A Beginner’s Guide to Staging a Home For Sale
If your goal is to get your house sold quickly, then home staging is the way to go, as it creates an emotional connection with prospective home buyers, and allows them to envision your property as their dream home.
However, the process can be tricky as home staging is not about you adding your style, favorite colors, or artwork, but rather neutralizing the home to attract the buyer. So to help you improve the chances of finding a buyer, Sage Key Interiors has put together a beginner’s guide to staging your home for sale. By following this guide, you will realize the importance of staging a home for sale and discover how easy and affordable the process can be.
Getting Started
Decide what you can do yourself: If you are looking to stage the home, you need to look at the amount of time that you can realistically devote to the project. If you are a busy working professional trying to do this on the weekend, the results might not be what you are looking for, or it might take longer to finish and get the home on the market. So it might be best to hire a professional.
Consider your budget: Make a list of the items that need to be addressed and aim to be cost-effective. Start with your curb appeal and go through each area of the house taking notes. Try to look at your home with the eye of a potential buyer seeing what needs to be repaired, updated, moved out or rearranged.
Enlist any help that you need to achieve your goal: Some repairs and updates might be sufficient by doing it yourself, while others might need a professional to do it right. You will need to vet any professionals that are needed to be hired on a contract basis during this phase. It might include painters, electricians, plumbers, handyman services, and movers to help get the home up to date and staged.
Next Steps
Make sure that you keep the essentials: It can be easy to remove too much stuff out of the house while staging, which can make it feel cold and empty. Remember that every room should have a purpose, so add a little artwork, lighting, and a few accessories for personality and to maintain the right balance.
Get storage space: While clearing out the home, it’s wise to get a storage unit to store the extra stuff, rather than pile it up in a spare room or a garage. If you feel that you do not need the items any longer, then now is a good time to get rid of them completely.
Advice From The Pros
Make sure the place is clean: Potential buyers will forgive an ugly paint color, artwork, or furniture before they forgive spots on the carpet, stained cabinets, and foggy windows. So we recommend that a cleaner is brought in weekly to maintain the bigger jobs, while you should straighten up daily. Also, carpets and rugs need to be steam cleaned, appliances should be scrubbed sparkling, windows washed, and fans, light fixtures, and baseboards require dusting.
Make a list and pace yourself: Take the opportunity to pack up what you know you will be moving and clear it out. Working on one room at a time will help keep the overall project on a manageable scale, and don’t feel like you have to do this all yourself, there is plenty of help out there from your agent, friends, family or a professional home stager.
Hire a professional: Having a “move-in-ready” home means more showings and offers, which makes staging more affordable than a price reduction on the property. So it’s worth considering hiring a professional home stager, who will help you to achieve the best price and prevent you from wasting money on things that do not matter.
A home stager will arrange your furniture to appeal to the most significant number of buyers, and also understands what repairs are needed before the house goes on the market.
Lastly, A professional home stager will be able to recommend a team of professionals that can paint, fix, organize, and add any furniture, artwork, and accessories the house might require to be show ready!
If you’re looking for a home stager to spruce up your home, then reach out to us. At Sage Key Interiors, our goal is to exceed your expectations. As the go-to experts in Pendergrass, Georgia, for all home staging projects, you can feel confident about building your dream home with us. We also specialize in aging in place, commercial interior design, and model homes. Visit our website to learn more or contact Sage Key Interiors today.