8 Best Home-Staging Tips to Sell Your Home in 2019

Have you ever walked through IKEA and thought “Wow, I’d love to have this living room!”?

Listen up, sellers- this is the importance of home staging! A home that is successfully staged for an open house will have potential buyers lining up to make an offer after they’ve toured it.

Whether you are going through a FSBO home resale on your own or with a real estate agent, you can never be too detailed when it comes to home staging!

Here are 8 home staging tips that will guarantee you a high ROI without breaking the bank!

How To Successfully Stage Your Home for an Open House

Here is a breakdown of 8 amazing tips to home stage without going over your budget.

1. Bathrooms Sell Homes- Don’t Flush Away Your Upsale!

Try these simple hacks to make your home’s bathroom as squeaky clean as possible.

Get Rid of Mold: Bathroom mold can stop a happy potential buyer in their tracks. Create a simple mixture of one part water to one part bleach in a spray bottle and spray on moldy walls. Wait a few minutes and remove with a sponge for squeaky clean walls.
Deep Clean that Shower Door: Create another simple mixture of 10 parts water to 1 part muriatic acid. Grab a steel wool scrub and some elbow grease. This should do the trick. No need to replace the shower door- just make it look brand new!
Don’t Overlook Your Outdated Tiles: The bathroom should be spick and span and outdated tiles can give potential buyers an old, grimy feel. Can’t afford to replace old tiles? Paint over them! All you need is a high-adhesion primer and then a light coat of ceramic epoxy covering.

2. Utilize Your Fireplace to Make a Red Hot Sale!

Make your home a sweet, cozy abode that your potential buyers can visualize themselves living in by sprucing up the fireplace.

Give Those Bricks a Makeover: If your fireplace bricks are a real eye-sore that clash with your decor, give them a quick makeover! Carefully apply paint of your choice to the bricks one by one with a rag or a brush so as to not cover them completely. This will give a new modern dimension to your fireplace (and even more elegant if the paint matches the surrounding walls!). It will be a new selling point for your living room.
Give the Screen a Paint Job: A quick, easy, clean fix. Remove the screen, dust it off, cover the glass with paint, and use heat resistant spray paint to improve your screens (very important that it is heat resistant). With just $3-5 spent at Home Depot, your screen will look 10 years younger. It will also show your acute attention to detail as a homeowner.

3. The Kitchen- Here is Where You Make the Bread!

Everyone wants to see a kitchen they can envision themselves cooking in. Ensure your kitchen meets looks fresh and innovative by making sure you have the following amenities:

Stainless Steel Appliances: A little bit of money goes a long way in the kitchen. New kitchen appliances have consistently resulted in higher returns for sellers. New stainless appliances can make a kitchen look pristine. If you don’t feel it’s worth it to replace the larger appliances like the dishwasher, you can simply apply a stainless steel stick-on covering cut to size for around $20!
Stain Dated Kitchen Cabinets: Staining your kitchen cabinets on your own is a great way to save money on remodeling and will instantly take your kitchen from drab to fab. Purchase the stain of your choice, apply in even strokes with the direction of the grain, and voilà! Mix in a couple pieces of stainless hardware to make your kitchen appear brand new!
Are Granite Countertops Worth It?: Just watch any HGTV show and you will see that granite countertops are a dealbreaker when it comes to selling a property. You will definitely get a good ROI for your investment, but make sure you:

1) Do the demolition on your own to save money

2) Ask your granite vendor if he has remnants from previous projects.

4. Dress Up and Show off Your Windows!

Windows draw the most attention in a room so you want to make sure the aesthetics are just right. Check out this hack below!

Make a Homemade Trendy Valance: Home buyers love windows and natural light. Show off your windows with a homemade valance! A valance, aka the classy skirt that goes above your window and brings elegance to a room, can be made easily at home with placemats! You can add a hook-and-loop fastener to the placemats, place them on a curtain rod and then pin them together, or you can opt for an easier no-sew window treatment! A successful homemade valance could save you hundreds of dollars.

5. Make Sure Your Outdoor Patio Screams Party- Not Pests!

The outdoor patio is another important place you can optimize on before bringing potential buyers around. Try these quick fixes:

Freshen Up Your Outdoor Space: Outdated wooden patios can be a big red flag to clients about future maintenance issues. If your wood is looking run down, sand it and then apply a light-colored stain to give it a more simple, rural look. Add a couple colorful throw pillows and you’ll find your open house congregating outside!
Green on Plants, Neutral on Furniture: Patio staging is a critical part of a successful open house. Add freshness to your patio by adding flowers and greenery. Tall vertical plants make a small patio area appear larger and naturally make the space more aesthetic and relaxing. When picking outdoor furniture, make sure the palette is neutral.

6. Don’t Forget to Look Down!

Pay attention to detail with these flooring tips:

Leave Out Lackluster Hardwood: Does your hardwood leave much to be desired? Dedicate a day to your flooring and give it a makeover! Strip damaged boards, replace them with new ones, rent a sander from a hardware store, and stain the boards (like you did the cabinets and the patio!).
Vinyl is Valid: Vinyl tile is a low-cost option to add value to your floors. Make sure to switch up the placement and direction of the tiles to give it a more natural feel.

Insider Tip: You can even use vinyl tile to join two rooms that previously were not connected. This adds to the cost-efficient creation of flow in your home!

7. Your Extra Space Could Turn into Extra Money!

Make the most of all the space in your home by thinking about the following:

Avoid Ambiguity of Extra Space: Many people have extra rooms where dreams went to die (half constructed gyms, barren library shelves, untouched sewing machines, etc.). It is important to avoid ambiguity when showing your home to sellers, so pick a purpose and function for all of the rooms of your house and stage for said function! Clear out clutter to make way for functional pieces, for example, a desk to stage your extra room as an office.
Storage Space is a Must: Make sure all of your storage space is clearly marked and all closets are show-ready when the Open House comes around! Potential buyers will be digging around, so remove all unnecessary belongings off the premises and make sure all valuables are stored away safely. Protect your home with these seller safety tips!

8. Let it Shine, Let it Shine, Let it Shine!

Keep the ambiance light and bright by doing the following before an open house:

Keep it Light: Light and airy spaces are key to a successful feng shui. Dark and drab does not sit well with potential buyers, so even if it’s winter, all lights and lamps are welcome, even if you have to borrow additional ones from a friend for your open house! Include light-colored paints and accent colors to brighten up your home.
Blinds Up: Even open some windows strategically, weather-permitting! Make sure your windows have been detailed pre-Open House and all screens are in one piece.

Home Staging For Success is Where Sales are Made

First impressions are everything when it comes to home resale. We hope you’ve gained some insight on how to spruce up your home for an open house, especially if you are an FSBO seller looking to save some money in the selling process!

Selling your home without a realtor? Check out these valuable tips on how to carry out a successful FSBO transaction on your own!

Learn more about how to have a successful real estate and escrow experience on our blog.