Home Staging

What is Home Staging? Transforming your home from “yours” into an attractive home to potential buyers. The goal is to highlight the home’s strengths and downplay deficiencies.

To prove how serious we are about selling your home, here are our home staging secrets:

Ciao clutter!

• Removing clutter opens up the room and gives the illusion that a space is bigger than it actually is.
• Minimize the number of pieces of furniture in each room by whisking away all of the furniture and fixtures except the basics.
• Clear out closets, cabinets, and garages to show off storage space – which always ranks high on buyers’ priority list.

Reorganize the furniture groupings

• Reposition sofas and chairs into cozy conversational groups and rearrange place pieces so that the traffic flow in a room is obvious.

Remove personal items

• Personal family portrait photos, taste specific décor, and heritage pieces all make your home feel cozy and homey. However, when showing your home you will want potential buyers to visualize their family and personal items inside the home. Your personal photos and items can distract buyers and detract from the beauty of your home.

Brighten up!

• Warm and welcoming lighting can give any room a cozy and comfortable ambience. This is an easy fix; you can brighten up any room by simply buying light bulbs with high wattage. An easy rule of thumb is 100 watts for each 50 square feet. This can be done by adding at least three types of lighting to every room:
• Ambient – overhead lighting or sky lights
• Task – pendant, under-cabinet, or reading
• Accent – table and wall

A painting lesson

• Another way to give the illusion that a room is bigger than it is: paint adjacent rooms the same color. If you have an open floor plan with a small kitchen and dining room, painting them both the same color will give a seamless look and make it feel like one big space. If you have a sun porch, paint it a light green to match the color of nature. Choose drapery that is the same color as the room’s walls for a sophisticated and big open look.
• Bold wall colors have a way of reducing offer prices. Stick with neutral paint colors in large areas. The contemporary definition of neutral spans far beyond beige, from warm tans and honeys to soft blues and greens.
• To add drama or coziness to a dining room, powder room, or bedrooms simply apply a dark paint tone. You don’t have to go crazy with color; you could instead draw attention to an accent wall displaying artwork or to a dramatic fireplace.

Bring the outside in

• Flowers, potted plants, and wreaths can add a refreshing look to any space. You can do it yourself and save money by raiding your yard by clipping budding magnolia, unfurling fern fronds, or holly branches with heavy berries in the winter. Flowers and plants add splashes of color without overwhelming the room.

Finish projects

• Unfinished projects make potential buyers panic. Large cracks in basement walls and floors, missing floorboards, and carpet stains diminish your home’s value in buyers’ eyes. Finishing the project yourself will cost you less to fix than what buyers could deduct from the asking price.
• If you would like additional tips and tricks, ask your VRC Realtor for a short list of professional home stagers, or do some research on home staging.