uses a minimal amount of furniture and accessories in each room, designed to give buyers the basic idea of what each room could be used for. These staged collections of furniture and decorations are known as vignettes. They give spatial context and help with buyer visualization.

Many interior decorating experts recommend placing items in groups of three. A bedroom vignette could include a basic bed, table, and lamp. There’s no need for more expensive decorations, because this simple set of three will give the buyer enough information to start imagining how they could use the room. Keeping the décor minimalist also makes the home appear more spacious. Adding artwork and floral arrangements will make vignette staging feel more like a home. Pay attention to the natural focal points of each room as well, using vignettes to draw the eye to the area you want your buyer to be looking at.

Before you start staging your home with vignettes or your regular furnishings, you might want to rent out storage space. This allows you to clear out any unnecessary clutter before you start showing the property during inspections. During these inspections, buyers will want to have a poke through everything, including storage spaces. It’s best if your personal items are kept off-site. Personal items and surface clutter like family photos, toothbrushes, and exercise equipment can all be placed in storage for the most effective staging opportunities.

Furniture for Staging

Over the years, it’s common to build up more furniture than you really need. As part of home staging, you’ll want to take out a few of these pieces to make your property feel more spacious. As you pick and choose the furniture to keep in the home for inspections, try and keep a consistent style. Decide whether you’re going for a classic, traditional look or a more contemporary staging effect. This is something that is helpful to discuss with your real estate agent, who may be able to advise you regarding what will work best in light of the current market. As you start to receive agent proposals using the dashboard at LocalAgentFinder, take care to choose an agent who knows your local market well. If other properties in the neighbourhood are more contemporary, yours will stand out for the wrong reasons if you stage it with old, antiquated furniture.

Renting furniture is advised if you have an overly eclectic selection. Another benefit of using a real estate professional to assist you with home staging is that they will have access to furniture rental services. Professional home stagers often use furniture rentals to boost the overall effect of a home presentation.

If you can’t afford to properly stage your entire property, focus on the shared living areas that will best showcase the finer points of your home. This could include the following techniques:

• Investing in luxurious new linens for the bedroom
• Accessorising your bedroom with silk, throw pillows, and flowers can be relatively inexpensive and make your house seem chic
• In the living room, dress up the space with mirrors and artwork
• Place carefully selected accessories in groups of 1, 3, or 5 to add visual interest to bookshelves
• Put out a bowl of fresh fruit in the kitchen
• Brighten up dull kitchen cabinets with a fresh coat of varnish
• Purchase soft, neutral coloured towels for the bathroom
• Accessorise the bathroom with decorative scented toiletries and high-end lotions

These small touches require only a small investment and can make your home seem luxurious and chic.

Staging the Home’s Exterior

In addition to staging each room of your house, you’ll need to make sure that the property’s exterior is looking its best. Buyers will very much judge your property by its cover. Removing clutter from the yard and engaging in some light landscaping will make your garden fresh and attractive. At the very least, remove any dead plants and mow the lawn. Clear out dirty gutters and get rid of moss which may have accumulated over time. Weather can take its toll on a home’s exterior, so a fresh coat of paint may be necessary to modernise your property. Those with terraces or patios may wish to hire furniture to stage this area as you would with the other living spaces in your home.

Finally, before the inspection you’ll want to air out your property. Some real estate agents pop a batch of cookie or bread dough in the oven to give it that fresh-baked smell. Turn on all the lights and open up the window curtains to allow as much light as possible to stream into the home. Let your house sell itself by showcasing its best features!

What’s next?

A qualified real estate agent will have the expertise needed to know exactly how to make your house look its best with the least amount of effort. Find out more about LocalAgentFinder and how it works to start comparing qualifications of real estate agents in your area. After comparing different local experts, you can narrow down the list to an agent who will help you sell your home with the greatest rewards.