Studies show that staging your home can increase sales by anywhere from 1% to 5%. While that might not sound like much, 1% of a $300,000 home is $3,000 meaning the 5% totals $15,000. Not to mention the money you can save by selling your home sooner rather than later—which is often another advantage to proper home staging. If you have a home on the market in the Studio City, Hollywood Hills, Brentwood or Los Feliz area, the shameless money saving tips below will help you to save while staging your home.
Invest In Storage
Storage plays a vital role in home staging. Depending on your needs, you can rent a traditional storage space, or turn to one of the modern pod or box storage options. Here are some of the items to place in storage:
- Collectibles
- Memorabilia
- Keepsakes
- Family Photos
- Seasonal Clothing
- Holiday Décor
- Sports Equipment
- Excess Linens
- Clutter
- Non-Essentials
While these maybe be what makes your house a home, the goal is to sell someone else their dream home. Also consider reducing all closet contents by half. This will make it look as though storage is plentiful. Last but not least, if your garage is cluttered, or even if it is organized but full—move all non-essential items into storage.
Fresh Flowers
Adding a touch of nature can go a long way. Head over to one of our local Studio City, Hollywood Hills, Brentwood or Los Feliz farmers markets for an elegant bouquet of flowers to add to your entryway—or strategically place fresh cut flowers throughout your home.
Deep Cleaning
Even if you are extremely thorough with your daily and weekly cleaning, buyers are going to be looking at your home with extreme attention to detail. This makes now an excellent time to hire a professional cleaning crew to do a floor-to-ceiling deep cleaning. Don’t forget the flooring.
Minor Repairs
Now is also the excellent time to walk through your home to find and complete minor repairs designed to beautify your home. This includes:
Touching up paint
Repairing any scuffs or scratches in flooring
Replacing any broken blinds
Improve Lighting
Buyers prefer the homes they view to be bright and vibrant. This makes now a good time to invest in higher wattage lightbulbs, and to ensure that all burnt out bulbs are replaced.
Go Neutral
While neutral home accessories or wallcovering may not be your preference, neutral is the best way to go when staging your home. Neutral colors will help buyers to envision what their furniture and accessories will look like, without being overwhelmed by your furniture and accessories. Consider wall coloring, throw pillows, candles, bathroom linens and decorative soaps.
Remove At Least One Item Of Furniture From Each Room
If you are living in your home while it is on the market, then you need to ensure that your home is still fully functional. That being said, most homeowners will be required to remove at least one item of furniture from every room while staging. In fact, you may need to remove more than one item in some of your rooms. The goal is to create open and free-flowing spaces to help prospective buyers to easily determine what the purpose of the room is, without being too distracted by how you use each room.
Put Things In Their Place
Many of us are in the habit of keeping items such as our coffee maker, toaster, or rarely used office printer out in plain sight. However, when staging your home—you want to create clean and clear spaces. Go beyond appliances and electronics, and make sure you put away things such as bathrobes that are typically left hanging on the bathroom door, coats on any visible hooks, and even your shoes that you prefer to leave at the front door. If you have kids at home, invest in a neutral colored toy box that will adequate store their favorite toys.
It is the little things that go a long way when it comes to staging homes in the Studio City, Hollywood Hills, Brentwood or Los Feliz market. Let me help you by suggesting the best place to begin.