SmartHomeOwners

Home staging can make your home sale go much faster and easier.  As potential buyers tour your home, they will likely try to imagine living there.  What will it look like with furniture, curtains, and bath and kitchen accessories?  You can entice them with home staging!

What is Home Staging?

Home staging is the art of decorating and furnishing a home to appeal to the emotions of potential buyers.  When someone is touring a home, they want to feel "at home" while still being able to visualize their own room decorations.  Home staging is not meant to clutter the rooms with knick-knacks or pictures.  It's not about filling each room with lots of furniture.  It's more about adding a piece or decorative item here and there...just enough to make it feel like a real home.

While most real estate agents understand what it takes to sell a home, they simply don't have time to consult with every seller on how to stage a home.  They also don't have time to coordinate a home stager.  There are professional home stagers that specialize in this area of the home sale process.  When selling your home, you can hire a home stager to decorate based on their expertise.  They understand how to create a pleasant look and feel throughout the home and eliminate clutter.  Your home can be staged whether you're still living there or not.  If you've already moved out, invest in just a few items to place in each room for the staging process.

Home Staging on Your Own

If there are no professional home stagers in your area or if you are unable to take on this extra expense, there are ways to stage your home on your own.  If you're still living in the home while it is being shown to buyers, consider moving all items to storage that make the rooms appear to be cluttered.  You'll want every room to appear open and spacious - this leaves room for the imagination!

Consider the first impression (or only impression) for every potential buyer.  What does the home look like when you first drive into the driveway?  Consider the lawn, walkways, porch, etc.  Does the siding on your home need to be washed?  What about the windows?

On the inside, make sure every room is clean and fresh-smelling before buyers arrive.  Bake a cake or cookies in the oven, or light a few aromatic candles.  Scents and cleanliness will stir the emotions of buyers.  Hide away personal family photos and other personal items.  These tend to hinder the buyer's ability to imagine himself or herself living in the home.

You can easily read more about home staging on the Web to gather tips.  It's well worth the effort because home staging can make the difference in whether or not you sell your home as well as what price the buyer will be willing to pay.