If you’ve decided to sell your Salt Lake County home, you’re going to need to give some thought to ‘staging’ – the preparation of your home before it’s ready to be shown to potential buyers. Below we’ll share a few tips on how to stage your home to appeal to those families who are looking to buy.
Staging ‘In Place’ vs. Moving Out First
One of your first considerations will be whether you want to stage your home ‘in place’ – you remain living in the home and stage with your current furniture – or whether you want to move out and allow professional stagers to use their own furniture and décor choices. Each approach has its ups-and-downs; if you’re unsure, ask one of our agents and we’ll share our advice.
Key Considerations when Staging Your Home
It’s Not ‘Clean’ – It’s ‘Spotless’ – When you set foot into a friend’s or neighbor’s home, you almost always notice odors, spots, scuffs and stains as the human brain is excellent at picking out things that seem ‘off’. Successful staging requires that your home isn’t just clean – it must be absolutely spotless from top to bottom.
Make Use of Mirrors – Effective use of mirrors throughout the rooms in your home will play two roles. First, mirrors bounce light throughout a room, providing additional illumination which can be key in rooms that don’t receive a lot of natural light. Second, strategic mirror placement gives the perception that a room is much larger than it truly is. While this might seem unimportant, keep in mind that the subconscious mind does see these details and they can help to ‘sell’ the various rooms in your home.
Play with Colors and Textures – The colors and textures that you use to stage your home will depend in part on what area of Utah you reside in and what seems to ‘fit’ with the community’s overall décor. If you’re in an urban part of Salt Lake City, the colors you use will be vastly different than if you’re selling a home in Granite. Unless you have a background in interior design, this part is almost always best left to professional stagers.
Don’t Skip Over the Minute Details
One of the many challenges of home staging is that since you’ve lived in your home for so long, you tend to gloss over small details that you’ve grown accustomed to over the years. If you have a piano, does it have an old knitted doily on it that you’ve been meaning to toss out? How are the bedroom curtains? Chase down every detail and ensure it’s taken care of.
Remember to Stage the Outdoor Areas
Finally it’s worth keeping in mind that the interior of the home isn’t the only part that needs to be staged. The first impression a buyer makes will be based on the exterior of your home and the landscape surrounding it; as such, failing to stage these areas can be a recipe for disaster. If you’ve got a ‘green thumb’ and you’re comfortable gardening and landscaping, you can handle this yourself. If not, it’s well worth hiring a professional landscaping team.
When you’re ready to sell your home in Ogden, West Jordan or elsewhere in the local area, the Exit Realty Success team is here to help. Contact us at your convenience and we’ll share how we can get your home sold quickly and for a price that will leave a smile on your face. For more information about the sales process, download our home sales guide entitled The Definitive Guide to Selling Your Home by clicking here.
