How to Stage a House

Staging your home can be a cheap and efficient way to make sure you sell your house fast. Staging your home to sell doesn’t need to be a complex task. With a little creativity and attention to key areas, you can turn your home into a showroom model house.

By staging a home for sale, you’re creating a picturesque environment that can be inviting, allowing potential buyers to envision themselves living there. Tidying up and resodding the grass is no longer considered an extra touch, as people see immaculate homes on display online, on TV shows, and in other walkthroughs.

So, if you’re ready to stage a house for selling, we have this guide here to help you along the way.

How to Stage a Home for Sale

Before you get the camera ready, you will want to do an overall assessment of your home’s condition, then some baseline chores.

Declutter

Now is the time to remove the embellishments that have piled up over the years. Pay special attention to any areas that will open up space. Books and magazines scattered across the coffee table should either be stored away or rearranged. Anything that isn’t necessary for daily living should be stored away. Don’t put your stuff in cupboards and closets, because most buyers will look into these spaces. Instead, try and box things up and get them out of the house.

Any accent pieces that you do leave in the house should be arranged in odd numbers, especially in threes, as this presents a pleasing aesthetic.

Clean everything

You want the house to look as new as possible. Clean the windows, floors, walls, and even the crown molding. If you have pets, ask for friends to look after them throughout the process, then clean and remove anything that they came in contact with. Your furry friend may be a part of your family, but you don’t want to drive away a potential home buyer due to allergies. When you clean your home, you want to make sure that you get to spots that you normally pass over. You want any buyer to feel like the first owner.

If you have room in your budget, investing in a professional cleaner is a good idea.

Remove personal items

You want to create a blank canvas for a potential home buyer to paint their future on. This means removing family pictures, trip souvenirs, and wall decorations that are distinctly yours.

Retouch the finishes

As you comb through your home, pay attention to any nicks and scratches that you’ve come to live with. You may need to get the caulking gun out and touch up areas in the bathroom and kitchen, or you may need to do some regrouting. Attending to these little details goes a long way when staging a house to sell.

How to Stage a House for Sale by Room

After you’ve finished the preliminary chores, it’s time to go through each room. Every room needs to bring out its best features when staging a home to sell.

How to Stage a House: Living Room

The living room should be one of the most welcoming places in the house. When staging a house for sale, pay special attention to the living room, as many people get their first impression of the entire house here.

While you should depersonalize the house, you don’t want it to feel empty. Place a decorative centerpiece on the coffee table and open the blinds to allow for as much natural light as possible. If your windows face an unsightly view, then you can mask it with a sheer curtain.

You’ll want to enhance the room with higher wattage bulbs, within the limits of safety, so that any dark areas are illuminated. If you have lamps and the shades show signs of wear, replace them with a nice white shade.

When repainting your home, stay with neutral to slightly warm tones. You’ll want to avoid any dark tones that can make a room feel smaller.  

To open the space, consider removing unnecessary furniture. You may have to rent a storage unit until you move into your next home, but removing bulky furniture makes your living room appear bigger and more inviting.

How to Stage a House: Bedrooms

The bedroom is most likely your most personal space in the house, so remove any elements of presence from the room. Replace the linens with neutral colors to give them an elegant, timeless look. To open up the room, remove anything that’s not a bed, nightstand, or dresser.

If you have framed family photos, consider replacing the pictures with generic landscapes.

If you do want to give it a little personality, you can add a decorative plant on the nightstand or some colorful throw pillows onto the bed. To create the illusion that the room is larger, think about putting mirrors on the wall. 

During a showing, prospective buyers will go through everything. So, unfortunately, you can’t hide away things in your closet. Closet space is important to buyers, so empty your closet of anything non-essential.

You want the bedroom to be cozy, but attractive to as many potential buyers as possible.

How to Stage a House: Kitchen

The kitchen is the hub of the house, so you want it to feel clean and bright. Homebuyers want to see themselves preparing a meal or hosting friends here.

Since you’ve already cleaned the house head to toe, you can focus on bringing some life into the kitchen. When you add color, try it in the form of plants, fruit in a wooden bowl, or in smaller objects like a cookbook on a stand.

If you have the time and budget, consider updating your kitchen cabinets. You can either repaint them or buy new faces and handles. Also, make sure that everything functions properly; you may have gotten used to one of the drawers being stuck, but you don’t want that to be a red flag for a potential homebuyer.

Consider updating the fixtures and hardware. While these touches do make it easier to sell your house, you don’t want to dip too far into your potential profits.

Don’t forget the tried and true real estate tactic of baking cookies to fill the house with a sweet aroma.

How to Stage a House: Bathroom

When staging a bathroom, take inspiration from a luxury hotel or spa. You’ll want to regrout the tiles and recaulk the tub to create a clean look. The bathroom isn’t a long stop for most homebuyers during the house tour, but you want them to walk away feeling like everything has been sanitized. 

To make sure that you’re bringing in the most amount of light, make sure to clean the light fixtures and replace the bulbs.

Any worn bathmats and towels should be swapped out for white or light neutral replacements.

Don’t forget to remove any medication that you might have laying around or stashed in a medicine cabinet.

How to Stage a House: Outside

Curb appeal goes a long way in helping a homebuyer finalize their decision to put down an offer or not. 

The first thing you will want to do is cut the grass and clean up any foliage that is scattered across the lawn. You’ll want to invest in a power washer and give your driveway and sidewalk a thorough cleaning. Clean up your front porch of any dead flowers or cracked pots and touch up any chipped paint.

If you have kids, make sure that any toys have been stored away and keep the lawn free from any miscellaneous clutter.

You can add touches of color by visiting your local gardening center. Choose some simple annuals to line the driveway or put in window boxes.

Benefits of Home Staging

The purpose of staging a home to sell is to drive interest and pull in as many offers as possible. When you have multiple bids, if a homebuyer wants to guarantee that they can move in, they’ll be more willing to make an offer over the asking price.

According to the National Association of Realtors 2019 Profile of Home Staging: 

“Eighty-three percent of buyers’ agents said staging a home made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home.”

The study states that one out of four buyer’s agents said that home staging increased the sale offers by 1-5% when compared to similar homes in the area that hadn’t been staged.

Staging is a small investment when compared to the potential returns you can receive. It’s not certain that staging your home will increase the dollar amounts in the offers, but it will definitely help your home stand out.

Home Staging Costs

Home staging does involve investing your time and money, but if you choose to sell your home through traditional channels, then it’s a necessity. 

Many of the steps involved in staging a home for sale can be done using only time and elbow grease, but if you aren’t able, then you will want to turn to professionals. Staging companies exist, and your realtor should be able to help you choose one. According to Realtor.com, most professional home stagers charge a $400-$600 design consultation fee. After this, you can expect to pay $500-$600 a month per staged room. Altogether, that comes out to around $2000-$2400 a month! Depending on what needs to be repaired, this price can fluctuate.

If you don’t want to invest in staging a house to sell, then you should consider a faster, more hassle-free method like selling your house for cash. You can bypass the cost and effort of staging the rooms of your house by contacting the House Buyers of America. We buy houses for cash, saving you time and money when selling your house. 

Start the selling process today by calling House Buyers of America at 855-659-3289. You can also fill out our online form . In as little as 10 minutes, you can have a fair cash offer for your house.