5 Must-Do Staging Tips Before You List Your Home For Sale

The mistake many homeowners make when they put their home up for sale is forgetting that their home is now a product for sale. And, in order to garner the highest possible price in the shortest amount of time, it is essential to show off the home’s best features and appeal to as many potential buyers as possible.

Staging your home for sale is not interior design and it’s not redecorating. In most cases, home staging costs very little money, but a fair amount of emotional detachment and sweat. To give you some perspective on the importance of staging your home, consider this. Many Realtors (including myself) personally pay professional home stagers to consult on their listings. It’s money well spent—at least when the home owner is willing to put the stagers’ valuable advice into action.

Heather Starr with Central Iowa Home Staging provides my clients with a room-by-room report prior to listing. Heather is one of two home stagers in Iowa who has earned the Certified Home Staging Expert (CHSE) designation and she has staged scores of homes in central Iowa for home owners as well as other Realtors. Most of her recommendations have no out-of-pocket cost (clean the windows, move the couch, stash the family pics), but they can have a massive impact on the appeal of the home to buyers.

Here are Heather’s Top 5 Must-Do Home Staging Tips:

1) Declutter: We all live with some level of clutter whether we’re a candidate for the show Hoarders or our otherwise neat house has a junk drawer. If your house is on the market, clutter is your enemy. Go through every room, every cabinet, every closet and identify things you don’t need and get rid of them ASAP (sell, donate, trash). And, stuff you want to keep but don’t use often, pack up and store in the basement, garage, or even better-- a storage unit or friend’s house. I’m talking collections, books, off season clothing, toys, holiday decorations, dishes, etc. Homes devoid of clutter look bigger and give the appearance of ample storage (a huge bonus for buyers).   

2) Neutralize: Purple may be your favorite color, but a grape-hued master bedroom is going to be a turnoff to 90 percent of buyers. Home staging is not about cutting edge interior design or keeping up with the “in” color of 2011. Think neutral colors for what you are selling (the walls, floors, cabinets, carpet, fixtures, counters). Add color through accessories (pillows, flowers, vases, throw blankets). And, no matter how adorable your children and grandchildren are, pack away the family photos.  Family photos distract buyers and the pics remind them that the house is someone else’s home. We want them to picture themselves living there as soon as they walk in.

3) Clean: Clean to sell means cleaner than it’s ever been. A clean home is not only inviting it sends the message to potential buyers that the home is well cared for and maintained—and they won’t have a lot of work to do themselves when they move it. Clean windows (inside & out), light fixtures (amazing how much brighter rooms will be), woodwork and cabinets (Old English oil), appliances (inside & out), have carpets professionally cleaned, wash down the front door (consider adding a simple wreath). It’s a lot of work, but cleaning pays!

4) Accentuate the Positive:  Identify the best feature in every room of your home and make sure you are showing it off. For example, if your living room has a stone fireplace, make sure the furniture is angled to draw the eye toward the fireplace as the main focal point. If the living room has beautiful hardwood floors, make sure they are not hidden by too many or too large of rug. If your master bedroom has a picture window to a beautiful backyard view, make sure the window treatments are open.

5) Make Your Pets Disappear (temporarily).  Even the most animal-loving buyers can be turned off to find pets in a home they are considering. If you have pets, do your best to make sure they are not in the home during showings and stash any evidence that pets live there including bowls, litter boxes, leashes, toys and especially smells (Febreze is a seller’s best friend).