Nobody wants to list their home and have it sit on the marketed for months on end. When you decide to sell your house, you are usually excited about the possibilities of buying another home. Ideas start racing through your head on which neighborhood and what size house you want. But you don’t want to put the cart before the horse, and there is nothing worse than having a home sit on the market for an extended amount of time.
When you stage a house, it gives buyers a sense of where things go and how it would appear if they lived in the house. Staging a home could mean renting furniture or clearing out and dusting off your existing décor.
Declutter Your Home
The first thing you will want to do is to take an objective look at each room in the house. There should be no clutter laying around. Rooms should have furniture and décor but not extra things laying around the place. If you have items that don’t belong on the rooms, it may be a good idea to either bring some of it to the garage or even better rent a storage space and remove the clutter from your home.
Ross Quade, an Austin Relator, explains, “You want to create an environment that is clean and inviting. Similar to what new model homes look like when you tour them.”
Focus on Important Rooms
Some rooms in a house are more important than others. For example, the phrase kitchens sell homes very turn in the case. The kitchen might be the most critical room in the house. As such it is critical that the countertops are clean and not cluttered. If you have too many kitchen appliances on the counters, you may want to box some up and store them away for a while.
Other than the kitchen the master bedroom and the family room are where people spend most of their time. It is imperative that these rooms show well. If you need some inspiration look at a home magazine and see how they set up and stage their rooms.
Removing Furniture
Chances are if you have lived in your home for a reasonable amount of time you have extra furniture and things laying around your home. Have a look around and ask yourself if a room will look bigger if you removed an end table or a recliner because in almost all cases the answer is yes.
Let the Light In
One of the most overlooked steps to staging a home is the lighting. First, you will want to make sure that every light bulb in the house is working. If you find a burnt out lightbulb replace it. Next, you will want to open up the shutters or curtains to let as much natural light into the home as possible. Dark homes can seem depressing. As a general rule of thumb when it’s time for a showing open all the window coverings as much as you can.
Curb Appeal
Keep in mind that curb appeal is the first impression people will get of your home. If you have overgrown trees and shrubs, hire a gardener to thin things out. Don’t forget to pull all the weeds in both the front yard and the back. You may even want to plant some flowers or bushes if you have bare spots that could use some greenery.
Final Thoughts
Selling a home is probably the most expensive thing you will ever sell in your life. It is vital that you take the necessary steps to get as much as you can for your house as well as sell it as fast as you can.