When staging a home for sale, homeowners need to consider their target market. What do buyers want to see most? What are they looking for in a home?
Thinking about these things can help you approach staging strategically and create an environment that potential buyers will love. Your home needs to be staged to appeal to potential buyers. However, even though you might be considering preparing your home, it’s essential to avoid the basic errors that homeowners often make. Be sure to avoid these common home staging mistakes to give your home the best chance of impressing buyers.
Blocking Views and Architectural Elements
Beautiful views and architectural elements can be eye-catching for buyers. Still, we often see furniture blocking a home’s best-selling features. If you hide them, you could be missing out on a sale.
The worst part is covering up the fireplace. They add charm to a home and are something many home buyers would love to have, so they should be the focal point of a space. The same goes for a view. Suppose a window shows a nice view of the backyard or something even more enticing, like a lake or ocean. In that case, you should be trying to draw a buyer’s eye to the window rather than away from it.
Not Considering Lighting
In both photography and cinematography, lighting is crucial. Did you know it can also affect how others perceive a home’s outside and interior? White, sterile lights projected down from the ceiling could make the property less hospitable and welcoming than many other types of accent lighting. The use of mood lighting to give a space a unique and ambiance-filled appearance is also growing in popularity.
Making your home more appealing doesn’t mean changing all of the lighting. It would help if you examined whether you could change the look of the rooms by taking an unbiased look at them.
Not Considering Exterior Decor
The first thing prospective buyers notice is the outside of the home. Even though most individuals spend their time indoors, they still want an attractive and clean exterior. Make sure you show off the architecture outside the house by keeping it clean. You can do a little landscaping to draw attention to the best parts.
Keeping a Dirty House
Buyers want to see a clean and well-maintained home. It’s essential to clean your home thoroughly and prepare for staging. Potential buyers will notice dusty fans or baseboards, piles of clutter, broken outlet covers, etc. After initial inspection or while making an offer, they’ll notice the details and may take them as a sign that the home has not been well-maintained.
The home should be spotless and as close to looking brand new as possible. Buyers are highly sensitive to a home’s cleanliness as they tour it. They will look for signs that the home has been well-maintained over the years. We recommend hiring professionals to do a deep, thorough cleaning before listing. After that, be sure to maintain it, especially if you have kids or pets living there.
Keeping Personalized Décor and Personal Photographs
Suppose a specific taste and decor style personalize the home you sell. In that case, most buyers will have trouble imagining their own décor in its place. It is best to neutralize the walls, so buyers can see past the design and imagine their décor in its place.
Family photos are the most distracting elements you can keep in a house. It reminds buyers that the house they are walking through belongs to someone else and can make them feel uncomfortable. Remove family photographs and highly personalized artwork until you move to your next place.
Items around the home should be as minimal as possible. This helps buyers stay focused on the home, not its items. It also makes your rooms and lounge feel larger and more spacious. So clean out as much as possible.
Over-staging the House
Home staging helps your home appeal to more buyers and sell it faster and for more money. But wrong home staging can have a negative effect. If you put many art pieces, it looks cluttered rather than staged.
Therefore, it’s important to be tasteful with your choices and not go overboard with the decor and staging. You won’t be able to meet everyone’s idea of the perfect home. But, by depersonalizing your decor a bit, you’ll appeal to more potential buyers. Additionally, you’ll be able to focus more on presenting a welcoming environment with clean lines that potential buyers could see themselves making into a home.
Final Words
Avoiding these simple staging mistakes can make the difference in how long it takes to sell your home and increase your home value. So make sure you stay aware of them for future benefit.
