While it is possible to attempt styling your home for sale yourself, the most effective way to do this is to bring in expert help. Experienced property stagers and stylists know exactly what buyers are responding to, and how to recreate these styles quickly and for the right price. Knowing the style of home your intended buyer is after is a tricky business, so taking on some professional advice in this area is the best way to ensure you secure a quick sale and a higher closing price. If you are intent on styling your home for sale yourself, keep in mind that your main job is to make an impactful, inviting first impression.
How do I style my home for sale? Stagency’s top 5 tips:
- Aesthetic layering turns a house into a home
- Understand who you’re selling to
- Avoid cheap homewares
- Play to your property’s strengths
- Cut the clutter
1. Aesthetic layering turns a house into a home
Staged properties have the potential to suffer from a ‘cold’, unlived-in feeling. The right staging turns a cold house into a family home and is the most vital step in the staging-for-sale process, but also the most difficult. This is where a good and experienced property stylist makes a difference. Layering is essential to add warmth to a home. Just hiring furniture and placing it in the home is not enough, you want your potential buyers to make “that” connection. Get the “warm and fuzzy” feeling.
2. Understand who you’re selling to
Understanding your buyer’s needs, wants and desires is essential when considering how to stage and market your property. Once you comfortably grasp your ideal buyer, including elements that reflect their tastes will allow them to picture themselves actually living in the space and move them closer to purchase. Talking to your Agent about this is a great way to understand your target market.
3. Avoid cheap homewares
You want your home to inspire aspirational buyers. Home buyers are extremely savvy, so will notice even the small touches such as art sourced from cheaper homewares stores. These small touches could even be the difference between a record closing price and a disappointing one. They have seen the Insta, Pinterest and Facebook posts on Kmart and whats hot that everyone is using – use middle of the range not cheap and make your home stand out for potential buyers not what they saw at the last open home repeating itself.
4. Play to your property’s strengths
Not every room in your home will be perfect, but it’s guaranteed you will have some that will generate broad appeal. For some homes, it’ll be the kitchen, for others the master bedroom with en suite (or both!). Make sure that whichever spaces you identify as your ‘selling’ rooms, you really emphasis the ‘wow factor’ here.
5. Cut the clutter
If your home looks messy and full of dust-collecting knick knacks, it is difficult for potential buyers to see past the surface clutter. Make their task of picturing their new life within the walls of your property much easier by tidying, cleaning, organising and performing any minor repairs. Ultimately, if you’re styling your home for sale, you need to take away buyers’ reasons for saying ‘no’ and leave them with a simple, but resounding ‘YES’ as their response to your property.
Melanie Grace is an experienced stylist and home stager for property sales. Get in touch today to discover how Melanie can create the perfect staging to sell your home quickly to the highest bidder.
