Quick Tips for Staging a Home for Sale

Staging a home for sale involves the deliberate cleaning and redecorating of your home to increase sale value and significantly reduce days on the market. House staging can be one of the most lucrative tasks you undertake before listing your home. Because staging a home gives you a tangible advantage over other homes on the market with similar amenities and characteristics as yours, especially if you’re planning to sell in 2021.

Why Is House Staging Important?

To sell a home, you need to do more than make it presentable; you need to make it a no-brainer. In New Brunswick’s competitive market, the more appealing your home is, the more likely buyers will gravitate to it, increasing its value and cinching a quick sale.

While you may attribute your home’s saleability to your home’s appearance, the true determiner of saleability lies in the psychology of buying a home.

On average, people make 15 decisions a day. When buying a home, that figure increases tremendously. Because of that, buyers are often in a state of decision fatigue, a cognitive state characterized by an overload of mental and emotional strain. When people experience decision fatigue, they usually tend to choose the most straightforward solution. The one they were leaning to from the beginning.

As a homeowner, you can ease the burden of decision fatigue by making your home a no-brainer purchase. Home staging just happens to be one of the easiest ways to accomplish this.

The Cost of Home Staging

Home staging costs will be determined by how many changes you need to make to your property to get it to be most appealing to buyers. This often requires making structural and cosmetic upgrades – if necessary – rearranging furniture and purchasing decorative and functional pieces. You can also hire the services of a home staging expert for the most advantageous results.

Because we understand how competitive the Fredericton market is, our team offers a free consultation with a local interior designer and stager. This expert feedback about what you need to do to enhance your property’s appeal has been successful at reducing our other clients’ days on the market and increase its market value.

You may need to move out of your neighbourhood, but it’s unlikely you’ll need to move out of Fredericton. The properties in Fredericton cater to any phase in your homeownership cycle. Therefore, you can remain close to friends, family, and all you’ve come to love about Fredericton.

The Basics of Staging a House

Before you begin tackling each room individually, you can do a quick sweep of your property to ensure your home meets basic home staging principals.

Light

Light’s effect on cognitive responses is well-documented. Light can change emotional responses. Brighter light makes people happier and increases concentration, while dimmer light has the opposite effect.

To use light when staging your home, you can make simple changes to the space by opening the drapes and allowing natural light to stream in. On cloudier days, switch on lights to brighten rooms. You can also choose to repaint with light neutral colours, as these reflect light and make a space appear larger.

Clutter

Besides looking unpleasant, clutter also makes your home appear smaller. Decluttering can often be one of the cheapest and easiest ways to increase your home’s appeal. Because a decluttered space makes your home feel more inviting and allows buyers to scan a room to notice prominent features with ease. This will also help you get a headstart on moving if you are planning to downsize to a smaller home. 

Personalization

While personal touches like family photographs and splashes of colour make the home more inhabitable for you, these aspects can be distracting for potential buyers. Not only do they need to overcome the mental gymnastics of having to envision the space without these pieces, but it can also make them feel unwelcome in the space, something no seller wants.

Use of Space

Common hurdles potential buyers experience is having to rethink the use of a space. Because that can be quite distracting, most home stagers will ask you to furnish rooms for their intended purpose. That means using dining spaces as dining spaces and not as a home office, removing bulky gym equipment from a second bedroom, and so on. Because those pieces, while they may be valuable to you, divert from the home’s amenities. Essentially, you want your home to be as much of a blank canvas as possible.

Staging a Kitchen

In the kitchen, focus your attention on the state of your appliances, cabinets, and countertops. You want everything to be clean and in working order. This means cabinets – hinges and hardware – should all be working, not just have the appearance that they work. Countertops should be spotless, and appliances should be shiny without fingerprints or grease stains.

Staging a Bedroom

Neutrality is the operative word when staging your bedroom. Try to furnish and decorate in neutral colours. If you have rugs or carpeting, consider having them professionally cleaned. You can also shift your focus to the closets, decluttering and organizing the space. Remember, if it comes with the home, interested buyers are likely to open it.

Staging a Bathroom

Yes, the bathroom also needs to undergo staging. Possibly, more than any other space in your home. You can start the staging process by deep cleaning the bathroom. The bathroom should be free of stains and odours. Once you’ve completed cleaning, start removing personal effects, both those on countertops and inside cupboards. Still, you’re probably living in your home, consider purchasing aesthetically pleasing – privacy-preserving – storage options for your bathroom. You can try bamboo or fabric storage baskets with lids to keep your toothbrushes, shavers, and other personal belongings.

Exterior Staging and Curb Appeal

Depending on the season, you’ll face unique challenges creating that perfect first impression for buyers as they arrive at your home. Take a critical look at your home next time your pull into your driveway. Look for anything that stands out or feels out of place – dented eavestroughs, cracks in the driveway, damaged porch, dead grass? A buyer will spot these items and carry those thoughts throughout their visit. Once everything is fixed up, you can add some extra style with the goal of highlighting your front door. A clear path to the door, potted flowers, and even a simple welcome mat can help draw the buyers toward the entrance and make them feel at home. Winter can make exterior staging a little trickier – we’ve put together a guide to help you stage your home during a Fredericton winter.

If you still need convincing about staging your home for sale, consider this: while you only see your property, buyers inspect several properties at once. To stand out among other properties – that have similar amenities – you need a secret weapon; house staging can be your secret weapon.

If you have any real estate questions you can reach our experienced team of professionals by calling 506-455-1980 or email info@therightchoicerealty.ca