When it comes to home staging, you may be scared it will cost too much, you will offend your client by recommending it and possibly lose the listing. You may be worried it will take too long and you want to get the home listed as soon as possible. You also may be scared to recommend it and that it may not work. OK, all kidding aside, you may not be “scared”,  but maybe apprehensive or you are just not convinced it is the way to go. Please consider the following.

According to Debra Gould, “The Staging Diva” in her article 5 Secrets Real Estate Agents Need to Hear From Home Stagers, you should know five things.

1. Home staging will make it easier for you to market and sell your listings because your MLS photos will outshine the competition online and a staged home will show much better, enticing buyers to make an offer.
2. Most buyers shop online first and professional photos of a beautifully staged listing will attract more leads for you.
3. Home stagers can address problems and can tell your clients the things you don’t want to say for fear of offending your client and losing the listing. Let them be the “bad cop”, especially in situations where the clients are selling due to divorce and sellers may have differing opinions.
4. Home staging can help your clients sell faster and for more, and is a service the client should be paying for, not you. You can always offer a great benefit by paying for the initial consultation.
5. Home staging always costs less than the first price reduction. Wouldn’t you rather have a talk with the client about home staging than a price reduction?

You are probably concerned about the cost, and rightly so since you don’t get paid until the house sells. As mentioned above, the cost of staging should be paid by the seller. They after all, have the most to gain by a higher sales price and faster sale. Both of you will benefit from selling fast. Less stress and costs for the seller and you get paid faster! And of course the seller will love a higher sales price and that increases your commission.

Worried about how long it will take? It always takes  time to prepare a home and get it listed, so why not have the staging conversation right away. A good stager can get the job done quickly for you given a little lead time.

Still apprehensive of how to approach the initial conversation about staging with your client?

Susan Atwell, of Atwell Staged Homes recommends one way to handle it is to not to use the word “staging” initially but repeat the message that they need to “properly prepare their home” and that you have an outside consultant who can help.  Let them know that for an occupied home they will be living in while listed, the stager could help them for as little as $500 using what they already have. A vacant home will cost more, but they are also harder to sell as vacant homes don’t make an emotional connection with buyers. Learn more about the costs of home staging.

Still worried, what if it doesn’t work and you have recommended the client make the investment in staging? For years, the National Association of Realtors has published a yearly “Profile on Home Staging” showing the value of home staging. You can see the 2019 report here. Remember that the final results depend on  hiring a professional home stager with a proven track record of results, rather than the “cheapest” stager or having an unqualified, untrained person stage it.  It is worth helping your client find the best stager to do the job for them, even if it costs more.

Want to learn more? Check out our FAQs for Realtors on Home Staging,  or share our FAQs for Home Sellers on Home Staging with your clients.

Still “scared”? What do you have to lose? Well, a better-looking listing that shows better, sells faster, where you get paid faster with a higher commission and have happy clients that will give you great reviews!

Want to get started today? I offer online home staging consultations for sellers nationwide that you can recommend to your client so they can do the staging themselves with help from a pro.

Plan to do your staging yourself but not sure where to start? Send me pictures of your house and I will give you a detailed checklist of everything you can do inside and out to prepare your house to sell fast, sell high and appeal to your target market. as well as tips for living in your for sale home and preparing for your photo shoot. Perfect if you will be living in the home while it is listed. If your home will be vacant, I can give recommendations for paint, upgrades and preparation for market. . Learn more.

In a recent article, Buying a Fixer-Upper: Tips for First-Time Home buyers by guest blogger Ray Flynn of the DIYGuys, we learned how to manage the buying process for a “fixer upper”, where to buy, setting a budget, what repair or design projects to tackle first, and creating curb appeal. We considered whether to stay or sell once your house is all fixed up.  Did you decide to sell? How can you sell your fixer upper fast and get the highest price for all your hard work and investment

Do Your Research

With any home you put on the market, there is a range of prices for similar homes and you want to be able to list at the high end of that range and sell fast so you don’t have any price reductions. Give yourself the best chance for success by using professional home staging and avoiding mistakes many home sellers make that cause a house not to sell quickly.

Make an Emotional Connection with Buyers

The key to selling fast and for the highest price is making an emotional connection with buyers so they can envision themselves living in your for-sale home.

Avoid selling the house “vacant”.  It is hard for any buyer to make an emotional connection with an empty house. They look a little sad and lonely! Buyers have a hard time visualizing how big the rooms are (they often look smaller with nothing in them to give a sense of scale), if their belongings will fit, how to arrange furniture and the purpose of different rooms. Without furniture and other things in the rooms, there is nothing to focus on except potential flaws. Were your “fixer-upper” skills perfect? Even the pros can make mistakes.

Use Color to Increase Your Selling Price

If you still have painting to do before selling, this is a great time to consider paint colors, inside and out. Did you know that studies show the right paint colors in the right rooms attract buyers and can increase the sales price? The wrong colors can also reduce the price buyers are willing to pay. Why? Color affects emotion and buyers buy on emotion!  For the price of a cup of good coffee, this report gives you specific color recommendations to help sell your house for up to $10,000 more.

Get my guide to Top Paint Colors for a Speedy and Profitable Home Sale to learn more.

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Appeal to Your Target Market

Who is your target market? Is it a young family with children that are interested in your location near schools? A single professional? A retired couple? Look at who lives in your current neighborhood or is moving in, check on Zillow to see how close the house is to different schools and what rating they have. Your house should be decorated or “staged” to appeal to that target market. For example, to appeal to a young family with children, at least one bedroom should be decorated as a child’s room.

Build a Great Home Selling Team

The best way to sell your house fast and for more is to compile a great team to help you.  This includes a realtor, home stager and photographer. Just like you are the expert in converting a home that needed help into a thing of beauty, a good realtor is a marketing and negotiating expert to make sure your house is seen by buyers nad you get the best price. A home stager is an expert at getting buyers to want to see and then fall in love with your house. A real estate photographer is the expert at getting amazing photos that will attract buyers online and get them in your door. See my guide on how to build this team and find the right experts to help you.

A great home stager can help you build your team. Get a consultation with a professional home stager and ideally have them stage it for you. They can give you paint color recommendations, stage it to appeal to your target market and give you tips for living in the home if needed while it is for sale. They can even use your existing furnishings and belongings to stage it and save you money on furniture and other rental fees if you plan to live in the home while it is listed. They can recommend a professional photographer to take photos of your beautifully staged home to attract buyers online and give you tips to prepare for your photoshoot. They can also recommend good realtors if you do not have one yet.

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Create Great Curb Appeal

As Ray mentioned in the previous article, make sure you have great curb appeal. You may outshine your competition online with great photos and get buyers to the property, but without great curb appeal they will just drive by and never make it inside to see your beautiful “fixer upper”.

Spending a little money on home staging and great photos before listing will help you sell fast and for more, cost less than your first price reduction if the house sits on the market and will be a lot less stressful!

Preparing for your Home Sale

The best tip I can give you is to get a professional home staging and color consultation to prepare for your sale. It can make all the difference in your final sales. price.

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Here are my top ten home staging tips to help you appeal to the greatest possible pool of prospective buyers so you can sell fast and for the price you want.

Get a Home Staging Consultation with a Professional Home Stager

First, get an “objective” idea of how buyers may view your house. We all have problem areas that we no longer “see” because we live with them every day. Also, consider who your likely “buyer” is and what they want. A consultation with a professional home stager and advice from your realtor can help you determine and appeal to your “target market.” A home staging consultation can give you that objective view and great advice to either do the home staging yourself or enlist the help of the home stager to do it for you.

Make it Spotless

Make it spotless. The most beautiful house, if dirty, will turn off potential buyers.  It is worth it to hire a professional cleaning service if you do not have time or desire to do it right yourself.

Paint Neutral Colors

Paint neutral colors to make everything look fresh and new. Neutral colors will go with most buyers’ belongings. Buyers that think they will have to repaint will offer less. Sherwin Williams “Accessible Beige” is one of my favorites for home staging.

De-clutter

De-clutter so you only have about half the items that you normally live with. Cluttered rooms or too much furniture will make your space look smaller than it is. A consultation with a home stager can really help here before you get started. Home sellers often remove too much or the wrong things in their de-cluttering efforts. The things that remain and their arrangement are critical to making that emotional connection with buyers.

Remove Personal Photos

Remove personal photos for your own security and to help buyers visualize their family living there. As a buyer, it is hard to “move in in your mind” if they are looking at your family pictures.

Repair to Make it Move in Ready

Repair needed items. Most buyers want a property that is move-in ready.

Don’t Sell it Vacant

Don’t leave it vacant. Buyers will focus on the flaws since they have nothing else to look at! When buyers make an emotional connection and can see themselves living there, the house will sell. It is hard for buyers to visualize how their belongings will fit, or to make that emotional connection with a vacant property. It is worth the expense to stage a vacant property. It is cheaper than your first price reduction, which will likely happen as your home sits on the market for months. If actual staging is not possible, try virtual staging so buyers at least have an idea of how it could look and how their belongings could fit in the space.

Replace Old Carpeting and Outdated Lighting

Upgrade outdated lighting or old carpeting. Your stager or realtor can advise you on which upgrades will provide a good return on your investment in the final sales price. Old lighting can shout “dated” faster than anything. Old carpeting is filled with years of dirt… and no one wants to buy that! The examples shown below were from a house that sold the first day on the market after home staging.

Create Great Curb Appeal

Clean and maintain your yard and make the front door area look welcoming. Great curb appeal will assure buyers make it inside to see your beautiful house.

Get Professional Photos

Get professional photos! Most buyers shop online and will decide about viewing your house in a few seconds. Great photos are critical. See my article on “Preparing for your Photoshoot”.

Prepare for Showings

Finally, when showing your house, make sure all lights are on, curtains are open, toilet seats are closed, and personal items are out of view in the bathrooms.  Remove all evidence of pets.

Best of luck on a fast sale!

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Need a home staging consultation? Call today to set one up or try my online consultation.

If home staging is not an option, consider one of my Virtual Home Staging packages.

Learn more about the Pros and Cons of Virtual Home Staging in my recent blog article.

Call 907-362-0065 today

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Online, in another state, far, far away, I saw this listing for a house for sale. It is the perfect example of how not to sell your house!  If you don’t want to sell fast or for more, follow this advice!

1. Make sure every room is so cluttered with objects and décor that buyers are totally distracted with your stuff and can’t see past it to the house!

2. Make sure it does not appeal to the greatest number of buyers by making the colors and décor so personal that it only appeals to people with taste just like you.

3. Overwhelm buyers with colors and patterns.

4. Put too much furniture in every room so the house feels small, regardless of how big it is.

5, Add as many personal photos as possible so buyers are distracted by who lives in the house now rather than envisioning it as their house.

6.  Keep the decor dark and heavy, rather than light and airy, clean and modern.

7.  Increase your price to 60 times more than the estimated value of similar homes.

While “Zestimates” are often wrong and can be off quite a bit, they are usually not off by 29 million dollars!

Zestimate:  $613,051

Price / Tax History

For more information on why your house may not sell, see my recent article “Why Your House Won’t Sell”.

To have a quick and profitable sale, make sure your house is easy for buyers to fall in love with and visualize themselves living there. To make that happen, make sure it is clean, move in ready, well maintained, light, airy, modern, decluttered, inviting and warm yet not too personal, priced right, and marketed well. Don’t forget curb appeal. Grab buyer’s attention with great photos and a reasonable price, get them to the front door with great curb appeal, and get them to fall in love with it once they are inside.

A professional home stager can help you make it all happen and increase your sales price with professional staging.

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Ever wondered what life as a home stager is like?

How I Became a Home Stager

Many years ago I got a degree in Interior Design, and although I used it on some jobs and always loved it, my life took a different path and I became a wildlife biologist. Three years ago, I decided I wanted to start some type of creative business. Working for the government as a scientist was not exactly feeding my creative spirit!  One day when taking one of those fun quizzes on Facebook, called “What is your true profession”, the answer I received was “designer”.  I started playing the “what if” game in my head, wondering what my life would have been like if I had stuck with Interior Design as a career. And then I thought, why not now?  I decided it would be the focus of my new business, Northern Lights Home Staging and Design.

While researching how to start a design business, I came across information on home staging. I really knew nothing about it and the whole concept of decorating a house to sell sounded fascinating. I thought it would be a great aspect of a design business.

Home Staging Training

After researching various home staging courses, I decided to take Debra Gould’s Staging Diva course because it seemed to be the most focused on how to successfully run a home staging business, rather than just teaching how to decorate. And I am so glad I did!

The course was fantastic and I continue to stay connected with Debra and other stagers from the class through coaching and conference calls. Part of the journey I love is the wonderful generosity, community and friendships I developed with this group of amazing creative people. Some have taken me under their wing and served as mentors when I was just getting started, and others I continue to collaborate with, developing products, articles and brainstorming ideas to make our businesses better.

Life as a Home Stager

After starting Northern Lights Home Staging and Design, I found my life as a home stager is fun and rewarding, and it feeds my creative soul with the great benefit of helping others. I love walking through a house during a home staging consultation, and on the fly determining all the things that can transform the house, make it look beautiful, connect emotionally with buyers, and help my clients. It is like an improvisational home staging dance. I also love staging vacant homes, where I have a blank slate and can do whatever I want! I love working with occupied homes, where I can see the story of the home owner, and bring out the beauty that is there by bringing a fresh eye, highlighting the important things the house wants to show. When you listen, the house speaks to you and tells you what makes it special. I love it when I am done with the staging and the home seller says “Wow, I wish we had been living like this all along…maybe we shouldn’t sell”!

Unexpected Benefits of Becoming a Home Stager

And there were some totally unexpected benefits as well. I have another business, a bed and breakfast which I started in 2002.  Once I started learning how home staging is an amazing a marketing tool that connects with buyers, I wondered if I could apply the same concepts to my bed and breakfast. I did some experimenting and found that it at least doubled my bookings and income and helped me attract my ideal customers. It transformed my business. And, doing this added a specialty niche for my staging business to help others with vacation rental properties with home staging.

From my home staging course, I learned or was inspired to learn all kinds of new things including designing my own word press websites, creating video for advertising, how to write a blog and create a newsletter, how to publish articles for magazines and do radio interviews. I also was inspired to continue my education and become a color expert and strategist, and add color consulting to my list of services. The home staging training opened so many doors to learning that helped me in numerous aspects of my life. And I think it is just the beginning!

It all gives me joy. And like any business, while there are times when business can be slow or clients can be difficult, it is all worth it and I am so happy this is what I am doing. If you are someone that has wondered about being a home stager, I say, GO FOR IT!

Call 907-362-0065 today

 info@northernlightsstaging.com

How much does it cost is usually the first question I get from home sellers! A better question might be can home staging help me sell faster and for more! Think of home staging as an investment, rather than a cost.

Home Staging is an Investment. Which House Would You Rather Buy?

That investment will depend on the size of your home, if it is vacant or occupied, if the stager will do everything or just a consultation, followed by you, the seller, doing the bulk of the work. It also depends on whether suitable furniture and accessories are present in the home or if items need to be rented.

Stagers charge a fee for a consultation and give an estimate (based on an hourly fee, or a flat fee) if additional time is needed. A monthly rental fee may apply for furniture and/or accessories.

On average, stagers charge $400-$600 for that initial “working” consultation and about $125/hour for their time after that. Furniture and accessory rental costs vary based on what is needed to properly showcase your home.

Just like a home seller shouldn’t pick a real estate agent based on the highest quoted sale price for your home, a stager should not be picked based on the lowest bid. In both cases, the agent and the stager may be quoting that price just to get the job. You get what you pay for. Quality counts.

Staging will always cost less than your first price reduction. An increased sales price of your home, faster closing, and reduced holding costs, will more than cover the staging investment and all with a whole lot less stress!

Who Pays for Home Staging?

Some popular options include:

• the home seller pays all
• the real estate agent pays for a consultation
• the real estate agent reimburses the home seller at closing for an agreed amount (such as for the home staging consultation).
• the real estate agent pays all or part of the staging

More and more Realtors are covering the cost of a consultation as part of their marketing plan, leaving any further investment up to the home seller. If you like to DIY, a home staging consultation may be all you need to properly prepare your home for sale.  Learn more about the costs of home staging and how it works in my blog article, Home staging- How it Works and What it Costs.

https://northernlightsstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Home_Staging_How_it_Works.mp4

Let’s Get Your Home Staged Today

Let’s get your home staged today. Start with a home staging consultation, either in person or online. From there, you can take the information and stage it yourself, or we can work together or I can do it all for you. Whether you will be living in the home while it is for sale or it will be a vacant property that needs everything, I can help.

Some other services you may find helpful are a color consultation if your staging consultation highlights the need for re-painting the interior or exterior. Virtual staging is an option if in person staging will not work for your vacant property. And vacation rental staging can help you increase your income, bookings and attract your ideal customer.

Get Your Free Report

The right paint colors can help you sell for more. The wrong colors can decrease your sales price.  Get this report, normally valued at $5 for free when you sign up to receive monthly color, design and staging tips.

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How Much Does it Cost?

Usually the first question I get when a home owner or realtor calls about home staging is “How much does it cost?”

To get the best possible results from home staging, it is worth spending the money to hire a professional home stager with experience and great reviews. See my interview on Helpful Tips for Finding a Great Home Stager to learn what to look for.

Benefits of Home Staging

The benefits include getting the highest possible price for your home in the price range of similar houses, and selling fast so you save money by reducing owner expenses while on the market and losses from price reductions. Home staging always costs less than your first price reduction.

The Cost of Taking Shortcuts

Taking shortcuts such as hiring untrained stagers or realtors to stage your home because it is cheaper, listing first and staging later if it does not sell, using “Lite” or “Vignette” staging of minimal rooms or areas, or not staging at all will cost you more money in a lower final sales price or losses from price reductions as your home is on the market longer.

A better question might be, “How much does it cost not to professionally stage my home?” The higher initial investment will pay off and put more money in your pocket in the end.

What if You Can’t Invest in Home Staging?

Sometimes, however, a home seller is unable to make the full investment in home staging. What is the cheapest way to get results that can pay off in a higher sales price when the budget is tight? Here is my advice if you are going to be living in the home while it is on the market.

Get a home staging consultation with a professional stager, follow their advice, do the staging yourself, and have them do a final check-up before taking photos.

Every home, no matter how big or small, regardless of the price range or condition can benefit from a professional consultation.

What is involved in a professional home staging consultation?

The home stager will come to your house and walk through the interior and exterior. They will give you expert objective advice on:

• • How buyers will see your home and what changes you can make to get the highest final sales price. It is impossible for home sellers to see their own home objectively as a buyer seeing it for the first time will see it.
  • The most cost effective ways to market your property to your target buyer.
  • What things to repair, paint, update, remove, add, keep and re-arrange to highlight the best features of the home and downplay the flaws.
  • Paint and décor colors that appeal to buyers.
  • Working with the décor you have to highlight the homes features and will give you recommendations for purchases if needed for bedding, art, accessories, furniture rentals, etc.
  •  Prioritizing the most important things to do if time or budget constraints exist.
  • Improving your curb appeal.
  • Trusted resources such as contractors, painters, and cleaners etc. to use.
  • How to live in your staged home and keep things looking great while it is on the market.

Most consultations last about 2 hours and cost an average of $300 providing a huge amount of value in just a few hours. Your home stager can come back for a check-up after you have done the work to do final adjustments before photos for an hourly fee. The check-up can add great value to make sure your furniture is properly arranged to highlight space, your bookshelves and accessories are styled to look great, your bedding is arranged perfectly, art is hung correctly and all the little things that will make the photos look wonderful and have buyers loving your house are done.

What if your house is Vacant?

A consultation can still provide great value in prioritizing the things to do to get the most bang for your buck. And it will be important….since there will be no furniture etc. to look at, buyers will be focusing on the flaws which will be more obvious. You are better off investing in a consultation or full staging than trying to do ”vignette” or “Lite staging”. These silly staging tricks where a couple rooms have minimal furniture or have small areas staged in an otherwise empty house look weird and distracting. Better to not waste money on that and leave it empty. During the home staging consultation, the stager can tell you what the most important things are you can do to get the best return on your investment with the money you have available to spend.

A great home stager will make all the difference in a successful home sale for you. Pick their brains! They want to help you!

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Home staging helps seniors move on to their next adventure.  How? Many of my home staging customers are seniors or mature sellers moving on to the next stage of their life for a variety of reasons, including:

• Retiring and moving to their dream home or location.
• Empty nesters downsizing to smaller, more affordable spaces.
• Moving closer to family.
• Moving to assisted living facilities.

Many of the buyers looking at homes being sold by seniors are younger families, potentially buying their first or second homes.

There is a big difference in taste and lifestyle between these buyers and sellers.

A home stager can really help mature home sellers in a variety of ways to sell quickly and for more while addressing some of their unique challenges as they move on to a different lifestyle.

• A home stager can help seniors present their for sale home to appeal to younger buyers so they can visualize themselves living there. This may include updating paint colors, finishes, lighting, furnishings and accessories to create a more modern style.
• A home stager can provide an objective perspective on what younger buyers will see when viewing the for sale home, which can be especially difficult for sellers who have lived in a home for decades.
• A home stager can find and coordinate great contractors to do needed repairs and upgrades.
• A home stager can help seniors in de-cluttering and downsizing. I never liked the word “de-cluttering” because our possessions are meaningful to us, and are great to display when living in the home to tell the story of our lives. When selling, it is important to highlight the house and the space, rather than our own story. Older sellers, especially those downsizing have a hard time letting go of some of their belongings. An accomplished stager can help you decide about what to keep, and what could fit in the new space and even help set up and decorate your new home.
• A home stager can help seniors with long term attachments to a property to mentally prepare for the home sale.

A home stager can be part of your home selling team with your realtor  and photographer, as well as part of your support network to help make sure you get the most for your home and can move on quickly and with the least amount of stress.

See an example of how home staging transformed this couples house that decided to retire and move on. Their house sold the first day on the market for full asking price.

As you move on to the next adventure, consider 4 housing options for seniors. Did you know that you don’t necessarily need to purchase a home to downsize as a senior? There are several options to think about – including leasing, renting, and buying. Your home stager can help you get set up in your new home regardless of which option you select.

Call 907-362-0065 today

 info@northernlightsstaging.com

You can sell your house in any market fast and for more with Home Staging. Learn how, why and when home staging works, how much more you can sell your house for, how fast you can expect it to sell, how to find a great home stager and how much it costs. Home staging works and is a great investment!

Lately the market has gotten much slower and Alaska is reported to be facing a recession. If you need to sell your house, you can still outshine the competition. Home staging works in both a buyers and a seller’s marketand really helps you in a slow market.

Find out more information on how and why home staging works in our section on Why Home Stage?

Get more information on how to find a great home stager in my recent video interview on Home Staging Pros.

Find out more about how and why home staging works, how much it costs, what the process is like, how long it takes and what it costs. Check out our FAQs for Home Sellers on Home Staging report.

Call 907-362-0065 today

 info@northernlightsstaging.com

When I do consultations with people getting ready to sell, there are some issues I see regularly. Here is some of my top ten home staging tips I give most people to help them sell fast and for more money.

Clean– Make it spotless! Particularly kitchen, bathrooms and master bedroom. No time? Hire a professional. A clean home looks well maintained.

Repair- Fix all those little things like leaky faucets, squeaky door, loose knobs, lights that do not work, etc. A home that looks well maintained on the surface will be less likely to have buyers wondering about the condition of all the things they can’t see such as your wiring, plumbing, etc. The first thing the buyer sees that is broken or not working properly breaks the magic that can get that buyer to fall in love with your home.

Declutter– Remove 50% of what is in your closets, bookshelves and cabinets. You are selling space, if it looks like you do not have enough of it, buyers will be worried they will not have enough either.

New bedding– A new bedding set can transform a bedroom. Definitely go for new bedding in the master bedroom. Even just new pillows (4 per bed plus throw pillows) can make a bed look fabulous, as pillows flatten out over time. Go for a fresh, modern style.

New towels and shower curtain– Fresh clean towels of various colors in a spotlessly clean bathroom that coordinate with a fresh, simple shower curtain will make your bathroom look great. They do not need to be expensive, just new and clean! Hide all personal items including soap when showing.

Let there be light! – Nothing screams dated in a house louder than outdated lighting fixtures. Lighting is easy to replace and simple, attractive and inexpensive lighting fixtures can be purchased at Home Depot or Lowes. Rooms should ideally have overhead lighting, several lamps and some task lighting. A room with only an overhead light looks unattractive and dark, and can appear smaller. Have several matching lamps with high wattage bulbs and have all lights in the house on for showings.

Check out these beautiful. modern lighting options that are neutral enough for staging or to update your outdated lighting. Some may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a small commission for sharing at no additional cost to you.

Paint neutral colors (beige, tan, grays)- Although colorful paint jobs can be great for living and for spicing things up in kid’s rooms, it can turn off buyers with different tastes and who worry their belongings will not match your paint job. Painting everything white will make your house boring and unmemorable. Add color in the décor rather than the paint. Paint is cheap and can make everything look new, fresh and clean.

Remove heavy curtains– Replace heavy curtains with sheers or no curtains (if there is a good view). Keep all curtains or shades open for showings. You want everything to look as bright, airy and spacious as possible. Sheers are inexpensive, let in light, soften the room and can downplay a poor view if needed.

Remove personal photos and items– Buyers get distracted by these items and feel like they are invading your territory. Make it easy for them to picture themselves living in the home. It is also good from a safety standpoint not to give them information about you or your family.

Improve curb appeal– Declutter the outside, make sure vegetation is trimmed, cleaned up etc. Make sure lights are always on outside and house number is visible. Something decorative near the door and a new welcome mat is a great touch.

Use these home staging tips to sell your house fast and for more!

 

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