home staging tips
You all know that I love me some HGTV. There are shows about home renovations, home buying, home selling and… home staging! This is where you present the home for sale in a pretty way, to focus on the home’s best characteristics. Since we just put our house on the market, I’m going to share the whole selling process with you guys. And first up is adventures in home staging.
Our house is small but I feel like it looks so much better than when we bought it. It took awhile but I finally got it all decorated the way we like it. And now we have to undo that to make it look more neutral and sell-able. So here are a few photos of the house ready for the open house versus what it looked like before. Not a huge difference – just more simple and decluttered. We took some things off the credenza in the dining room and got a simpler shower curtain for our bathroom.
If you’re selling your house too, you should have a great real estate agent who will tell you what you need to do to make the house ready for showing. But in case your agent didn’t tell you or you are selling yourself, here’s what I’ve learned:
De-personalize
We left up some of our art, but got rid of really personal things like the photos of us and our family and friends. Watch any of those staging shows and they will remind you that people want to picture themselves living in the house – they don’t want to look at your wedding photos. Our house is a little sad and less personalized now, but I know it’s for the best for selling it.
Declutter, declutter, declutter
This is the biggest thing ever. Even if you don’t have a ton of stuff, you still have too much stuff. You will want to get rid of any excess stuff you don’t need. This will make your house look neater and larger. We got rid of extra decorations, stuff that needed to go into storage and even slimmed down our clothes to make the closets look bigger. Also things like spices that I keep on the kitchen counter were put out of sight into the cabinets to make the counters look more spacious. (That’s a real life moment below.)
Fix up little things
In any house, I’m sure you can think of a million little projects. You can do them all or you can do a few that will have the biggest impact. For example, a few months ago, we painted our bedroom, painted our front door and changed out our dated dining room chandelier. These changes were a few hundred dollars, but were glaring ugly problems and now the house is more inviting.
Hide your last minute clutter before open houses/showings
You can’t declutter those things you need everyday, like your shower toiletries. My realtor had us throw those things in a basket and put them in our car for the open house (but not for regular showings). I also put the dog bed/toys away before buyers come over.
Take/hide your valuables
At an open house, your realtor can’t stalk every buyer. It’s unlikely anything will happen, but don’t risk if by leaving your credit cards, jewelry, etc. laying out in plain sight.
Clean
As we’ve been touring other houses, cleanliness (or lack thereof) is one of the first things I notice. I figure if I’m walking into a dirty house owned by people who know buyers are going to be looking at, what does the house usually look like? First impressions are important, so clean your stuff. Have an empty sink, clean surfaces, dust, vacuum, spray some air freshener, etc.
These are all great ways to make your house more show-worthy. Any tips you would add to this list? Anyone else moving soon or selling? I hope to be able to share our house buying/selling/moving updates with everyone soon!
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