The 10 Secrets of Staging Your Home

When buyers step into your home, they don’t want to see your home. They want to see a house where they could live, a well-lit, open space where they could be happy. That’s why there are entire companies dedicated to the art of staging— arranging and decorating a home so that it more closely resembles what a buyer wants to see.

Even if you can’t afford to pay for professional staging, you can employ many of their tricks of the trade yourself. Here are the 10 secrets of staging your home.

1. Kill the Clutter

Look around your home. Do you see a stack of dirty plates from last night’s dinner on the counter? A half-toppled stack of papers on the dining room table? Miscellaneous kids’ toys strewn on the floor and peeking out from under the sofa? To you and your friends, those are the signs of a warm, lived-in home. But to a potential buyer, those items are clutter, and they can seriously detract from the look of the house. While you are in the process of showing your home to various buyers, keep it in a state of neatness and orderliness.

If you have children, enlist their help to keep items picked up and put away. If they are reluctant, consider a reward system to help everyone have more fun during the stressful season of selling the home.

2. Choose the Furniture Carefully

Most staging companies will get rid of about a third or even a half of the owner’s furnishings. Look for pieces that you don’t use every day, or pieces that you can do without for a while. Put them in storage or take them to a relative’s attic or garage, where they can stay until you sell your home and move into a new one.

If you have already moved out of the home, you’ll have to find some furniture to put back into it. In this case, you’ll probably have to use a staging company or find friends who are willing to lend you some chic, cohesive pieces to make the place look great. Keep the furniture to a minimum, and the space will look much larger.

3. Create Seating Groups

When you place the furniture, don’t shove it all up against the walls. Instead, create groupings, such as a couch and coffee table with two chairs opposite the sofa. Place them all in the center of the room, with an area rug to define the space. You want the seating areas to feel cozy, while the traffic flow of the room moves around them.

4. Give Them Some Green

Flowers and greenery can immediately make a space feel fresher and more inviting. Limit your choices to flowers that don’t run the risk of aggravating a guest’s allergies. Strive to have a bit of live greenery in every room, or at least put lush arrangements in the main living areas.

5. Fix the Front Door

Your front door may look a bit worn and battered, thanks to the winds and rains that have tackled your South Florida home. Take some time to do any necessary repairs, and give your door a fresh coat of paint. Updating the fixtures is an immediate facelift for your door.

6. Use Those Neglected Corners

Do you have a corner in your home that always seems to collect miscellaneous items that don’t belong anywhere else in the house? Clean out that corner and give it purpose. Turn it into a reading nook or a small work area. If it’s a dark corner, be sure to include some lighting in the form of any attractive lamp.

7. Swap Photos for Art

Take away all the family photos and personal keepsakes. Pack them carefully in boxes until they can have a place of honor in the new home. You want your visitors to be able to imagine themselves in the space, rather than being constantly reminded of the fact that your family lives there. Do the walls and shelves look bland now? Place some carefully selected art from your own collection, or borrow some pieces from friends. Make sure that the art works with the colors of the furniture and the walls, and keep it fairly neutral, free of any artistic elements that might be objectionable to a buyer.

8. Let in the Light

The natural light in a room is one of the key selling points. Even if it’s a gray day outside, open up all the blinds, shades, and curtains in your home so that the light from the outdoors floods in. On gloomy days, turn on all the light fixtures and lamps as well.

9. Play It Again

Play some soft music throughout the house, something warm and gentle that will help buyers relax in the space. The music hides the sound of footsteps in the empty house and fills up awkward pauses. Keep the volume low so that guests are not distracted and can still talk comfortably at normal levels. Instrumental music, specifically jazz or classical music, tends to work well.

10. Celebrate Cleanliness

Every square inch of your home needs to be squeaky-clean, from the baseboards to the ceiling fans to the bathrooms. If you don’t have the time or motivation to do it all yourself, hire a cleaning service. Whether you hire someone or do the job yourself, be sure that you clean out the areas that are easy to forget— the fridge, the microwave, the cabinets under the sinks, the garage, the shed, and under the bed. You never know where a prospective buyer may decide to look!

You’ll be vacating the home before a showing so that the realtor and buyers have some privacy, so before you leave, do a quick spot check to make sure that everything is in perfect order.

Now you know 10 secrets of the staging professionals, and you can do it all yourself! With careful preparation and attention to detail, your home can look as if it just materialized from a magazine. If you’re nervous about doing it on your own, get some ideas from your South Florida realtor or ask a decor-savvy friend to help you out. Ready, set, stage!