How To: Stage An Occupied Home
Tips to Maximize Your Sales Price When Selling A Home
Staging a home is much easier if it is unoccupied. Most people, however, don’t have the luxury of moving out while their house is on the market. Barring the costly option of renting a storage space, most sellers are forced to stage around the furniture and paraphernalia of their daily lives. The trick, like in any sales effort, is to make the buyer think "I want it" long enough that they are moved to make an offer.
Following are some tips for successful staging of a home that is currently occupied:
Remove Personal Objects
The goal of a successful staging should be to allow the buyer to imagine their life in the house. Painful as it may be to pare down, the seller’s personal knickknacks are not going to help that visualization process along. According to the National Association of Realtors, the most important step a seller can take is to remove anything remotely personal from all rooms. No family pictures, no trophies, no children’s artwork. No stacks of magazines. The buyer can’t picture themselves if all they see is the seller’s family and interests.
Pare Down Clutter
The buyer is purchasing the home – a successful staging allows them to see it. All collections should be taken down and packed for the big move. Any overcrowded shelves should be thoroughly decluttered. Countertops need to be swept clean, and toiletries should be removed from visibility. No buyer is going to look at a grungy bottle of dandruff shampoo and think “Gee, I really can see myself using this shower.”
Consider Furniture Placement
The ambitious stager will think about rearranging furniture to maximize room size. Slight variations, such as angling a single bed out into the room, can make a drastic difference. If a room feels crowded, an option might be to remove a set of shelves or trade an armchair. This step goes above-and-beyond, but it can really help improve a space.
Light, Neutral Paint
Any seller who has dark paint colors should immediately repaint their walls. Sure, that crimson matches the accent color on the sofa set and looks fantastic. But the buyer isn’t likely to own that same piece of furniture and probably doesn’t share the same taste in colors. One person’s beautiful lime green is another person’s tropical nightmare.
According to HGTV’s hit show Designed to Sell, painting a home in a neutral palette is one of the best investments a seller can make. It’s inexpensive and offers a great potential return on the dollar. Don’t turn a buyer off at the door. Give them a fighting chance at picturing themselves in the space by offering them a neutral palette.
Clean, Clean, Clean
This step should be self-evident, but bears emphasizing. A buyer doesn’t want to see a dirty house. Get rid of soap scum, door scuffs, or any other sign of wear and tear. Dirt is a fact of life, but it’s the last thing a buyer wants to see when they’re picturing themselves in a new home.
Best of luck.
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