Why You Should Stage Before Hosting an Open House

Is staging your home worth the effort? It’s a common question for sellers — after all, no one wants to put in extra work if it’s not going to pay off. However, in some markets, the benefits of home staging are indisputable. If you want to sell your home faster, it needs to stand out from the competition. And staging is a great way to set your home apart.

A staged home doesn’t just show better. According to ProfessionalStaging.com, staged homes sell faster and get higher offers than their un-staged counterparts. They look better in online listings, which makes prospective buyers more willing to schedule a walk-through. And when buyers do visit, they find it easier to imagine themselves living in a staged home.

So what goes into staging? Home staging encompasses all the tasks that transform your home from lived-in to open-house-ready. It includes cleaning, decorating, and arranging furniture with the goal of appealing to the largest possible pool of buyers. While some sellers choose to outsource home staging by hiring a professional stager, you can also stage your own home to save money. Here’s how to do it.

Deep Clean

Cleaning your home is the most important thing you can do to get it ready to sell. However, this isn’t your average clean — when you’re staging, you need to scrub and polish every surface of your home. To save yourself time and stress, hire a cleaning service to perform a one-time deep clean. Then all you have to do is maintain it through daily upkeep until your home is sold.

Minimize and Arrange Furniture

Too much furniture makes a room feel small and crowded. Store nonessential furniture items off-site to make your home feel more spacious. Minimizing furniture also lets prospective buyers imagine where they would place their own furniture, rather than wondering if their plush sofa or king-size bed will fit. When arranging furniture, aim to define spaces and create a natural flow of traffic throughout your home.

If your furniture is particularly unique or showing its age, it may be in your best interest to rent furniture for staging. Rental furniture can give your home a more upscale feel, thus leading to higher offers that offset the rental costs.

Depersonalize and Decorate

When you’re living in your home, you want its interior design to reflect your own unique tastes. But when you’re selling, you should decorate for broad appeal. That means repainting brightly-colored walls to neutral shades, replacing distracting artwork and sports memorabilia with more restrained décor, and boxing up clutter to be stored out of sight. You should also remove family photos, pet items, and other personal effects. You want buyers to imagine their own family in the home, not yours.

Don’t forget your home’s exterior when decorating. A little attention to curb appeal goes a long way, so spend a weekend tidying up the landscaping and refreshing the front porch with new house numbers, an inviting wreath, and a fresh coat of paint for the front door.

If someone told you that you only have to do three things to sell your home faster and for a higher price, wouldn’t you do it? While going all out with professional home staging is an option — and a smart one for many sellers — simply following these three steps can help your home shine. If you’re not sure how to approach staging your own home, turn to your real estate agent for trusted advice.

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