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5 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Staging Your Home






If you are selling your home, you will find yourself competing for potential buyers. Staging your home can give you a competitive edge. Staged homes spend on average 73% less time on the market and usually sell for more money. 

Hiring a professional staging company can get you on the right track to prep your home for the market. When you arrange your furniture in a way to showcase the space and show off the homes assets you make it easier for the potential buyer to realize the value in the home. 

  1. Clutter: This is probably the biggest mistake that people make. They clean their homes but they don’t remove the stuff. If a potential buyer is walking through your house and the closets and cabinets are packed, even if they are neat and organized, all they will see is that there is not enough storage. When staging your home, take the time to de-clutter. Rent a storage area and pack up all the things that you don’t need. This will help to make your move go smoother as well as creating space in the home.
  2. Not Deep Cleaning: Of course, everyone will do the normal cleaning; but I’m talking about the deep cleaning. Replace toilet seats if needed, clean or replace air vents, remove stains and mold from walls and ceilings. This can also include taking care of any odors that are lingering around your house. Pet smells, mustiness or dampness are a real turn off. This is an issue and you may not even notice these smells in your own home. Have a friend walk through your home and let you know if they noticed any.
  3. Personalized spaces: The key to having your home desirable to a wide range of people is to de-personalize it and neutralize the color palate. A home that has too much personality can be distracting and a turnoff to a lot of buyers. To most buyers a room that needs painting equates to work and hassle. A fresh coat of neutral paint can really change the feel of a space as well as making the space look cleaner.
  4. Ignoring the outside: Curb appeal is such an important aspect of a home listing. This is the buyer’s first look at your property and is important to make it a good one. Make sure that the lawn stays cut, keep weeds out of the garden, plant fresh flowers and make sure the siding is clean. Try to create a more inviting front porch by planting in colorful pots. It is all about making the home seem move in ready.
  5. Ignoring Necessary Repairs: The inclination is to not do repairs and to just do cosmetic work. By doing necessary repairs you create a value for the potential home buyer. If a person is walking through the home and notices a number of small repairs, they tend to worry that there are more problems. But if you take care of the small things that you can, then the buyer can look at the whole space instead of focusing on the problems.

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