Staging Your Home to Sell
Selling your home is an emotional and stressful time. Not only does it encourage a clean out of all the drawers and closets so we look and feel more like we have our sh*t together but, it pushes us down memory lane. It forces us to do the one thing we wonder why we didn’t do a long time ago.
Below we have some steps to take to ensure your home is ready to sell, as well as a few products we recommend to buy for packing!
If you have the luxury of not living in your space while on the market, we always recommend investing in professional staging. Although it is an upfront cost, the return in investment from perceived value is worth it! In our Laurelhurst remodel we used our friends Copeland Staging. If you’re in the Portland Area, we can’t recommend them enough!
DECLUTTER
What does that mean exactly? It means removing all the photos from the side tables and tossing the collections of paper clips and pennies in the dish. Once and for all it means moving the stack of papers from its rotation around the house to the garbage and it finally means the piles of books you were going to take to sell are going into the goodwill pile because time is running out!
REMOVE PERSONAL ITEMS
Then you have to graduate to the next phase. Remove as many of your personal belongings as possible. Go through your frames and determine, do I want the frame or just the picture? If the picture is a keeper, add the frame with broken glass to the toss pile. By removing personal items, you allow the future buyer to not get distracted by your photos and allow them space to imagine themselves in your home.
MAXIMIZE SPACE
All new buyers want to walk through the home and feel that there is plenty of space. No one wants to feel like they are cramped or don't have room to walk around the room. The goal is to maximize space! Do this by removing the side tables that are not absolutely necessary. If there are two on either side of the sofa, keep one. If there are three chairs, try reducing them to two, so the room appears spacious and larger. It’s okay when your room feels on the border of not having enough furniture. The buyer can imagine their furniture in the space and can navigate through the room more easily without cluttered furniture. Arrange furniture to highlight the functionality and spaciousness of each room. Create clear pathways and remove any unnecessary pieces to make the area feel open and inviting.
GET YOUR CURB APPEAL IN ORDER
The exterior of your home is the first thing buyers see. Make a great first impression by ensuring the lawn is well-manicured, the entryway is clean and inviting, and any exterior repairs or updates are addressed. Do some weeding, hide the weeds for all I care with fresh mulch, and plant some easy and cheap flowers in a bucket or hanging basket at the front door. Rent or borrow a power washer to clean the entryway, patios, and approaching sidewalks. It makes a big difference.
Curb appeal is the FIRST impression for buyers. Your yard doesn’t have to be out of Home & Garden, but make sure it’s cleaned up! Beyond looking scrappy, a messy yard makes buyers immediately think of all the yard work they would have to do if they purchased the house… And that usually means they’re swiftly on to the next property.
LET THE LIGHT IN!
Make sure all blinds are in the upright position and ready for takeoff! You might even consider removing curtains if they have seen better days. Just know they will be the first thing to go when the new buyer walks in.
KEEP YOUR PALETTE NEUTRAL
You might love red, but get the red pillows off the sofa, and reduce the amount of color and accessories you have in the space. Unless you are a skilled designer, most of the time the piles of pillows and throws look cozy to you and messy to them. Opt for neutral paint colors and décor to create a blank canvas for buyers to project their own style onto. This allows them to imagine.
The only flowers you should have in the space are new lilies from Trader Joe's. Toss the bouquet you caught at your BFF’s wedding. I don't want to see the upside-down dried roses from three Valentines ago either. Toss ‘em!
PRO-TIP: Roll up old rugs to expose floors if they are in good shape. New buyers are suckers for good condition features like wood floors. Get rid of runners and just keep the main area rugs to maintain the pulled-together spaces.
In the kitchen, ESPECIALLY, it’s important to keep things bare bones. Opening up counter space will help the buyer envision an abundance of prep space in their future home.
And for the love of Peter, consider STAGING your home for sale. It is worth the price to have professionals come in to assist you in getting your house sold faster. They know what works, what sells, and how to implement your look with their inventory. If you are in the Portland area, there is no one better than Copeland Staging. Profesh masters!
PRO-TIP: Don’t make the mistake of getting your packing materials too late! Order early and start packing things away so the job isn't so daunting. Here are some of our favorite finds:
HELPFUL LINKS
For you visual learners! Watch our YouTube “Top Tips for Staging Your Home Before Selling”. We met with our friend Kat of Copeland Staging to chat about all the useful tips when it comes to successfully staging your home to sell.
Here are some of our favorite packing materials. These boxes are great for storing any personal items such as picture frames. They’re not too big (meaning not too heavy) and have convenient handles.
For more info on how to prep to sell your home, read our other blog “Selling your home? Think Paint + Light Fixtures”.
Affiliate Disclosure: Teal and Wendy hand-pick every product they recommend. Some product links are affiliates and may provide a small kickback to T&S at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, they earn from qualifying purchases.
