When you decide to sell a home in Macomb County, your real estate agent will most likely talk to you about home staging. Here’s what it is and why it’s necessary.
What is Home Staging, and Do You Have to Do It to Sell Your Home?
Home staging is the art of making your home as appealing as possible to a wide range of prospective buyers. It’s an absolutely necessary function of the home selling process, and for good reason: Staged homes sell faster and for more money than their non-staged counterparts do.
How Do You Stage a Home?
Staging a home is a lot easier than it sounds. But before you get to the staging phase of selling, you need to:
- Declutter
- Depersonalize
- Clean
Here’s a closer look at each.
Step #1 Before Staging: Declutter
Prospective buyers want to see that they’ll have enough room for all their belongings if they purchase your home. That means you need to remove anything you haven’t used in the past six months. It also means that you should remove furnishings that interrupt clear walking paths or that make rooms appear overcrowded. You don’t have to get rid of these items permanently, but you should at least put them in storage until you move into your new home.
Step #2 Before Staging: Depersonalize
Take down family photos, wall art that reflects your personality, collections of items that are special to you but may not be special to others, and anything that a prospective buyer may deem controversial (such as politically themed decor). Replace these items with more generic art, such as what you’d see in your favorite luxury hotel or a model home.
Related: 10 things to do NOW if you’re thinking about selling your home
Step #3 Before Staging: Clean
your home should be clean from top to bottom before you begin the staging process. If you can afford to do so, hire a professional cleaning team; that way, you only need to maintain what the experts have done while your house is on the market. Otherwise, roll up your sleeves and get to work.
Related: Home-selling 101
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Tips for Home Staging
After your home is decluttered, depersonalized and cleaned, you can start the actual staging process. Use these tips to make your home as appealing as possible to a wide range of buyers:
- Bring in live plants. Live plants make a space feel more like home, and they add vibrancy and life that buyers can’t resist. Try peace lilies and mother-in-law’s tongue; they’re both easy to care for and maintain.
- Rearrange your furniture into conversational groups. Even prospective buyers who aren’t big on entertaining appreciate this type of furniture arrangement.
- Invest in great lighting. If you have dark corners in any of your rooms, consider adding a floor lamp or two period additionally, if you have a dated light fixture that seems to siphon light rather than cast it around your space, think about replacing it with something more modern.
- Take down heavy window treatments. Buyers like to see light, breezy-feeling rooms, but heavy drapes make rooms feel smaller and more crowded.
- Place mirrors across from windows that let in a good amount of natural light – especially if there’s a great view outside. This serves two purposes: First, the mirror can make your room appear larger and reflect the view, and second, more natural light is always better.
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