How To Stage Your Home for a Quick Sale: 15 Useful Tips

When real estate agents talk about staging your home, they’re talking about the process of preparing a home for sale on the market. Staging is used to highlight a home’s best features and impress potential buyers. Selling it as quickly as possible for the highest feasible price is another motivation.

The goal of staging is to flatter the property while without calling too much attention to it. Staging a home is different from decorating it. Decorating is about personal taste, whereas staging appeals to the broadest range of potential buyers.

Not all sellers stage their homes. If you go the additional mile and stage yours, you’ll have an advantage. Here’s how to do it.

15 Tips To Stage Home

1.  Focus on the rooms with the biggest potential

Concentrate your efforts on the areas that have the greatest potential to influence the buyers’ decisions, and spend less time on rooms that will have little impact.

The living room, master bedroom, and kitchen are the most important rooms for buyers. When you’re staging a property, these are the rooms you should concentrate on the most. Rooms with less influence, such as guest bedrooms and children’s bedrooms, are less important.

2. De-personalize the home

Remove any framed photos on walls and surfaces. Keep your personal stuff out of sight. It’s also important to remove religious objects. The idea behind this is to help the buyer connect with the property better.

3. Get rid of clutter

This is about making your home look bigger. Pack the stuff that you don’t use every day, such as files, games, unseasonal clothes, etc. You can also pack most of the decoration stuff if they’re too big.

4. Use flowers

Flowers and plants, even fake ones, bring freshness. Flowers on the kitchen table or potted plants in the living room will make a huge difference.

5. Do a major cleaning

A clean house will tell the prospective buyers that you’ve taken care of the property. Clean the areas which you’ve neglected for a while. Do this as if you’ve moved into a new house.

6. Focus on the light

Allow as much light into the house as possible to brighten it up. Open the blinds on all of the windows to let in more light while also making the rooms appear larger. For showings, turn on all of the lights in your home, including lamps and closet lights.

7. Rearrange your furniture

Organize the furniture in a way that potential buyers can walk around easily. This way the area will look bigger, too. Ensure that the furniture is neat, tidy, and welcoming. Pillows can be used to provide a splash of color and contrast to a room.

8. Check the floors

Make sure your floors are in good shape. If you have the budget, consider a repair. If you’re going to install hardwood flooring, focus on common spaces like the living room, dining room, and kitchen.  If not, you can place rugs on the floors.

9. Pay extra attention to the master bedroom

Creating a gender-neutral master bedroom is very important. Clean and crisp linens will help you create a tasteful look. Also, make sure that the bedroom is free of personal items.

10. Organize the closets

Organizing the closets is an important step of home staging. Prospective buyers will look inside the closets and see if there is enough space. Put your boxes somewhere else and show them that the closets are big and have capacity.

11. Clean up toys

You may be thinking that families with children don’t mind seeing toys everywhere. This is not true. When people are viewing houses, they’re looking for a new beginning. Instead, show them how tidy the children’s room is.

12. Beware pet odors and stains

Pet scents should be avoided. If you have dogs, have all rugs steam cleaned and vacuumed, and wash all surfaces with great care. When buyers are coming to view the house, hide any extra-loved pet toys and puppy bones.

13. Don’t overlook the outdoors 

When working on the interior, don’t forget to stage the outdoors too. Even if your balcony is small, put a small table and chairs. Put some plants too and make the area cozy.

14. Define rooms

Make sure that each room has a purpose. This will show buyers how to make the most of the house. Make an office out of your attic if you have one. A junk room can be converted into a guest bedroom, and a finished basement can be turned into an entertainment area.

15. Take care of the foundation problems

If there are cracks in the walls or ceiling, there might be some foundation problems which are red flags. Addressing any issues regarding the foundation is very important before you sell the house. If the cracks aren’t due to any foundation issues, repair them not to scare off the buyers.