Tricks of the Trade: 5 Top Tips for Successfully Staging Your Home for Sale
Staging your home for sale is not an easy feat. It takes more than just a willingness to change your personal space to suit others, it takes specialized knowledge. Knowledge of what attracts buyers, what turns off buyers, and how to style everything in a way that both looks good in listing photos and in person (which are definitely not the same thing). Staging is so much more than just decorating – and, while most people who walk through a staged home will absolutely love it, it’s important to remember how we style a home for staging is often not how we would choose to live in real life.
But it’s not rocket science. A professional stager’s “special sauce” is her real-life knowledge of what works and what doesn’t – an how to apply those principles in real time to her clients’ listings.
Today, I’m sharing five of my favorite tricks of the trade – strategies we consistently use to ensure our clients’ homes look and feel picture perfect in both listing photos and in person. Use these strategies to take your home staging to the next level and watch the offers roll in!
1. Remove Window Treatments
Window treatments should almost always be removed for staging. Why? Because they block precious natural light, because they are typically very taste-specific, and because they’re usually not hung well. Unless window treatments are completely on point and meet all of the following conditions, they should be removed to avoid distracting your potential buyers:
Curtains hung at least 6” above the window frame and 6-10” outside than the window frame (space permitting)
Curtains long enough to just kiss the floor
Shades that are mounted above the window frame and don’t cover any more than the top 10% of the window
Neutral in color and pattern
Solid (not sheer) fabric
What’s the only time window treatments not fitting the above criteria should be left in place? When there are significant privacy issues (think: your bedroom window looks directly into someone else’s living room window). Privacy always trumps décor. And don’t worry – while your target likely wouldn’t choose to live without window treatments, they’ll be thrilled with the abundance of natural light that fills the property – and that’s always a win!
2. Use Rugs Strategically
It is a common misconception that removing rugs makes a room feel bigger. While this is true when we’re talking about superfluous rugs (such as runners, kitchen rugs, and other smaller rugs), area rugs can ground furniture in a room and help it feel warm, cozy, and inviting. Additionally, rugs help to define zones in larger spaces, helping potential buyers envision how they’d live in the space. Remove any extra rugs but be sure to keep larger rugs in areas such as living rooms, dining rooms, family rooms, and bedrooms with hardwood floors.
Additionally, a rug that’s too small for the space will look ill-fitting and off both in pictures and in person. How do you know if your rugs are the right size? It’s all about proportion and how we as humans move in a room:
In a living or family room, the rug should be big enough to allow each piece of furniture in the conversation area to have at least some of its legs on the rug – typically, this means at least an 8’ x 10’ rug.
In a dining space, the rug should be large enough for a person to push back in their chair without the chair legs falling off the rug.
In a bedroom, the rug should be orientated perpendicular to the bed and fit all the way under it with enough space for a person to walk around the bed and still stay on the rug – for a queen bed, that means at least a 6’ x 9’, for a king that means at least an 8’ x 10’ rug.
If you have an existing rug that is old and worn or even just not the right size, consider purchasing a replacement for staging. Relatively inexpensive rugs can be found on sites such as RugsUSA and Overstock – and investing in a neutral rug (with a rug pad to amp up the feeling of luxury) is always a good choice when staging your home as it will not only transform your room, but it can be taken with you and used in your new home.
3. Pay Attention to The Exterior
While it’s tempting to focus all your staging efforts on the interior, don’t forget buyers are human and they will judge a book by its cover – or, in this case, your home by its exterior. The exterior of your home creates the buyer’s first impression of the entire property, allowing them to form a subconscious opinion of what they believe they will find inside. Your interior staging may be pure perfection, but if the exterior looks unkempt potential buyers are likely to believe there are underlying issues with the home, resulting in fewer and lower offers. Be sure to assess your exterior through the lens of a buyer and address any issues with siding, paint, or landscaping. Adding a welcome matt and a potted plant or two on the front step won’t hurt your cause, either!
4. Use the Right Light Bulbs
Sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest difference. Today’s light bulbs come in about half a dozen shades, from very bright white to very mellow yellow – and the human eye can most definitely tell the difference from one to the other. While this may not be the most exciting part of staging, lighting is one of the key elements that sets an amazing home apart from an average home so it’s important to get this one right. There are three main considerations to keep in mind when selecting light bulbs for your space:
Color: Always select soft white. Always. I know how tempting it can be to choose daylight – but it’s not a good choice. Why? Because daylight lightbulbs give off a cool white light, kind of like at the dentist’s office – and, in staging, the last thing we want is for a home to feel like the dentist’s office. Soft white lightbulbs will give off the bright but warm glow needed for a room to feel cozy and inviting.
Brightness: Every lamp or lighting fixtures is rated for a maximum amount of wattage per lightbulb. However, not all lightbulbs are the same. Today’s energy efficient lightbulbs will emit a brighter light for much less energy than a traditional filament lightbulb. Do yourself a favor and purchase only energy efficient bulbs – they’ll shine brighter for less energy and you’ll practically never have to replace them (and if you’re using them in all the lighting fixtures and overhead lights, your real estate agent will be able to tout the fact that every light in the house is energy efficient).
Consistency: Lighting consistency is important to ensure your home feels calming and relaxing to buyers. Whenever possible, use the same brand of lightbulbs throughout your home.
5. Move Twice
Stick with me here - this is not as daunting as it sounds, although it takes a commitment to staging your home properly and a confidence in the value staging brings to the selling process. As we discussed previously, the styling portion of staging a home for sale often involves furniture and accessory placement that is different from what you’d do if you were actually living in the home. Additionally, years of living in a home means years of acquiring extra stuff – extra furniture, extra accessories, extra pictures hanging on the wall, etc. In order to create the feelings of openness, space, and light today’s buyers desire in a home it is necessary to move all of that extra stuff out. This is one of the areas in which a professional stager can be extremely helpful, as she can help you identify exactly what needs to go in order to stage your home properly.
Why can’t you just move all that extra stuff into your garage for now? Because high on the list for buyers is a home with plenty of extra storage space. A garage full of stuff gives the impression that a home doesn’t have enough storage, let alone extra storage. Use the garage only as a last resort – a better option would be renting a pod, renting a storage unit, or even hiring movers to both take out your extra stuff and store it until you’re ready to move it to your new home. Is this an extra expense? Yes. Is it annoying to pay any extra expense when you’re selling your home? Absolutely. But is it worth it??? 110%.
I hope this has given you not only food for thought but some actionable steps to take when staging your home for sale with confidence. While successfully staging your home is a major accomplishment, maintaining it in its staged state until it is under contract is yet another challenge in and of itself – but don’t worry, we’ve got your back! Click HERE to download our Open House Guide, filled with tips and strategies for keeping your home staged without losing your mind.