How to Stage a Home for Sale

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By Anne Wanchic
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Sell your home faster by staging it to potential buyers

Staging your home for sale will not only help sell it quicker but also bring top dollar. Professional stager fees can range on the average of $500.00 to $3000.00 depending on area of the country and amount of work needed with the home. If you cannot invest in a professional you can still do some basic staging techniques to help your home sell.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Cleaning products
storage
possible furniture rental
possible paint or repairs

Step 1

A spotlessly clean house sells faster.

Clean. Make sure the house is spotlessly clean, including steam cleaning carpets. In fact, here is an area that you may want to hire a professional cleaning service to make sure the windows, tile and grout, and all other aspects of the home reflect the best quality.
Step 2

Less is more.

De-clutter. Any magazines, newspapers, more than three objects on a table or surface should be removed. Kitchen and bathrooms should show as much counter space as possible. Remove any area or throw rugs since they tend to make the floors look smaller. Personal family pictures and even too much artwork can turn off other families from imagining themselves living in this home. Our personal treasures are great, but unfortunately they do not sell homes.
Step 3

A neutral color scheme is appealing to buyers

Neutralize. You do not have to go through the home and paint every room white, but bold colors can turn off potential buyers. Attempt to bring each room to the look of a clean empty canvas. If your home reflects soft neutral colors, it will have a calming effect on buyers and help them mentally place their own belongings in the space.
Step 4

Paint and repair

Fix it up. Is there anything in your home that need repair? Scratches in the wall, broken tiles, or leaking facets can lead buyers to think that there could be more problems elsewhere.
Step 5

Arranging furniture can make or break a room

Furniture placement. Arrange furniture to maximize size and appeal. Avoid placing every piece against the walls. Remove oversized pieces that can make the room feel crowded. This is a good time to consult feng shui rules to assist in furniture placement and attractive traffic patterns.
Step 6

Great curb appeal is just as important

Curb appeal. Make sure that your lawn is cut and edged. And shrubs are trimmed and weeded. This is the first impression of your home. If it looks rough, your buyers may not make it past the front door.

Comments

2besure said

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on 10/17/2008 This is very important when trying to sell a house. It could be the matter of, "Sale, No Sale!"

veryirie said

on 10/9/2008 Very thorough! You covered everything. Well done!

Susanh said

on 6/13/2008 These are all fantastic tips. We had a realtor come into our home and give us an assessment on the things he saw that would need to be completed if we were to place our home on the market. In addition to all of the the tips you have listed here, he suggested we invest in a storage area for the time our home was on the market. This way, we could completely eliminate extra items and make our home as clean and de-cluttered as possible. This particular realtor was willing to do the assessment for free, so it pays to ask! :)