If you’re planning on selling your home and are hoping to stage your home, there are plenty of ways to do so without spending an arm and a leg. Home staging is one of the more important pieces to the home selling strategy. When your home is staged well, it helps to depersonalize your living space for prospective buyers to come in and envision themselves living in your home. Professional staging is expensive, and often costs thousands of dollars depending on the size of your home. Home staging should not be neglected in the process of selling your home, as it is a step to making your sale go smoothly.
Tips to Stage Your Home on a Budget
1. Deep Clean Your Home
We recommend to sellers who want to begin the process of staging their home on a budget to deep clean the whole house. If you opt to do it yourself, you will have to take into consideration the cost of all the cleaning materials. If you don’t have the time to clean your home, hiring a professional cleaning service, you don’t mind spending some money on. However, not all cleaning services will offer the same packages, so it is important to do your research.
2. Declutter and Depersonalize the Home
Decluttering is just as important as deep cleaning your home if you plan to stage your home. However, it can be tricky when keeping in mind what you may want to sell, donate, keep, or toss. Some tips to make the hard decisions about what to keep or toss include the following:
- 20/20 Rule: Toss anything that you can replace for less than $20 or in less than 20 minutes.
- Get rid of unnecessary duplicate items, such as books, glassware, dish sets, clothing, etc…
- Keep items used together in the same place.
When you are in the process of decluttering, you should also work on removing personal items. This means personal photographs, trophies, unique art pieces, awards, etc… You want potential buyers to envision themselves living in your house, not you and your family.
3. Neutrals with a Pop of Color
A neutral color palette is the way to go when it comes time to stage your home, but if you pair a neutral wall with a vibrantly colored decorative statement piece, the magic happens. We recommend warm neutrals like beige or whites, others including a hint of gray or neutrals with a hint of gray with a strong undertone are acceptable choices. For adding pops of color, you can do this with accessories like area rugs, throw pillows, vases, and throw pillows.
4. Rearrange your Furniture
It is important to make sure that the walking paths in your home are clear and free of clutter or furniture when you come through your front door. Homeowners should ideally keep a minimum of 30 inches of space for high-traffic walkways and a minimum of 24 inches for low-traffic areas. It is important to keep in mind to purchase furniture sliders to protect your floors from damage, whether you have carpet or hardwood.
5. Embrace the Natural Light
Natural light is one of the best gifts from nature to homeowners that don’t give enough credit. A house feels very different when the curtains are open and the natural light floods in. If you are concerned about privacy, you can let the sunlight in using sheer white curtains instead of black-out drapes. If some rooms in the house don’t have windows or don’t get a lot of sunlight, you can opt to use mirrors to create an illusion of sunshine. Don’t forget the lights in your house! If you have to illuminate a dark, windowless room, replace the bulb with a bright LED. It won’t have the same effect as natural sunlight, but it is an improvement.
When it comes time to stage your home, it doesn’t have to be a costly feat in the process of selling, but it doesn’t have to be! With some creativity, it can be surprising just how easy the process is to stage your home. When you learn how to stage your home on a budget, applying the above mentioned tips can work in your everyday life. For professional advice, tap into a trusted real estate agent’s years of experience selling homes. Even if you plan to stage your home on a budget, you are going to want to make as much money as possible on your home sale, working with a top real estate professional is the right way to do that.