10 Tips For Successful Home Staging

Our top 10 tips for successful home staging are all about saving you time, money and energy, because whether you’ve lived in your home for a few years or a few decades, selling your home can be daunting.

In preparing your house for selling it’s important to take a step back and have the mindset that this is no longer your home but your investment for your future. To give your home broad buyer appeal following our 10 Tips for Successful Home Staging is a great place to start. Combine these with our great Home Renovation Tips from RE/MAX and our Tips for Selling Your Home in Vancouver to help you sell your house faster and for more money. Most people want to move into their new home without having to make updates or renovations, so keep that in mind as you prepare you  home for sale.

1. Curb Appeal

   Stand back and view your home as if you were seeing it for the first time. This is the ‘first impression’ stage. Depending on the season you may want to have pots of colourful and attractive flowers to greet buyers; a clean and inviting door mat; new and shiny door handles and/or knockers; a freshly painted door.

2. Declutter

   Start your pre-pack as soon as possible. You need to decide what you are going to keep, give away, sell or throw away/recycle. Many clients will rent storage lockers or have pods delivered so they can start to clear out the items that won’t help you sell your home.

3. Clean

   You would think this one is common sense but let us assure you, we wish it was so! A clean home translates into ‘They must have really cared for their home.” Use environmentally friendly cleaners where you can, for hard cleaning areas TSP is a good product. At the very least bathrooms and kitchens must be sparkling clean.

4. Depersonalize

   We know you love your family photos and your personal treasures and for living they are perfect. However, for selling you want buyers to focus on the best features of your home and not your personal things or collections. Pack them up and store them til you move into your new home.

5. Neutralize

   A neutral colour scheme is the way to go for selling. Choose only three colours or less to paint your house for selling. If you have an open floor plan then paint the main floor all the same colour. Bedrooms look good in light sage greens or warm blues.

6. Highlight

   Highlightyour home’s best architectural features. Place your furniture in each room so that you have very obvious focal points that show off the home’s best selling features. For example, if you have a beautiful fireplace then place the furniture so that the eye is drawn to the fireplace.

7. Function

   Decide on the function in each room. If you were using your guest bedroom as your den for living, for selling turn it back into a bedroom with bedroom furniture in it. If you do not have the right furniture for each room consider renting it. If you don’t want to rent furniture than borrow the items you need to show off your home.

8. Lighting

   Lighting your home properly shows it off to its best advantage. Spend money on new light fixtures in brushed nickel or stainless steel. There are many low-cost lighting stores to select from so no excuses for having dated light fixtures.

9. Window Treatments

   Window treatments can help sell your home, they're like the icing on the cake. The most popular on the market are the 2” faux woods in a white tone to go with your trim. Decorative side panels will do the trick if you need to add warmth and colour.

10. Flooring

    Flooring needs special attention and is a good investment for updating the look of your home. Tile or linoleum is great for entranceways, bathrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms; a good quality laminate or hardwood is perfect for living rooms and family rooms; bedrooms are attractive in a neutral carpet.

By planning and budgeting you can get yourself to the Open House stage faster and more efficiently. 79% of prospective buyers will checkout your MLS listing online before they come to an open house and you want them to like what they see!