A List of Staging Tips for Selling Your Home

Don't panic! Here are a few staging tips for selling your home, which has been on the market for a while and you still don't have a serious buyer. On top of that, the few potential buyers that have come around all wanted to pay less than what you were asking!

The first thing to remember when selling your home is that you have to be objective. You have to look at it as selling a house, not your home, and this means seeing it from the buyers viewpoint.

If you take a good look around your home, you will see many things that could probably be improved by using a few staging tips, and if you don't have a clue where to begin, just go to your local library or book store and you will find dozens of books on staging tips for selling homes, staging tips for real estate or staging tips for selling house and home.

Your goal is to impress the buyer, get as many offers as you can and in the process, get top dollar for your home... maybe even more than what you're asking. So I will start with the most important tip first.

Decluttering Staging Tips

This is very important, and the easiest thing to do! I can't stress how important it is to remove all clutter! And this means all the toys, pet items, boxes, storage bins, old unused items and anything else that is taking up space in the corners, on the shelves, under the beds, on the kitchen counters, on your refrigerator, or in the closets. It also means packing away personal items like photos, figurines, what-nots, any pictures on the walls that aren't needed and any other dusk collectors that aren't necessary.

You need to do this in each and every room in your home, including the garage. And don't forget to clean out and organize all the closets, cabinets and drawers. Throw away everything you don't need, and if you think you do need it, then pack it and put it in storage. Believe it or not, when potential buyers view a home, they have a tendency to open up everything and look inside.

The best way to go about doing the above is to purchase the huge, plastic storage bins. You're in the process of moving, so declutter by packing all these things away, if you still want them, and throw the rest away. Don't save anything you don't need. When you are finished, the only things remaining should be the items that are going to be used for staging.

Remove any TVs on bedroom dressers. If you absolutely must have one in your bedroom, put it inside your armoire or put it on a stand and place it tastefully somewhere in the room. Any TV in your bedroom that is larger than 27 inches should really be out of sight or put into another room, or in storage.

The reason you're doing this is to create space in your home. Potential buyers want to know they are getting the space they want, for the money they are spending, and if the space is cluttered with your personal belongings, not only does it take away the feel of space, it will turn your potential buyer off, and you may lose a sell.

Interior Painting For Staging Tips

This is another easy and inexpensive staging tip to improve the look of your home, and you don't have to paint the entire house. Just choose one or two key rooms to paint. Like the living room, kitchen, bathrooms or master bedroom. These are rooms that generally sell your home, so focus your painting on them.

A word of caution. You may want to stay away from loud, brilliant colors and opt for the more subtle colors that can match your decor. Colors like soft beige, gray or pale sea foam green.
The rooms you don't paint should have clean and spotless walls. Also make sure you patch any cracks or unsightly spots or blemishes on the walls and doors.

Cleaning Staging Tips For Selling Homes

Be sure you clean everything! And I mean everything! You want your kitchen sink, oven, microwave, dishwasher, cabinets, drawers, refrigerator, counters and floor to be spotless and shining clean.

Replace what needs to be replaced and clean and de-grease the rest. This also goes for the bathrooms. Clean the bathtub, the shower, the tile, the sinks, the medicine cabinets, the drawers and the floor.

If you have ceiling fans, clean or dust those. Dusk, clean and polish everything in your home that needs dusting, cleaning and polishing... including the windows. And don't forget the carpet. Do it yourself or get it professionally cleaned, but your carpet has to be clean and free of pet urine spots, stains and dirt. If it is worn, then replace it in the most important areas, like the living room, the master bedroom and the hall way.

You may also want to take a look at your furniture. If you can clean it and have it look decent, then do it. If not, replace it. You're moving anyway and will purchase new furniture, you just as well get it now and let it help with the sell of the house.

Decorating Staging Tips

When it comes to staging tips for real estate, this is another important factor, but not as important as you think. Because as long as the other things listed above are done, your home would sell even if it didn't have furniture in it.

But let's assume your home has furniture, then the placement of that furniture is important. You want to place it to create that sense of space I mentioned earlier. The rooms need to flow and furniture should not block walking paths or cover up fireplaces.

Arrange your furniture to accent a fireplace or a bay window or french doors leading out to a beautiful view. If you have a family room with a gigantic TV, just make sure all the furniture and the TV are arranged tastefully.

Any furniture that is threadbare and old, should be replaced now rather than later. Arrange the new pieces so your potential buyers can picture themselves in this living space, dinning room or bedroom. If you don't or can't at this time, then there is nothing a little paint, chair and sofa coverings and basic re-upholstering won't cure.

The re-upholstering would be for your dinning or kitchen table chairs. I've done it and it's an easy fix. You just pick out beautiful fabric, unscrew the seat from the chair, cut the fabric to size, staple or tack it on, screw the seat back onto the chair, and you have new chairs. If the chairs need painting, let your spouse do that while you upholster.

When the furniture and dinning room table and chairs have been arranged, why not put fresh cut flowers around the house and in the kitchen. You can put them in beautiful vases and place them on the dinning table, the coffee table, the kitchen counter, the bedrooms and even the bathroom.
You can also place other decorative items around the house.

Use the special pieces you saved when decluttering. Don't get carried away with the pieces. Remember, you just decluttered. Put out a few pieces that make a statement and goes well with the decor of the room.

Accent rugs go really well for tying everything together in your living room and family rooms. So you may want to think about doing this. You can also add a few colorful throw pillows to the sofas and chairs. Something that brings out the color scheme of the room.

When it comes to throw pillows, don't forget your bedrooms. You can purchase inexpensive comforter sets and throw pillows that will give your bedrooms an expensive and tasteful look.
The same goes for window dressings. Try to get curtains that bring out the decor and add to the over all look.

This can be done in the bedrooms, the living room, the family room, the kitchen and the bathrooms if they have windows.

You probably need to also check the hardware on your kitchen and bathroom doors. If they are outdated or tarnished, either clean them or replace them.

Pressure Wash The Exterior Of Your House

This is a quick fix. Just rent a pressure washer and wash the exterior of your home. While you have the washer, why not wash the deck or patio area also. That's all you have to do with pressure washing, other than being careful not to ruin any flowers around your house or chipping huge chunks of paint off the house. Just make sure all the debris, algae and cobwebs are washed off.

Landscaping Around The House

Staging tips for selling homes would not be complete without taking a look at your landscaping. All you need to do is make sure the lawn is decent. If it needs it, scatter a few fast growing grass seeds around the lawn and water.

Check the flower beds and remove any dead plants or flowers and replace them. Trim up the shrubbery and trees, and place a good grade of mulch around them. Stay away from the red colored mulch. It's just decoration and really doesn't serve much of a purpose except as decoration.

Try using a good cedar mulch. This will keep bugs away from the house because they don't like the smell of cedar. It doesn't have that reddish color, but it serves a major purpose of pest control. Other than that, just keep everything trimmed and watered, and remove anything dead or dying.

Landscaping or curb appeal would also apply to your front porch. Make sure it's clean, tidy and appealing. Put out a pretty welcome mat, and see that your front door is either cleaned, painted or replaced.

The patio or deck should be clean of spider webs and insects and have a few potted plants and flowers situated around it. You can also add a patio set and barbecue grill, which will give the potential buyers an idea of what it will look like with their furniture and their family.

Well, this completes the list of staging tips for selling homes. The basic things to remember are to declutter, clean, paint or replace, decorate, pressure wash and landscape. The extent of this job will depend on the state of your home and how long it's been since any of this was done.

If the job seems too daunting for you, then seek the help of family members and friends. They make good workers if you're also willing to feed them. When it comes to staging tips for real estate, these are just the bare basics of what you can do. For those who want to go the extra step, you can always add rooms, get a new roof, remodel kitchens and bathrooms, etc.

But the ideas given above are for those of you who want to do just enough to get your house sold, so you can move on. You aren't looking to spend a fortune when your new home is waiting. So when staging, try to remember cost and choose the less expensive way.

When you have buyers coming, always remove any signs of pets. That include their food bowls, play toys, beds, pet hair and their odors. Open up the windows if possible, turn on the fans and lights. If it's in the winter time, light the fireplace.

Bake sugar cookies or chocolate chip cookies on the day you have a viewing, or for open house. It's better that your house smell of cookies, than your dog or cat. Also, don't forget your fresh flowers on open house.

Your potential buyers absolutely must be able to picture themselves in your home. This is the main rule of staging tips for real estate, and staging and baking cookies appeal to their sight and their sense of smell.

One other thing I need to mention is this... now that you have done all of this, you have to keep it this way until you sell, so you may have to do a little cleaning and straightening every day. You never know when your realtor may bring a potential buyer around. I hope you're up to the challenge, and I hope you enjoyed staging tips for selling your home.