Staging Your Home for a Quick and Successful Sale
When selling a home, agents know the goal is to attract potential buyers and receive a strong offer, if not multiple offers. Today’s red-hot real estate market certainly helps but that doesn’t mean you or your clients can skip staging a home. Below we’ll share some good and bad home staging tips to help attract qualified buyers and the best and highest offers. These are some easy ways to make your sellers some extra cash.
Is home staging worth it?
If you’re on the fence about whether home staging is worth it, check out a survey from the National Association of Realtors®. The survey showed 83 percent of buyers’ agents say that staging makes it easier for buyers to visualize a property as their future home. Additionally, 53 percent of sellers’ agents say staging a home either greatly or slightly decreases the amount of time a home spends on the market.
Buying a home isn’t simply a financial decision—it’s an emotional decision. Homes are places where memories are made, children are raised, and new chapters begin. Staging a home makes residential properties as welcoming and appealing as possible to potential buyers. In short, it helps set your listing apart from other homes for sale.
Where to begin
When selling a home, the three most staged rooms are the kitchen, living room, and master bedroom. Regardless of which room, make sure you tidy up and declutter the entire home.
With 97% of buyers looking online to choose their home, you have mere seconds to get their attention in a sea of listings. Pay attention to curb appeal as well.
Curb appeal creates positive first impressions
Let’s start with the exterior of the home. After all, the first photo on any listing is the exterior of the home. You have about three seconds to get buyers to click on your listing. The first photo can make or break whether your listing ends up at the top of a buyers’ list or in the meh pile.
Shortly before having photos taken, encourage your clients to hire a landscaping company or, if they’re DIYers, get out there and trim the bushes. Freshen up tired plants with fresh ones that look appealing. Also, pick up sticks and debris around the yard. And that hose? Make sure it’s neatly wound up and not in a tangled mess. Lastly, on the front door, place a universal wreath or decorative item. Seasonal items, such as Christmas wreaths or Halloween decorations, do not resonate with all potential buyers.
Inside the home
When potential buyers step into the home for the first time, they’ll be focused on a few things.
The first is the temperature in the home. If it’s a hot summer day and they step into a cool home, they’ll think phew—the air conditioning works.
They’ll also notice the scents within the home. Potential buyers will be smelling for mildew, mold, pets, smoke, and more. The last thing you want is potential buyers smelling just-cooked seafood or that wet dog smell. Ensure your sellers’ home smells divine. Light some candles and target a sugar cookie scent.
Last, potential buyers will quickly note how light and airy or dark and dungeon-like a home is. Make sure there is plenty of natural light flowing throughout the entire house. Open up all the blinds and curtains.
Home staging tips for the kitchen
Even if the potential buyers aren’t master chefs, they’ll still pay close attention to the kitchen. Your goal is to convey the kitchen is large enough for the buyers’ needs, is fully functioning, and well-maintained.
During the open house, you can count on buyers to open drawers and peek inside appliances. Ditch the dirty dishes, and make sure the sink is sparkling clean. Also, be sure your clients run the dishwasher before the open house. Inevitably, someone will open the dishwasher, and no one wants to catch a whiff of last night’s dinner. Take out the trash and empty the dishwasher. That will make for some bad staging and negate all the hard work.
To make the buyers feel like they have more room in the kitchen than they need, minimize clutter on countertops and the island. Reduce the number of appliances out, too. For instance, if a toaster oven shows stuck-on dirt or grime, your clients should sock it away. Also, make sure drawers are not overstuffed. If someone opens the drawer to an overflowing pile of towels, their first thought will be this isn’t enough room.
To bring some life to the kitchen, incorporate some greens. Display herbs by a window or place a small plant next to a toaster or other small appliance.
Lastly, consider placing some fresh cookies on a decorative platter in the kitchen. Even if you or your clients are not bakers, buy some baked goods at the grocery store and transfer them onto the decorative plate. This brings an element of hominess.
Home staging tips for the living room
When staging the living room, your goal is to make the room feel approachable but not overly stuffy.
Here is one home staging idea for the couch. Throw one blanket on the back of the couch, in the middle. Make it look neat but usable. Include a few pillows and give them a healthy karate chop. Generally, stick with solid or neutral tones but feel free to add some life with one patterned pillow.
Incorporate a few books and plants. A stack of 50 magazines from the past five years under your coffee table? No one wants to see that, but a couple of books on top of the coffee table is perfect.
Home staging tips for the master bedroom
Think of luxury hotels and how they set up their rooms, and use this as a guide for the master bedroom.
Make sure the linens are extra clean. To provide a hotel look and an impression of luxury, add a fluffy white duvet at the end of the bed. On the nightstands, add a bouquet. Even if they’re $10 flowers from the local grocer, it’ll add some coziness to the room.
When staging the master bathroom, create a spa-like experience. Ensure the fan is turned off, the toilet seat is down, and a candle is lit. Declutter the bathroom countertops by removing all toiletries. A small plant on the countertop and a decorative soap pump (and we don’t mean Dial) will add a nice touch.
How Radius can help
Regardless of list price, these home staging tips can help your listing look like a million bucks. If you’re not home staging inclined, Radius can make the home staging process easy. Our service, Radius Edge, includes pre-sale home prep and professional staging to help homes sell. Services include painting, professional staging, decluttering, window treatments, and much more. A team of professional, licensed, and insured vendors work with you and a professional designer to improve your home. Using Radius Edge helps homes sell, on average, for 6.4% higher and two times faster.
If your client uses the service, the cost of the home staging services is deducted upon the sale of the home. This is another example of a tailored service to help you increase your sales velocity while saving you time and giving you flexibility.
Radius Agent is an online brokerage focused on helping agents succeed. With Radius Agent, you keep 100% of your commissions while getting 100% support from our team.
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