Staging a home for sale can cost thousands of dollars, usually up front and without any guarantee of effectiveness. Quality home staging is said to yield a nearly 300% return on investment. If you don’t have the cash up front but still want to stage your house, there are inexpensive ways to it. Here are 3 tricks to stage your house for less in Johnson City.
Trick #1: Declutter the Property
When you walk into a model home regardless of its size, everything has its spot and enough space to make it seem like the whole unit just flows. Over time people accumulate things in their home; this is common and natural. The longer you’ve been in the house, the more stuff you’ve likely accumulated. Don’t wait for moving day to clear things out.
Get three piles going: keep, donate and dump. Box things up that you are keeping but don’t use daily. This pile is for books, season things and extra kitchen items. Immediately donate and dump anything you don’t want to keep. Remove excess pictures and items from walls, counters and shelves. Rent a storage unit to store everything. Give every surface a thorough cleaning once you get everything out.
Trick #2: Position Furniture
The decluttering process should have removed excess items including the oversized recliner that sat in the middle of the living room. Less is better when staging a home. Many experts will tell you that you don’t need to rent furniture to effectively stage the home. Your Johnson City realtor is a great resource to help walk through the home and position furniture in each room.
Keep walkways and hallways open without obstruction. Make sure windows and drapes are pulled back allowing a lot of natural light into the house. This makes rooms look bigger. Trim any hedges or trees right outside of windows if needed. Don’t worry about a room being completely functional in a staging process. Staging a room to be a home office doesn’t need much more than a desk, probably positioned away from a wall in the center of the room.
Trick #3: Keep Everything Neutral
If you haven’t already packed away the family photos and road trip spoon collection, this is the time to do it. Put religious items away for showings or open houses. Just like white walls are neutral, keeping art and décor non-descript allows potential buyers to imagine themselves living in the home. With these items out, potential buyers might make a false judgment about the home.
While most people can’t relate to that spoon collection, they can relate to coffee, candles, and clocks. The counters and shelves that are cleared should display universal home décor items like these. Place only a few items around to decorate, keeping counter and shelf space open. Use only a few pieces of art on walls; patch picture holes and touch up paint.
Staging gives potential buyers an idea of what to do but is a neutral enough slate to inject their own personal lifestyle in the home. This increases the likelihood of potential offers and selling the house quickly.