When potential buyers view your home, they are not interested in your decorating style or eclectic collection of art decor. They are interested in how your home will improve their lifestyle. With this in mind, home staging should show off the best aspects of your home, from your big cozy living room to the tiniest corner of your linen closet. Remember, home staging isn’t home decorating. It is a way to create a comfortable inviting vibe that will allow potential buyers to see themselves living in your home.
Lure Buyers in with Curb Appeal
Home staging isn’t limited to just the inside of your home. In fact, 76% of agents believe that improving staging outside of your home is the number one thing you can do to boost your home’s appeal. Before you can start staging your need to clear the exterior clutter and clean up the mess that winter has created. First and foremost clear driveways and sidewalks of snow and ice. Next, tidy up landscaping, windowsills, and gutters by removing fallen debris or left over fall leaves. Now that your exterior is clean you can set into staging. One of the most beneficial additions to a front yard is lighting, especially if you are in an area that loses quite a bit of daytime during the winter. Solar powered lights can be easily placed along walkways and driveways. Large handrail lights can be added to stairways and banisters. Additional lights such as hanging solar lanterns and solar powered spotlights are an easy and energy efficient way to add a burst of light to a dark winter evening.
Now that your outdoors are brightly lit, it’s time to add furniture and decor. According to HomeLight’s Top Agent Insights for New Year 2022, 2022 may also be an ideal time to evaluate the condition of your front porch or consider adding one to help expand your home’s outdoor living space. A well-maintained front porch can drastically increase your home’s sale price. You can easily make your front porch appear inviting with a set of adirondack chairs or wood rocking chairs. You can add even more appeal with green topiaries on either side of the front door. Additional decorations such as an evergreen wreath on the front door or winter hardy shrubs around the stairway can brighten up your front porch and attract potential buyers.
Make it Look Liveable
The last thing a potential buyer wants to see when they tour your home is a dark cold uninviting living space that feels more like an office than a home. Your home should feel warm and inviting to potential buyers. The first step to creating this type of environment is with a deep clean and serious decluttering. Remove unneeded knick knacks, clear countertops, and get rid of unnecessary or outdated furniture from your rooms. Then, it’s time to deep clean every room and every nook and cranny so that your home is spotless. When this is done, you can begin staging. Start with your living room, which over 84% of real estate agents believe is the most important room of your house to stage. The living room is a great place to add warmth to your home with a central seating area that exudes intimacy. Focus on soft neutral colored furniture that faces toward the room’s focal point. You can add even more warmth to your room with a soft rug, a few well placed poufs, and a soft knit throw across the back of a chair. Keep your furniture limited as you do not want to overcrowd the space. When your living room is finished you can address the master bedroom and kitchen, using the same decorating tactics that you applied to the living room.
Create a Blank Canvas
For buyers to truly see themselves living in your home, they need to be able to visualize their furniture, decorations, and accents in the space. They will never be able to do that with brightly painted walls, oversized wall art, or richly colored shag carpets. If you haven’t already done so, paint your walls a neural color. Soft whites, warm grays, and beautiful beiges are the best neutral colors to choose from. Keep your wall colors within the same color family throughout your entire house to create a uniform flow. Your carpets and floors should also follow a neutral color scheme.
Let in the Light
While winter can be a gloomy time of year, there is still a way to make your home feel bright and warm. Take a good look at your windows. Are they covered by heavy curtains or blinds? If they are, pull those light blocking treatments down and let in the light. Natural light not only brightens a room, it makes it look bigger. Natural light will also help create a warm atmosphere. If your room does not get much natural light or if your showing is in the evening, you can always mimic natural light with a few well placed lamps. Avoid harsh strong lights and opt for warm lower watt bulbs. In addition to lamps you can add light with a few candles on shelves, countertops, or around the bathroom sink and bathtub. These will not only add light they will create additional warmth. Just don’t go overboard on scented candles. Too many or too strong of scents is off-putting to buyers.
Make it Memorable
In the end, proper staging will make your home more memorable to prospective buyers. With the right furniture choices, well lit rooms, and perfectly placed accents your home will exude warmth and coziness that buyers will remember, thus increasing your chances of a quick well-priced home sale.
