When you get ready to put your home on the market, it can be easy to want to just put it online and wait for a buyer. However, home staging can play an important factor in how many potential buyers you can reach. You want the potential buyers to be able to visualize themselves in your home and feel a connection to it.
To get the most potential interest in your home, we suggest you put time and thought into staging your home and avoid these 13 mistakes to truly make it shine!
Overly Furnished
When you have lived in a home for a while, you may have collected plenty of furniture to accommodate your family.
However, when staging your home you will want to pair it down to just a few pieces to allow for easy flow throughout the rooms when doing an open house or home tour.
Furniture that doesn’t fit
Sometimes we can live with furniture that fits our needs but not the room. If you have an oversized sectional couch that eats up good square footage in your living room, consider staging it with a small couch and two accent chairs to open up the space to make it feel bigger.
Furniture pushed against the walls
You probably have the notion that pushing all your furniture to the walls can make a space feel larger, but the opposite is actually true. Stage your furniture from the walls into a conversational setup to make the room feel more open and spacious.
Too many focal points
A simple rule to follow is to have one focal point in a room, such as a fireplace or large window looking into the yard.
Personalization and clutter everywhere
When you stage a home, it is best to remove a large portion of your knick-knacks from shelves and walls. This will allow for less clutter and also help with packing!
Artwork hung too high
Artwork in your home should be hung at eye level so go around your home and reassess how high any pictures are hung.
Too many different colors or dark colors
A fun accent wall or one cozy dark room can be a great option in a home. However, if you have dark colors on too many walls throughout your home it can make it uninviting.
Similarly, if you have too many different colors throughout your home, it can be visually unappealing to a potential buyer. Invest in painting a neutral tone to give your buyers a blank canvas to work with.
Lack of lighting
A home should feel light and airy to attract buyers so make sure you have plenty of lighting options. From overhead lighting to side lamps and open windows, it can make a room feel lighter with minimal effort.
Messy storage areas
Storage is a huge perk for potential buyers so stage those areas to show them off. If you have a large pantry or coat closet, stage them to show off how much room they offer.
Uninviting entryway
First impressions matter so even staging a small entryway can make a good first impression. It doesn’t have to be much, maybe a coat rack or purse holder and mirror, but this attention to detail can help their first impression.
Forgetting the exterior
Don’t forget the outside of your home! Some simple efforts such as trimming bushes, a cute doormat, and a freshly painted door can create curb appeal that is much desired.
Leaving rooms vacant
If you have already moved or have an empty home, you may think that leaving it clear of furniture can make it a blank canvas. However, even adding a few pieces of furniture can help a potential buyer envision the space of a room and how they could use it.
Forgetting about smells
You always hear about baking cookies when doing an open house to make it smell like home, but the same is true for bad odors. If you have pets you may be immune to the smell that may still linger in your home.
Also, too strong of smells such as essential oils could turn off a potential buyer as well. Keep the scent of your home clean and fresh and minimal.
Staging your home can make a big impact on attracting buyers to tour your property through online photos and seeing themselves living there once they see the home in person. These simple fixes can cause them to fall in love with your home and lead to potential offers.
At Al Williams Properties, we are happy to help you navigate what can make your home the most appealing to the most buyers. Give us a call today!