How to Stage Your Home for a Sale

By Stephen Davis
Special to Relocation.com

"Staging" is a real estate term that means decorating your house to showcase the best features of your home, impress homebuyers and sell it quickly. All sellers do not stage their houses, therefore staging can be really beneficial for yours.

There are several staging tips you can do to make your home more attractive. If you're working with a limited budget, you should focus on the big-picture and choose home improvements that will add up your home's value. Elements like entryway and exteriors can impact a buyers decision on whether to purchase your home or not. Other factors like your bathrooms, kitchen, and the patio are also important. Here are some techniques that can be used while staging your house for sale:

Make it sparkling clean.
You may have new kitchen appliances but you should only include those that are sparkling and working. Buyers do not like seeing gravy and oil stains on the knobs and counters of their potential home. The same applies to your bathroom, tub, sink and the toilet. Everything should look clean and well-maintained.

De-clutter your home.
Clutter diverts homebuyers diverts attention away from the home's attributes. They make your house looked cramped. Some buyers like looking at your closet, therefore dumping all your clutter in the closet is not a good idea.

Eliminate odors.
A house that smells of rotten food or pets is not very appealing. While you are staging your house, you must deodorize it. Use room fresheners and sprays that make your house smell appealing. A good trick is to try to bake some bread of pastries while you are showing your house to create a 'homey' feel.

Well-defined rooms.
Each room’s purpose must be well-defined. Buyers must know how they can use up the spaces and its possibilities. If you have an extra room, you must have enough storage and fixtures so that it can be turned into an office.

Paint to wallpaper.
Your potential buyer may not like your current wallpaper. It is good to pull it down and get your walls painted. Painting over your wallpaper will make it look shabby and repel buyers.

Make sure you avoid very bright shades. You may like to have a bedroom that has olive walls and sky blue ceiling, but this may not be your buyers taste. Therefore make sure you have your walls painted with neutral and cool shades. Colors like crème, beige, white, etc. work just fine.

Flooring.
Flooring sells houses. When staging your home, replace your dirty and soiled carpets with ones that are clean (or you can wash your dirty ones). If your floors have stains and patches, make sure you get them cleaned well in advance. Stains can be tough and require more than one treatment.

These are only some of the staging tips, which will help your home sell faster. All you have to do is make your home look clean and livable. It does not have to look like a palace but it should look like a home.

Rate This Article From 1 (Lowest) to 5 (Highest)

Average

Related Articles

Why Do You Need a Home Inspection?

Should You Use a Real Estate Agent?

Your Best Bet for a Distressed Property 'Steal'

Have Fact Sheet Ready for Potential Buyers

Masking

1 Week Before Your Move

Apartment Decorating Tips: Cheap Ways to Spruce Up Your Pad

10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Cleaning Service

Auto Insurance: What You Need to Know

After the Offer: What You Should Ask Yourself

Relocation.com
In the Press

A Moving Company's Moving Story
June, 2012

Relocation.com's survey was recently featured on the front page of USA Today. The headline entitled "Moving in Hard Times" highlighted our results that moving and relocating behaviors were only moderately influenced by the economy.

Our lifestyle survey found that Americans are seeking smaller homes and a suburban lifestyle. These riveting results were recently featured on USAToday.com in an article entitled "American dream shrinks as smaller homes gain favor."

"This user-friendly site includes a blog and a subscription-only newsletter, too"

"Relocation.com provides you with all the tools you need to get quotes quickly from movers in your area."

How to Stage Your Home for a Sale

Relocation.comIn the Press

Relocation.com Resources

Relocation.com
In the Press