Are you ready to sell your house and you think staging it can help you sell it faster or for more money, but you’re on a tight budget or you just don’t want to spend the thousands of dollars it can take to hire a staging pro? I’m going to give you seven things you can use to stage your home that are free or easy on your wallet and can help you sell your house faster and for more money.
I’m a realtor helping people buy and sell their homes with ease in the Oklahoma City area. Okay, real quick, some nerd talk. The National Association of Realtors website says that staging helps sell homes three to 30 times faster and can help increase the price by 20% on average than non-staged homes. That’s a pretty convincing argument that staging is worth your time and effort. Also, staging is not the same as decorating.
With staging, the goal is to depersonalize and neutralize to appeal to as many buyers as possible or your target buyer. We’re not just trying to make it pretty. All right, number one, depersonalize. Buyers want to envision themselves living in the house, not you. It’s hard to do this when other people’s kids’ artwork is on the fridge or another family is staring at them over the fireplace. Even odd book titles on a shelf can be off-putting to some people. So grab some containers or boxes and go around your house and remove all these items. And remember the garage and yard too. And bonus, this will give you a head start on packing for your move. Number two, declutter. Pair down the stuff in each room so each space has a defined purpose and the furniture or items in that space serve a function for that purpose.
For example, if the office is also where you work out and where you do some crafting sometimes, just show it as an office or a workout room, but not both, and pack up the other items for a while. Number three, white towels and bedding. White looks crisp and bright in photos and more clean in person. These items don’t have to be good quality, just something you’d find at Amazon or Ross or Walmart if you don’t already have them. If you do want better quality so you can use them in your new house, then by all means go for it, but it’s not necessary for staging. If you can’t get white or very neutral towels or bedding, then at least use sets that match the room they’re in. Number four, throat pillows. Pillows can make a room look plush and sumptuous and more expensive.
If you’re not able to purchase any and you have some that aren’t in the best shape, try throwing them in the washing machine and dryer and see if that helps, or look for inexpensive slipcovers for the ones you do have. If your room is already very colorful, then use neutral pillows to tone it down. And if the room is already pretty neutral, then some colorful pillows can add that visual pop that might be missing. Number five, oversize it. When choosing items of style, it’s better to pick one or two large items than many small ones. This idea might seem counterintuitive to making a space look and feel larger, but big items have a big impact and make a room look grand, while small items often end up looking cluttered and incomplete. The other items that look best oversized are… Number six, mirrors and artwork. Large pieces have a bigger impact than clusters of photos or small art. Unfortunately, buying these items can get expensive, so you can try and work with what you’ve already got. Look around your house, maybe you have something you’ve forgotten about in an attic, or you can take a mirror from a room that isn’t as important and hang it in one that is. Or maybe a friend will let you borrow something. And my biggest pet peeve of all time, when it comes to art that is hung too high, it drives me bonkers. It drives most designers and stagers bonkers too, because then the art doesn’t look like a cohesive part of the room. For reference, the middle of the piece should be around 60 inches from the ground.
That’s eye level for me, but if you’re a tall person, definitely bring it down. Number seven, greenery. At least one plant or flower in every room helps the space come to life and not look so cold and flat. Real, fake, it doesn’t really matter. We just want to bring the outdoors in a little bit. There’s a lot more we could unpack here, like what to do about window treatments and outdoor spaces, how to arrange the furniture, and we could even break staging down room by room. But my goal wasn’t to overwhelm you, just to give you some useful ideas you can put into action very quickly to make your house more appealing to buyers and help you sell it faster and net the most money you can.