Stage Your Home and Sell It Fast

There’s no doubt about it, staging your home to sell can be as important as choosing your real estate agent. It can also be a daunting task, that’s why we have some tips for you on how to stage your home to sell from the former West Coast Editor of Coastal Living Magazine, Susan Kim.

Susan has 11 ways to stage your house for more offers and a quicker sale:

This real estate slump is a real drag, especially if you’re trying to sell your abode. So stage your pad to beat out the competition and draw in more prospective buyers. Most buyers have a hard time looking past pink walls and green shag carpet, so do the legwork for them and present their “new home” on a silver platter. If done smartly, the money spent to stage the house will be made up tenfold in the sale — and you keep all the hot accessories for yourself afterwards (or unload them on Craigslist).

Stage To Sell

1. Clear it all out. Buyers want to be able to imagine themselves in your space, keeping in mind that you want the space to look BIG, CLEAN, SPACIOUS, and UNCLUTTERED.

2. Freshen up the style. Furnishings that seem homey and comforting — yet fresh and contemporary — give an aura that your home is updated and well cared for. Neutrals work best; just add colorful touches here and there.

3. Mirror, mirror on the wall. Use mirrors liberally to make your area look bigger, lighter, brighter, and encourage sunlight to bounce all over the walls.

4. Don’t forget the details. Buyers walk in and instantly feel welcome, like as if they’re coming over for dinner. Light clean- or non-scented candles, place plush towels and fancy soap in the bathrooms, a breakfast tray on the bed, and a pretty book on the coffee table.

5. Play with texture. Wallpaper, pillows, rugs, blankets, baskets, and other tactile accessories can play up texture in a room.

6. Smart accessories. The gourmet cookbooks give the impression that this kitchen is built for serious cooking. It’s called “branding” — and it’s what advertisers bombard you with every day. You’re advertising your home. The cookbooks here say culinary creations might have been whipped up here.

7. Small furniture, big space. It’s the trick of the trade: downsize your furnishings to upsize the room.

8. Create vignettes. Set up little scenes that help buyers visualize their potential life in this home. For the nursery, I wanted the buyer to walk in and say, “How lovely, I could totally see my future baby sitting in that chair nicely reading a book.”

9. Don’t forget the outdoor areas. Those spaces add as much interest for the buyer as the interior rooms. Napa properties have beautiful views so make the most of them by creating outdoor living spaces.

10. White is nice. When in doubt, use white in the bathroom. It spells CLEAN, and that’s what buyers want in a bathroom.

11. Decorative hiding. Throw a pillow over a wine stain, a rug where the cat coughed up a hairball, furniture in front of the crayon mural. It’s called decorative hiding. Remember, though, this is just for staging purposes; you’ll have to disclose major flaws to the buyer eventually.
Obviously, highlight the best features of your house. The main thing is that you try to appeal to your own market. The only thing that appeals to everyone is clean, decluttered looks.

Stage it and you can sell it.

Even you can Stage Your Home and Sell It Fast!

Tagged with: Design • Heritage Sotheby's • Napa • Selling • Staging

Filed under: Design/Home Decor

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!