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7 Proven Do It Yourself Home Staging Tips

by | Oct 5, 2017 | Home, Home Selling, Home Staging, Staging

How can you stage your home like a pro when, in fact you’re not a home stager? Home staging is the act of preparing and showcasing a property for sale to attract MORE potential buyers and ultimately providing a  quick and easy sell. Rated as the second best home improvement for sellers by Zillow, staging can be a powerful marketing tactic used to gain a competitive advantage. The problem is it can also be expensive! 
If you have more time, than money on hand to get your property prepared for sale than you may want to consider do it yourself home staging, rather than hiring a costly staging company. Regardless, here are four reasons why you’ll want to consider staging a home prior to going on the market.

Top 4 Reasons to Stage a Home

Avoid Costly Price Reductions: Staging is an effective way in reducing the number of days on market for a listing. The longer a home sits on the market the more likely it will face a 1-percent price reduction.
Sells a Home Faster: According to the Real Estate Staging Association, home staged prior to listing sell 87-percent faster. The average days on market for a staged home is 23 days.
Stand Out From Competition: More than 90-percent of home buyers start the search online. Home staging will make sure your pristine photos highlight a home’s best features and shine online making buyers more likely to head to your front door.
Make More Money: The feel at home process we use in our home staging company has helped hundreds of homeowners spend on average 78-percent less time on market  and have a combined increase in sales of $980,000 after home staging.

Most Important Rooms to Stage

Do it yourself home staging can become stressful and overwhelming for some, especially if you have a larger property to sell. Start by focusing on the main areas of the home including: the kitchen, living room, dining room, master bedroom and baths. You’ll want to go through each one of these rooms examining from the top down to determine what repairs or tasks you may need to complete in order to get each room prepared for sale.

7 Do It Yourself Home Staging Tips

But as you go through each room and beyond what should you be looking for in your home to fix or spruce up? Here are seven home staging tips to get you started:
What’s the First Impression? Ask yourself this question every time you walk into a space (if you’re too bias ask a judgmental friend for some help) to determine if there is a positive or negative feeling being promoted. Start and the curb and work your way through the home and whatever is creating that negative impression you’ll want to take note to fix.
Boost Your Curb Appeal: If your home is an overgrown mess in the front yard with peeling paint and a dirty, cracked walkway this will reflect poorly on home buyers, who will second guess how the inside of the property is up kept. Don’t give home buyers the opportunity to question your ability to maintain the property. If you can visually see problems, it gives suspicious of what issues they can’t see. Welcome visitors up to your front door with an inviting porch.

Erase That Clutter: Yes, you may here this tip all the time– but are you doing it? Overtime, a home can naturally get messy. It’s important to keep an organized space when on the market to show home buyers how to utilize every square inch of the space. Reducing clutter will help showcase the positive features of a home and allow buyers to visualize themselves living there.
Make Your Home Sparkle: Strike a balance between clean and lived-in. The best tip I can provide you is to stay on top of your cleaning tasks and create a schedule for everyone in the home to help out while on the market. If you’re cleaning up daily as you’re making the mess you’ll have a lot less to clean when it comes time to show the property. An example of this is to wash dishes daily or pick up toys every night before heading to bed. Also, beware of pet odors.
Leverage Home Repairs: You wouldn’t expect to pay full price for something broken on a store shelf, and let me tell you a home buyer won’t pay full for a property that is littered with home repair projects. As your making your first impressions list, take note of any minor or major repairs that need to be addressed. Take a look at your floors, electrical and plumbing assets, hardware, light fixtures and paint. Choose sophisticated neutral colors to enhance the space. 

Optimize the Home’s Square Footage: Take a look at your furniture layout is it hurting the room’s traffic pattern? Reduce furniture and create a layout that doesn’t close off the room. Create multiple functions inside a room to maximize the square footage, you want to use your space wisely. Entice people to explore the whole property by highlighting nooks and awkward spaces showing the potential buyer how they could use that space.
It’s All About Instilling Emotions: Think about who will be buying your home and how can you tailor accessories and vignettes to create a lifestyle they’re looking for. Home buying is initially more of an emotional commitment than a financial one. A homebuyer purchases first with their emotions and then justify the purchase with their wallets. So stage your home featuring their wants and needs, think seasonally and use specific accents to capture their emotion.

Need More Help…

Don’t let the cost of home staging hinder your property’s sale. Start planning your staging projects early to get the results you want. Begin your planning by signing up for our FREE 3-part home staging video series to get started staging your home today and learn how The Stage 2 Sell Strategy, the only online home staging video course for sellers, is a proven secret for a quick and easy sell.
Happy Selling,

    
 
 

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“I FOLLOWED YOUR SUGGESTIONS FOR EACH ROOM, TOOK GREAT PHOTOS AND MOST IMPORTANTLY PRICED IT WELL. WE HAD A MINI-BIDDING WAR AND SOLD IN 2 DAYS!”

~ Maria Robbins, Homeowner