Today’s homebuyers have grown accustomed to good photos and expect to see beautiful, picture-perfect, magazine-ready homes when they shop – both in listing photos and in person.
Studies show that staged homes typically sell faster and at a higher price. That said, staging is an essential element in preparing your home for listing and sale. So be sure to check out our 6 DIY staging tips for home sellers in Roseburg.
1. Understand Staging
When you understand staging, you can use it better and get better results. That’s why I recommend as the first of my DIY staging tips that Roseburg home sellers gain at least some understanding of staging and what it is meant to do.
Staging doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to hire a professional stager and spend a pocketful of cash. Staging basically involves making a home look its best. You want your home to appeal to buyers.
We do this by identifying the focal points of each room and strategically arranging furniture and decor. The main purpose is to allow and enable potential buyers to visualize your staged house as their own home – to imagine their belongings in place and actually living there.
In 2017, the National Association of Realtors survey found that “49% of buyers’ agents believe staging affects most buyers’ view of a home. And 77% of them say it’s easier for people to visualize a staged home as their own.”
Effective staging can also help you sell faster and get you a higher sales price. That same survey found 29% of agents reporting that “the sales price for staged homes [was] between1% and 5% higher than unstaged homes.” In addition, 39% of sellers’ agents “reported that staging a home reduces days on the market.”
2. Declutter, Depersonalize, and Clean
This may seem too obvious to include among our staging tips for home sellers in Roseburg, but you’d be surprised how many sellers neglect it or don’t do a thorough job. I’ve actually had buyers ask me if the seller forgot that we were coming because the home was so messy.
Here’s why decluttering is so important: “The most essential task when staging a house involves purging and cleaning.”
A clean and empty as possible house looks bigger.
A good decluttering, depersonalizing, and cleaning should entail at least the following:
- Removing most or all personal photos, sentimental, and personal items.
- Remove all knick-knacks. Even if you love that huge collection of things… box them up and get them out of your house!
- Deep clean the entire house, making sure the kitchen and bathrooms look and smell good.
- Airing out your house to get rid of offensive odors and scents.
3. Go for a Light, Bright Look and Feel
Buyers find bright rooms the most appealing… don’t we all? They seem both more inviting and roomier. Besides, you want buyers to be able to see all the hard staging work you’ve done. This means that you need to maximize both natural and artificial lighting.
You can begin by cleaning windows, opening blinds, and pulling back curtains, as well as removing those heavy drapes. Hint: Drapes really aren’t “in” right now.
In addition, you should clean or replace dirty fixtures and dingy shades and add additional lighting where needed.
4. Stage the Important Rooms First
As far as Roseburg DIY staging tips go, this one is important. Because life happens and you will likely run out of time, make sure you stage the important rooms first. You certainly don’t want to waste time and money on rooms that don’t matter so much.
Heres what staging pros recommend: “If you don’t have the time or money to stage your whole house, you can get the most bang for your buck by staging certain rooms.”
The NAR survey went further and found these specific rooms the most important (in order)
- The living room is the most crucial space to stage, with 55% of agents surveyed thinking it’s ‘very important’ to stage it.
- Next comes the master bedroom.
- Third, the kitchen. Your last priority can be any extra bedrooms.
Does this order surprise you?
5. Remove/Rent Furniture and Arrange It
All staging experts always offer as one of their staging tips that you should remove about half your furniture to make rooms seem bigger and have more buyer appeal. But then your remaining furniture should have that necessary showroom look – but, sadly, that’s not the case for most of us.
Of course, to keep on budget, you don’t want to go out and buy new furniture, so a better option is to rent furniture instead. If your furniture is less-than-pretty, old, outdated, or smelly, you can opt to rent nice-looking new pieces.
Renting for the term of the listing is much cheaper than buying them. If you’re staging solely for the purpose of getting great listing photos, another option is simply to use pop-up furniture.
More important, though, that furniture has to be strategically arranged. Once you’ve settled on the furniture that will occupy the staged home focus on “floating” the furniture.
Floating is a design techniques where you position couches, chairs, and tables away from your walls. You’ve probably seen it done on home makeover t.v… now you know what it’s called:)
Anchor the space with an area rug, even it the room has wall-to-wall carpeting. This creates a cozy, intimate space, ideal for hanging out with friends and family. This might also get the buyer to stay longer which is always a good thing when showing.
6. Add Finishing Touches
Finally, when DIY staging your home, you should add some finishing touches to help make the subtle difference. Once the major staging is done, work on adding finishing touches that will complement and perfect things like the furniture arrangement.
These things include a bowl of fruit in the kitchen, fresh flowers in vases, accent pillows on the couch, and folded towels in the bathroom, etc.
Ultimately, staging is an art and requires a great deal of experience. In some cases, it is best to hire professional stagers. Or, our team can also help you out with additional DIY staging tips for selling in Roseburg. Got questions? Just ask.