Congratulations! You just got a job offer for the position you have always wanted. It is close to your family – and your wife’s favorite sister. The schools are good and the weather is perfect. The only problem is that you have to start in two weeks! And your house is going on the market next weekend. Unfortunately, it isn’t practical to leave your home furnished. The movers are coming next week to pack your home and transport all your worldly possession to another state. Here are six low cost staging tips to sell a home that is vacant.
TV renovation shows have pushed up home buyers’ expectations, giving sellers a template that may be difficult to reproduce if money is tight. If hiring a professional home staging company isn’t within a seller’s budget, there are six low cost staging tips to sell a home. You want buyers to see the home in its best light and imagine themselves living there.
Better lighting
Definitely clean light fixtures and replace bulbs with high wattage and daylight bulbs. If buyers can’t see your home’s best features, they may take a pass. Absolutely do not use light bulbs that need to warm up to reach their full brightness. By the time the lights are fully warmed up, the buyer has left the room thinking it is too dark.
Lose the heavy drapes
Remove heavy drapes that block good views and light. As you know, the buyers aren’t purchasing drapes. They want a home with a view and light. This may be the least expensive of the six staging tips to sell a home – because it costs you nothing to remove heavy drapes!
Change out your old hardware
Why not replace mismatched or dated hardware on doors and cabinets? Big box stores sell multi-packs that are much less expensive than buying them individually. Change out the switch plates and outlet covers so they are clean and smudge free.
Clean Up
This one is obvious! A clean house looks like a well-cared-for house with no issues for the new owner to fix. Hire a professional house cleaning service and leave toilet paper and extra light bulbs behind.
Repaint
Paint is a low cost way to make an entire house look new. Old paint or colors that are too strong make buyers think of how much time and money they will spend painting their new home before they move in. Remove that thought by painting with neutral colors.
Declutter
If the home is occupied, the cheapest staging trick is one that may take a lot of work but doesn’t cost anything — removing clutter. From family photos on the fireplace mantle to overstuffed closets, remove as much stuff as you can from a home and put everything away neatly. No one is expecting a home with a family living in it to be immaculate and not have a lived-in look, but cleaning off a kitchen counter of appliances and putting other things away can help make a home seem bigger and can make it easier for buyers to see how their belongings will fit in.
I hope you found these six low cost staging tips to sell a home to be useful. Please contact me at 240-401-5577 for all your real estate needs today!
