If you plan to sell your home and appeal to many potential buyers, then home staging could be an option to make it more desirable.
We already discussed about the pros and cons of home staging, but, if you want to go this route, there are few tips to have in mind.
Home staging mistakes to avoid
Spending too much on home staging
We understand your need to make a great impression on potential buyers, but, spending too much money for home staging would cut down on your profits and might prove useless.
Stay away from huge renovations, since they tend to be very costly and not have such a great benefit for you.
Make sure all the technical details are worked on and the house looks in good shape. You can paint here and there, since it’s not a huge endeavor, but don’t go overboard.
Not properly cleaning and decluttering the house
There’s nothing worse for a potential buyer than stumbling across on your junk, that takes up a lot of space. Your future buyers want to imagine their own furniture and stuff there, so don’t clutter the house with your own belongings.
Not cleaning your house properly will also turn off potential buyers, no one wants to risk an infection just by entering the door. Pet odour is another huge turnoff, make sure the house has a pleasant and fresh smell.
The furniture looks old and tattered
If your old couch looks bad, you can use a new beautiful cover, but there’s only this much you can do to old furniture to look decent. If yours is in bad shape and you cannot cover the defects properly, consider renting some furniture for your home staging.
Don’t forget, you don’t need to have a lot of stuff anyway, so maybe renting few ‘basic’ furniture units could do the trick for you.
You have too much furniture
Some consider a house with a lot of furniture to be a sign of success, hey, that stuff does costs some bucks. But nowadays modern home buyers like less cluttered rooms.
The days of luxurious and abundant furniture are gone, so you should use some basic pieces and sell or store the others.
Your walls have an unusual color
I see a lot of red, orange or navy walls. Which, for me, look pretty awesome, especially with good furniture and flooring. But most of your potential buyers might lack a designer’s taste and consider your home to be a little too ‘much’.
It’s a good idea to paint the walls a lighter and neutral shade, that would appeal to more people. Just like with everything else, try to steer away from too much originality.
You go overboard with your decor elements
There’s nothing I hate more than fake plants. Plastic. Come on, if you cannot add a natural plant and care for it, then just give up the idea altogether. I am not crazy about potted flowers either, but I’d chose them anytime instead of those horrific plastic ones.
Want a pretty cool idea? Put an acorn in a small pot. In few months you’ll have a small oak sapling there. It looks gorgeous and you can keep it for 1-2 years potted, then you’ll be able to plant it outside. Daughter has 2 or 3 such small oaks and we absolutely love them.
Don’t place too many pillows or towels in the house. OK, I get it, few work well, but having too many pillows or towels is just tacky and annoying. And, if the house isn’t in a great shape, a thousand pillows won’t mask it.
‘Gender’ bedrooms or playrooms
Yes, you have a daughter, so there’s an everything-pink room with a lot of fluff and glitter. That would be great, if all your potential buyers had daughters. What if they have sons?
I know they can repaint and redecorate, but, for some, this would seem like an unneeded expense and might scare them away.
Before staging your home, paint the walls into a neutral color and remove any gender defining decoration. This way you’ll appeal to all kids of families (with girls, boys, mixed or no kids at all).
These are just few tips for a more successful home staging. What else would you add?
