Styling Your Home For Sale
How to stage your home like a pro
Selling your home can be a little stressful. It’s a big decision and a big move is on the cards, but it can also be fun!
You get to play dress-ups with your house! And create a storyline for potential buyers that they’ll find hard to resist.
How? Stylin’ baby!
Yep! Taking the time to prepare your home for sale can add thousands of dollars to your final sale price. Booyah! If you can’t afford a professional home stylist, don’t stress. Here’s some tips on how to style your home for sale like a pro.
SOLD!
CREATE SPACE
Have you heard of white space? It’s normally used in the publishing world when describing a magazine layout. Having plenty of space and a page that isn’t filled on up with words and pictures is pleasing to the eye. People are more inclined to read what’s on the page.
It’s the same with a home. People find space appealing. Take a good look around your home and work out how you can remove pieces of furniture that will create space.
Ask yourself what makes the room feel closed in? Do you really need that third armchair in the lounge room? Or the second couch in the rumpus room? Or that supertall bookshelf in one of the kids’ rooms?
You don’t have to sell it (and don’t put it in the garage or the shed – you’re just moving the extra furniture to another area then). Pop it into storage for a couple of months while your house is photographed for the marketing campaign and you’re showing the home.
LIGHT + BRIGHT
Think about your colour palette. Real estate agents, property photographers and house hunters like light and bright. It’s easy to lighten up your rooms with floor rugs, cushions, throw rugs, table runners, lamp shades and light coloured pot plants. Yes, you’ll have to keep them super clean while the house is on show, but it will be worth it.
DE-PERSONALISE
You might love your teapot collection but not many buyers will. While it’s important the house reflects your personality and who lives there – is it a family home, designed for couples, retirees – you also want to the potential buyer to imagine themselves in the home. That’s hard to do when they’re surrounded by loads of family photos on the wall and a Country Style magazine collection taking up the corner of the lounge room!
Grab some storage boxes, fill them up with books, photos, collections and anything that might over-personalise the space, and place them in storage until you move into your new home.
FOCUS ON LIVING SPACES
Many agents talk about kitchens being the key to selling a home. If you don’t have much of a budget for styling, then selecting the living spaces to focus on will be a good investment of the budget you do have. Living spaces are where homeowners spend most of their time so if they are drawn in by the styling, a sale could be imminent. Focus on making sure the surface spaces are uncluttered, put kitchen appliances that normally live on the bench away in the cupboard or into storage (if you can live without your juicer for a few weeks!). Pop a cluster of recipe books on the bench and voila! You’re practically a contestant on The Block, right?
DON’T FORGET GARAGES + OUTDOOR SPACE
House hunters love a good poke around. They won’t just focus on the inside of the house, so make sure you’ve decluttered the outdoor and storage areas. Has your garage become a dumping ground? Is your garden shed full to the brim with loads of stuff? The same rule for the interior applies to outdoor and external storage spaces. Declutter, depersonalise and create space.
MAKE AN EMOTIONAL CONNECTION
This is easy to do. Appeal to the senses of potential homebuyers! Gorgeous flowers, the smell of freshly ground coffee, baked bread or some subtle smelling candles work a treat (especially if you have a pet! We love our cats and doggos, but they can impact the smell of a home, let’s be real).
A lush looking plant in the corner of a room adds some greenery and actually helps with air quality. A nice looking fiddle leaf in a stylish pot is a winner.
SPICK + SPAN
And the bad news? You have to keep the place super clean – sorry! Commit to the look you’ve created by making sure personal items that clutter up the space don’t creep back out again (this is why self-storage options work well!) and have the home ready to show at any time of the day. Who knows? Your buyer might not wait for an open house. They might want an inspection right now. If everything is looking schmicko whenever they walk in the door, you’re making your agent’s life easier and bringing the dream of selling up and moving on closer to reality.
There you go! Good luck!
Or if you need some help, check out The Fold’s Biz Directory for a list of local interior designers and stylists that could give you some fresh eyes and jhoosh away!
