Home Staging Tips

In our opinion, home staging is like a good pair of shoes...it completes the package. You wouldn't wear a three piece suite with a pair of white tennis shoes...just like you shouldn't do all the work to prepair your house to sell, heavily market the property, clean every day, and make repairs without also adding the detail, warmth and mood, staging can provide.

So, what does a stager do anyway?

Most staging expert will tell you that, preparing your home for sale is not the same as staging your home. Cleaning, minor repairs, and de-cluttering are all examples of preparing your home for sale. Home staging is more about setting your house up to appeal to a wide range of buyers which may be different than the way an owner may typically arrange a home. Home staging looks at your house from a buyers perspective rather than from a homeowners perspective.

Ultimately, the goal of home staging is to sell your home faster and for a higher price!  A worthy goal indeed!

Let's take a look at some of the types of changes a home stager may make:

1. Changes to the outside appearance of your house. You've heard that you only get one chance to make a first impression...when selling a home, that "first impression" starts at the street.

2. Changes to the arrangment of furniture. The amount of furniture and the arrangement in each room can have a major impact on a buyers perception of flow, space and room size. Each room of your house has a specific use which a buyer will associate with a mood or "feeling". Furniture should be arranged in a way that considers a buyers desired use of that room. A living room should be arranged for conversation and entertaining. A bedroom should be arranged for comfort, etc.

3. Make changes to color. Along with arrangement, color goes a long ways toward creating mood. A professional stager may make suggestions regarding color of decor, pillows, and other small details.

4. De-Personalize. When a buyer walks through your home, you want them to be able to invision themselves living in the home. A house full of your family photos may stop the buyer from seeing the home as "their home". We hear buyers all the time talking about a house they are walking through as "their house". In these cases, the buyer is obviously able to see themselves as the owner of the house. Buyers are often uncomfortable walking through "someone elses house".

These and other types of home staging can be an excellent way to stand out in this buyers market.