You’ve made the decision to sell your home and now the property marketing must begin. Before you take photos and welcome home buyers into your property, you will need to prepare it by staging it for prospective home buyers and curious real estate professionals.
What is home staging?
Home staging is the process of preparing a home’s interior and exterior spaces for prospective buyers. When done correctly, home staging allows prospective home buyers to imagine their lives in your property and gain an accurate idea of what life in your property will look like.
Homes that are empty are abstract in the initial impression of whether a couch may fit in a specific spot or how large of a TV can hang in the bedroom while homes that are too cluttered may feel like entering someone else’s busy life.
Striking the perfect balance can give your home buyers a sense of comfort that comes from “being home” and can help create that emotional bond to your property necessary to accept competitive home offers.
The key to staging a home is creating a blank canvas.
If the goal is to create a space that is relatable and emotional for your prospective home buyers, you must create a blank canvas for them to mentally imagine their daily lives in. By creating such a blank canvas, you can offer a template that can be filled in the minds of your buyer with the details of their lives to help give a sense of purpose to the space without intrusive or distracting details.
A blank canvas begins with the signature of staging – declutter!
Remove distracting collages, empty your bathroom countertops of anything non-essential, and open up your kitchen by removing countertop displays, appliances, and decorations. Create a template for your prospective home buyer with essential items such as neutral soap dispensers, clean white towels, sparkling appliances. The more “essential” the items in a room and the less decorated your spaces, the more opportunity you are affording your prospective home buyer to see their own lives in the space.
A living room with a TV on the wall, couch in the corner, and coffee table with stylish center piece plant will allow your home buyers to mentally add their own photos, pet accessory placements, and game collections in the white space of the room without having to physically tailor these spaces to each individual buyer.
What colors should I use when staging a home for sale?
You’ve decluttered your home and now you must prepare its overall color and appearance to enhance the blank canvas effect. Consider the color of your walls, towels, bedding, and photo frames/artwork. Neutral tans, whites, and shades of gray are excellent in that they allow your prospective buyer to imagine their own colors in the space. Additionally, a living room in white with neutral tan furniture opens the space and creates a large and inviting expanse for your prospective home buyer’s dreams to run without boundary. Consider removing niche style based colors and accents from your home prior to photography and showings and allow your home buyers to experience your home as a blank canvas awaiting the installation of their own signature style upon closing.