Beyond Cleaning and De-Cluttering: 7 Staging Tips You Haven’t Heard 

Any homeowner who is planning to sell their home has heard the mantra: Clean and de-clutter. Here are seven things to do in addition to cleaning and de-cluttering that will help sell your house:

1. Spend your money where you can see it.

When you go to sell your house, you normally have a long list of things to do to get it sale-ready. Some of these are fixes, some are updates and some are replacements. If anything is broken or damaged or not working properly, you need to get it fixed. Otherwise it will show up on the inspection report and could end up costing you the sale or dragging out the negotiation. But beyond the fixes that are absolutely necessary, you need to be strategic about what you do and where you will get the most bang for the buck. Spend your money on the things that the buyer will see. Don’t replace the hot water heater (unless it’s broken) or put on a new roof (unless it leaks) or buy high-end bathroom fixtures – because the buyer won’t know the difference between the $150 faucet and the $800 one.

Instead, spend it on repainting, or on new knobs to replace the dated hardware on your kitchen cabinets. Spend it on curb appeal: mulching and edging the beds, planting flowers, painting the front door. Spend it on the things that will help your house win the beauty contest. Spend it on the things that will make buyers feel good.

2. Don’t offer credits.

Short of remodeling the kitchen or putting on an addition, don’t expect your buyer to do anything you don’t want to do. In a nutshell, your buyer doesn’t want to trade their dirty carpet for your dirty carpet. And they will have a hard time imagining that a house with peeling paint and stains on the carpet could be the kind of house they want to pay good money for. They’ll reject your home and move on to the next one. There are plenty to choose from right now. Besides, you will probably end up spending more on credits than you would if you went ahead and got the work done yourself…and the buyer will still make their offer based on the current condition of the house. So you pay twice.

3. Find one purpose for each room and stage it accordingly.

No combo family room/office/play room. No combo guest room/office/junk room. Whatever you may have used the room for, figure out what your target buyer will likely use it for and turn it into that room. Young families? Turn that third bedroom/office back into a child’s room. Did you replace your dining room table with a pool table so you could get more use out of that room? Time to turn it back into a formal dining room. The new buyers may not end up using it as a dining room any more than you did. But they THINK they will.

4. Make sure each room has a focal point

Then arrange the room so that this is the first thing someone notices when they walk in the room. In the living room the focal point is often the fireplace, sometimes the view or sometimes a major piece of art. In the dining room it should be the dining room table. In the bedroom it should be the bed. In every case, make sure the focal point is staged to draw attention and wow the viewer. Doing this will also help distract the eye away from less appealing features in the room.

5. LightenUp

Light and bright houses are universally appealing. They make people feel happy and happy people want to buy. To maximize the light in every room, do the following:

• Paint rooms with low natural light a warm, light color like Benjamin Moore Windham Cream (HC-6)
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• Trim bushes and trees that are covering windows.
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• Open curtains, blinds and shades. If you have heavy and dated draperies, remove them.
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• Change the light bulbs in every lamp to a higher wattage. And make sure every room has enough lamps.
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• Make sure your windows sparkel.  If you have sun screens on them, take them down to let more light in. Store them in the garage.
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• Make sure all blinds and shutters are cleaned and open to let the sunshine in.
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6. Blend and weave (some of) the same colors throughout the house.

I’m not saying to paint every room the same color. That would be boring and forgettable, which is the death knell for a sale. What I’m saying is carry at least one or two some of the same colors into every room, whether in the paint color or the furniture and accessories.

7. Be neutral without being blah

Home stagers always say to go with neutral colors.  And you should, for the walls and large pieces of furniture. But don’t go overboard on the neutrals. You don’t want your home to be blah and boring. Be sure to add back some color to each room in the form of accents and accessories.  Artwork, pillows, flowers and other accessories can add a punch of color that will make the difference between blah and brilliant. One of the easiest and cheapest ways to add color is with a bowl of brightly colored fruit like lemons or oranges.

A final tip: put one of the lemons down the garbage disposal right before your open house or showings and it will give your kitchen a fresh and natural scent.