Last Updated on September 9, 2022 by HortonTeam
Whether you’re buying or selling a home, you’ve probably seen photos from other listings that either stand out brilliantly or make you squirm in your seat. Did you know that minor differences in the appearance of your home can greatly affect how quickly it will sell?
Learn what home staging tips will help your home seller faster before listing your Newburgh or Evansville home with the Horton Team!
1. Home Staging 101: Cut the clutter
Perhaps the most damaging offense a home for sale can carry is the messy or cluttered premise. We say “premises” because it’s equally important to clean the exterior of your home as it is the interior, but we’ll get to that later.
One of the buyers’ most common desires is that a home is spacious or has ample room for storage. With this in mind, it’s imperative that you remove all junk from your home before a showing appointment or open house. Doing so will make your rooms appear much larger and create a more spacious environment.
Don’t forget to declutter the closets—buyers also report that spacious closets are high on their importance list. You don’t have to empty the closet, but leaving just a few items (e.g. a handful of shirts on hangers, a pair of shoes or two, and a few small storage bins) will make the closet appear much larger.
It’s equally as important to clean your home. Buyers don’t want to step into a mess, and most of them will quickly move on from the idea of purchasing your home (both literally and figuratively!) if the first things they see are dirty floors, carpets, bathrooms, and so on.
One of buyers’ most common desires is that a home is spacious or has ample room for storage. Click To Tweet2. Create the perfect lighting for photos
Have you ever wondered how some homes just radiate beautifully off the screen in their listing photos? While some agents or home sellers hire professional photographers, this phenomenon can be replicated with a smartphone camera and great lighting.
Maintaining proper lighting creates several benefits, such as enhanced photo crispness, the appearance of more space by reducing shadows, enriched colors and tones, and much more.
While there are pros and cons to using either natural light or studio light, it’s important that you make sure not to blend both types of light. Doing this can result in issues with your camera or smartphone and prevent it from focusing properly on objects or a specific room.
Whichever form of light you decide to use, be sure to take test photos to see what the room looks like digitally. Even if you feel like your home isn’t as nice as it looks on camera, high-quality listing photos will still convince home buyers to step inside your house.
3. What do home buyers see first?
If you’re sure the answer to that question is the kitchen or front door foyer, you’re not thinking straight; the first thing potential home buyers will see is the outside of your home! There will be plenty of questions buyers will ask about the inside of your home, but don’t forget to clean up your yard and visible components to your home like windows and walls.
Boost your curb appeal with the addition of a bird bath, patio chairs for the front porch, or by landscaping your walkways. For windows and walls, consider renting a power washer from a local store or spend the afternoon hand cleaning with suds and elbow grease. Taking just a few hours to spruce up the exterior of your home can mean the difference between getting buyers in your house and having them drive past shaking their heads.
Taking just a few hours to spruce up the exterior of your home can mean the difference between getting buyers in your house and having them drive past shaking their head. Click To Tweet4. Accessorize!
Any good home staging professional will tell you that the difference is in the accessories. Haven’t you noticed the home magazine covers that depict beautiful kitchens or living rooms with trinkets and decorations scattered throughout the room? While they may seem random and lack much practical value, these types of items can truly complete the look of the room and your home.
These items may be unique depending on the appearance of your home, but there are lots of common items that people use to achieve this more elegant look. Whichever accessories you decide on, just be sure to follow one simple rule: less is better. Remember our first tip about clutter? While these items can definitely make a home come alive, having just a few too many can make the room look cluttered and small.
Use a good balance between space and accessory placement to create the perfect room atmosphere. Pro tip: think seasonally when staging your home. If you’re selling in the middle of October, try using a pumpkin or Fall theme—just don’t over decorate!
5. Create a stench-free zone…
One of the first things buyers notice when they walk into a home for the first time is the smell. Our powerful sense of smell can pick up on many scents right away, one of them being pet odors. We never want to get rid of our four-legged friends, so just eliminate the odor instead!
This can be done using different cleaning products that promote “odor-eliminating” elements and ingredients. Continued use of these types of products will help reduce odors in a short amount of time, but there’s, even more, you can do.
Alternatives include lighting candles, opening windows (preferably with screens to keep out the bugs), baking something in the oven just before your open house, or showing guests stop by. Many home sellers bake a sheet of cookies and leave them for their guests—an added plus when it comes to making your home memorable and inviting!
Although these home staging tips will help you sell your home faster, this is in no way an exhaustive list. There is so much more you can do to increase selling speed, and home staging is just one piece of that puzzle. For even more staging tips or advice on other ways to sell your home faster, contact us today and we’ll help you sell for top dollar.
