Home Staging Advice when Selling & Living in your Home

Home staging is all about transforming a house into a stunning work of art. It can be a difficult process for sellers living in a home. Your job as a REALTOR is to advise homeowners to stop seeing their houses as personal property during the selling process. Tell them to think of staging as an opportunity to declutter and get a head start on packing because potential homebuyers will look in every nook and cranny.

Advise sellers living in their homes to:

Get Rid of Old and Unused Belongings

Sellers getting ready to move should get rid of old and unwanted belongings. These include worn out furniture, damaged appliances, unused clothes, and any other knickknacks they don’t want to carry along. Those afraid to take the plunge can enlist the help of their family and friends.

Homeowners should not store anything they plan to throw away but get rid of it immediately. Unused items can take up a lot of valuable space and get in the way of home staging. They should be discarded, sold, or donated.

Depersonalize

It can be difficult for a seller to disengage himself from his house as he lives there. However, the process of staging can help him to see it from a neutral position. Additionally, staging is all about decluttering and doing it together with packing can help even more. Homeowners should declutter and only pack the belongings they want to take to their new home. They should make their homes inviting to all potential buyers by removing family portraits, mementos, collectibles, and other personal items. This way, they’ll find it easier to let go when the time to leave comes.

Depersonalizing can give prospective buyers an insight into how the home will look when they live there. It is about reducing visual footprint so that buyers don’t feel like they are snooping around someone’s home. They are able to understand the purpose of each room without feeling locked in and to see the space in the most attractive way. A beautifully staged house is both accessible like a new space and feels warm like a home.

Repaint your Interiors

If your clients haven’t painted their homes, advise them to do so. Paint can easily brighten up a home and make buyers picture themselves living there. Tell sellers to paint their interiors neutral colors but not too white that buyers have difficulty imagining themselves living there. They should choose light colors that are easy to paint over. They can consult interior designers or professional painters when choosing the colors. Many professional painters offer color consultation services.

Let in Natural Light

Sellers staging their homes should work hard to ensure they achieve the most desirable effect. They should let in light by opening up window treatments and turning on interior lights in dark rooms. They should also get rid of blinds and heavy curtains and replace them with sheers and lightweight window treatments.

Homeowners must ensure everything is spotless and sparkling as buyers can look anywhere – the corners of closets, pantries, kitchen cupboards, and even attics. For as long as the home is on the market, it should be in tiptop condition.

Add Accent Pieces

Accent pieces can change the way a room looks. Sellers can add mirrors to rooms or choose a few neutral and interesting pieces of art to hang. Mirrors add light, make spaces look larger, and keep a room interesting.

Many sellers have difficulty staging a home while living in it. With the right advice however, they can make a seamless transition. Use the above tips to help your sellers stage their homes for buyers.

For more ideas to help your clients with home staging look to the iHOUSE blog for more helpful tips.