Home Staging
Follow these home staging guidelines to add significant value to the sale of your home at little to no cost.
Less is More!
- View your home from across the street and take note of anything unusual such as loose artifacts, overgrown hedges, dead branches etc. Remove or address all unusual features from the property view. If offered, take advantage of the free city brush and bulky item pickups.
- If you are living in the home during the sale, remove all clutter and organize the remaining items. The Container store has many affordable storage solutions great for between home sale and time of move, items such as newspapers, mail and laundry should be packed and out of sight.
- Remove a portion of your furniture and the rooms will look larger. It’s no longer about functionality, we want to create the perception of larger by reducing the amount of contents. Remove half of all furniture from each room in the house and outside living areas, and the remaining furniture should highlight the best feature of each room.
- Remove appliances big and small; toasters in the kitchen, tablets and iPads on the coffee table, accessories you use on a regular basis should be put away daily. If you can squeeze the coffee pot into the closet, do it, more space on the counters makes the counter space look bigger.
- Straighten the pictures and rugs, arrange the blinds the same way in every room, wash the walls with warm water, towels and laundry detergent. Touch up paint over all scratches on the walls. Each and every step adds incremental value to the sale of your home.
- Maximize the light in every room. Open blinds and curtains. If in unused rooms, remove curtains altogether. Clear branches from the exterior that block important views of the front or back yard.
- Pressure wash your home, sidewalks and driveway. Renting a pressure washer in Clear Lake, League City and Friendswood for one day is less than $60, and the difference can be dramatic!
- Bathrooms should be treated the same, remove from view as many items as possible, organize the remaining items. Make sure to keep it very clean.
- Is professional staging best for you? Sometimes home sales can be boosted by professional staging including rented furniture, lamps, art work and other house hold items to improve the look and feel of the inside.
- Remove personal associations, if you are a Red Sox fan and selling the home to a Yankee’s, you might not get the best price possible. Put the sports fan material away. It’s simply best to avoid all statements of influence including religion, political, weapons and even family photos. Our intention again is to produce an ability for the buyer to visualize themselves in the home.
- If you do spend money, the front door should be considered first for replacement, and on the inside, the foyer or entry way is of second importance. These two areas of the home play a big influence in buyer perception.
- Closets should be half full, same principles as before apply here, make them look bigger by having less contents inside.
- For bedrooms, I recommend a bed, nightstand and dresser only. Push all furniture items together in one area of the room to provide clear walking space.