If you’re interested in staging tips, then you understand how important it is to prepare your listings to sell at their highest market value. If you don’t do a good job of staging your listings, the showing feedback you get will certainly reflect it!
There are two different kinds of staging ideas to consider. First, there are the easy tips that any seller can agree to. Second, there are the advanced staging tips that take a bit of finesse on your part to complete. A seller may try to avoid these changes because they don’t understand what it takes to get a house sold at top dollar.
Easy Staging Tips
-
Keep the house spotlessly clean.
This may seem obvious, but it’s amazing how often sellers don’t think anyone will notice those dust balls in the back bedroom.
-
Declutter and depersonalize the house.
When buyers walk into your listing, you want them to be able to imagine themselves living there. That’s going to be difficult to do when the focal point in the living room is a montage of five generations of family photos. Or, consider the kitchen. If the current owners are master cooks, they may have every kitchen appliance ever made gracing the counters. To a buyer, it will look like there’s not enough storage in the kitchen. Encourage the seller to start their packing early to declutter.
-
Keep up with exterior maintenance.
Curb appeal is important. More than one agent has gotten showing feedback indicating that a buyer chose not to tour a listing based on the way the home looked from the street. Make sure lawns are trimmed and plantings are under control.
Advanced Staging Tips
-
Give kitchen cabinets a facelift.
Kitchens sell homes. If the kitchen in your listing isn’t going to attract the right buyers, you may not need to undertake an extensive renovation. Try updating the cabinets; even a new coat of paint may be enough to spruce up the kitchen. Another suggestion is to make the kitchen look refreshed.
-
Repaint using a neutral palette.
Sellers sometimes have difficulty accepting the fact that their home is no longer theirs. That wallpaper in the living room may carry fond memories, but if the green background and purple flowers are going to send buyers running out of the house, it’s your job to convince the sellers to remove it and repaint before the first showing.
-
Give every room a purpose.
Your sellers may be comfortable with their fourth bedroom that contains a desk, kid’s toy boxes, weights and a day bed. But, when buyers see it, they won’t be able to imagine how they’d use the room. Convince your sellers to put things in storage if necessary, but give every room a single purpose.
-
Keep closets organized.
Buyers are concerned about a home’s storage space, and sellers need to ensure that they don’t make their home look lacking in that area. Sometimes sellers will “declutter” by packing unneeded items into any small space showing in the home’s closets. Even a disorganized closet looks like there just isn’t enough storage space. Check the closets before the first showing.
-
Let the sun shine in.
Many older homes have rooms that seem overly dark because mature shrubs are blocking the windows. Sellers have spent years nurturing those plants and watching them grow; often they don’t want to part with them. You need to point out that buyers won’t know that the plants have been cut back or removed, but they will notice all the natural light in the house.
How do you get great showing feedback? Encourage your sellers to think of their existing home as a product they’re selling. Use these staging tips to get that product ready to bring in top dollar. Buyers will be impressed, and your sellers will thank you.