When it comes to selling your home, one thing that can help is getting it visually ready for viewing. We have some home staging tips to help you sell your home faster.
For many homeowners, putting your house on the market can be a bit daunting. You have no idea how it will be received by interested buyers and you pray that someone will love it as much as you do. It can sometimes feel a bit hit and miss if someone will like your property or not. One tactic that many believe can help sell your home quickly is ‘staging’.
What is staging?
What we refer to as home staging is the method of taking certain actions to make sure that your home is looking its best. This involves highlighting its best features by optimising its appearance and layout. This could include moving furniture around, giving it a fresh lick of paint and decluttering.
The main aim is to make your home look as attractive as possible and allow potential buyers to visualise themselves living there.
Our home staging tips
Having likely lived in your home for a while, it will be hard to detach yourself from your surroundings and see what needs improving. That’s where Farr & Farr come in. We have put together a few home staging tips to help you optimise your home and show viewers why they should love it.
First impressions count
As the saying goes, first impressions count. When it comes to selling your home, this is particularly important to keep in mind. We also don’t mean simply tidying up the garden and mowing the lawn. We are talking about paying attention to all of the little details that you may have gotten used to over the years.
For starters, evaluate the outside paintwork. Anything with cracks in can give a ‘worn down’ impression and should be freshened up. Look at window frames, door frames and front doors. If you have a rusted door knocker, maybe consider replacing it with a new one. This also goes for any worn out garden ornaments that you have.
You should also make sure that all windows are cleaned. You want your home to sparkle.
Tackle the DIY to-do list
We’ve all done it. We’ve written a mental to-do list of things that we either want to change in our homes or things that need changing. With busy lives it’s easy to get distracted and never get around to completing those DIY tasks.
When staging your home, one of the first things you should do is tackle that to-do list. This could include re-painting scuffed walls, fixing damp patches and repairing any cracks in the walls. Many of these jobs will be inexpensive fixes that will do wonders for the impression that your home will give.
Think audience
Before you make any major layout changes, it is vital to think about your target audience. The people that you will be showing your home to will likely be in the same position you were in when you bought the property. Think about their lifestyle, what they will be look for in a home and how you can show them that your home can offer them everything that they are looking for.
Depersonalise your space
Another home staging tip is to depersonalise your house. The main aim of staging is to help prospective buyers to visualise themselves living there. This can be difficult if you have family photos everywhere, clothes all over the bedroom and children’s drawings covering the fridge. It may seem weird to hide all of these things, but it will really help your viewers to imagine themselves having a life there.
Declutter and tidy
Likely one of the most obvious home staging tips, decluttering and tidying is crucial. Mess and clutter take up space and space is what sells a home. You should store anything that is on show that shouldn’t be, whether you put them in a cupboard or take them out the house. This could include unseasonal clothes like the mountain of coats hung up in your hallway as well as piles of newspapers of magazines that you might have lying around.
A good way to decide what you should be removing/hiding is to imagine how a show home would look. Think minimalistic but homely.
Lighting is key
Essentially, house viewings put your home on display and as with putting anything on display, lighting is key. One of the best home staging tips is to utilise the lighting that you have. Open all curtains and blinds fully before every viewing and make sure there isn’t anything blocking light from your windows like TVs or bookshelves. Artificial lighting can also be manipulated to highlight the best areas of your home. If you have a corner that looks particular dull, simply put a stylish lamp in that area. A mixture of natural lighting and mid-level lighting creates an interesting atmosphere.
You should also think about light colour. As you may be aware you can get varying ‘temperatures’ when purchasing bulbs. If you aren’t already, you should learn about the different levels of kelvins (the colour temperature of the bulb).
In general, you should aim for 2700k – 3000k for living areas such as the living room and bedrooms. This will create a more relaxing atmosphere. Using 3000k – 4000k in kitchens and bathrooms will create a lighter appearance that is fresh and clean.
We hope that you have found these home staging tips helpful. As industry experts, we are confident that we know what works when it comes to selling your home. We even have a no contract tie-in policy because we strongly believe in our ability to sell your property.
If you have any questions at all about selling your home, get in touch with our team today and we would be happy to help!
