Home staging tips for first time home sellers

Featured alt: A properly staged home.

If this is your first time selling a home, you might think that renovating it to its best possible state is enough to yield a good price. But, as you will soon learn, in order to actually sell your home, you will need to stage it properly. There is hardly a real estate agent out there that won't emphasize the importance of home staging and how without it, home selling is impossible. So, with this in mind, we are going to go over some of the must-know home staging tips for first-time home sellers.

What do first time home sellers need to keep in mind?

Being a first-time home seller is never easy. There is a ton of rookie mistakes that you need to avoid in order to sell successfully. This is why it is always a good idea to do plenty of research before you actually start tackling selling your home. The more you can learn from experienced professionals, the less chance there is that you will make a costly oversight or mistake.

To help you start off your research, we are first going to go over the more important aspect that you need to keep in mind regarding the staging of your home. Your realtor should mention these aspects, and will probably add a couple more. But, for starters, these should be enough for you to wrap your mind around what home staging will be like.

Declutter

One of the things that all first-time home sellers need to tackle is decluttering. Once you stage your home for selling, you will have to temporarily get rid of a lot of stuff. You may be surprised to know that your home should be all but empty. So, the sooner you can find an efficient way to declutter your home, the better. A good idea is to find a local company that offers both moving and storage services. That way, you can have your belonging transported hassle-free to a storage unit once you need to present your home to buyers.

Know your buyers

Not every home is suitable for every person. A young professional is looking for a home that is completely different from one that a family person is looking for. Therefore, if you want to sell your home at a good price, you need to figure out who your buyers are. Remember, home selling is all about supply and demand. So, the more you can identify and address the demand that certain types of buyers have, the better. Ideally, you will stage your home so that it gives your future buyers an idea of what their life will be like if they purchase your home.

First impressions matter

The most important thing that first-time home sellers often don't realize is that first impressions matter a lot. Whether or not you will sell your home for a good price is largely dependent on how good of an impression you can make. So, when you stage your home, you need to ensure that every aspect that makes up the first impression is ideal. From your front yard and curb appeal to your front door and hallway - the more you can wow your buyers, the better.

How to stage your home

Now that we've covered some basic principles to keep in mind, we are going to mention some of the more important home staging tips for first-time home sellers. It is important to note, though, that no single article can cover every aspect of home staging. So, we advise you to be extra careful when finding your real estate agent. A good one will not only make home staging easier but will make the whole process of home selling a lot more efficient.

Have a theme

In order to both market and present your home properly, you need to have a theme to it. Themes like:

⦁ Family nest.
⦁ Bachelor pad.
⦁ Art deco delight.
⦁ Bohemian beauty.
⦁ Elegant county.

These are all options you can go for when you stage. To pick the right one you need to consider your potential buyers and the layout of your home. Then you need to figure out what kind of theme best combines the two. The more naturally you can incorporate the desired theme, the easier it will be make a good sale. And that’s especially if your agent is able to come up with a good pitch for potential buyers.

Using colors

More often then not, you will have to repaint your home in order to stage it properly. It is important to note here that you shouldn't pick the colors you like, but the colors that go well with your home. If those two are the same, great. But, if the current trends in real estate don't go well with your taste, keep your priorities in mind. As a first-time home seller, your goal should always be to make your home as appealing to potential buyers as possible.

Pay attention to light

Once you figure out your colors, you will also need to figure out which light to get. The most common way to deal with this is:

⦁ Yellow lights - living rooms, hallways, and bedrooms.
⦁ Blue lights - home office (or work desk), home gyms, and kitchen.

These, of course, can vary, and you should always feel free to incorporate whatever looks right in your home. Just know that every type of light brings with it a different feel. Yellow lights are more natural and calming. This is why we often use them for rooms where you relax in (living room, bedroom, etc.). The calming effect is especially magnified if you use multiple lamps instead of a single overhead one. Blue lights, on the other hand, are energetic. This is why we predominately use them for work areas.