How to: Staging Your House for Free

Zero Cost Tips to Design Your Home for a Fast Sale

Staging your house is one of the best tools a homeowner can use to increase the perceived value of their home. A staged home will sell quicker as well. However, the cost of a professional stager is a major hurdle for most Lewis County WA sellers. If you live in the Chehalis WA and Centralia WA areas, this is for you! Today, we are outlining zero cost tips to design your home for a fast sale!

What is Staging

Everyone is in agreement and the data backs it up: staging is incredibly effective for sellers. Obviously, a professionally staged home is the ideal. However, you can learn the simple concepts of staging and apply it to your own decor and living spaces. The following zero cost tips will help you to maximize the value of your home!

How to Not Make Your Staging Efforts Worthless

Clean. You have to clean your home. You’ll need to scrub floors, walls, and ceilings perhaps, and use elbow grease to do it! I can’t stress this enough. If your home is staged, but not clean, with dust bunnies and chipped paint, it won’t matter. I once walked through a beautiful home in a great location, but I didn’t like it. My wife didn’t understand why until I told her that it felt “greasy”. The walls and ceiling looked liked there was a layer of the leftover fat in the frying pan on them. As they say, cleanliness is next to godliness, so clean!

Craft a Compelling Presentation when Staging Your House

When you walk around your house and see minor flaws that you think are no big deal, smack yourself. If you think the next owner could mess with it how they like, smack yourself. Peeling paint, old caulking, nicks, marker on the walls from the kids – these are all incredibly simple to fix and replace. When buyers walk through a house they are looking for reasons to reject the house or lower their offering price. If there’s a few minor touch-ups, the buyer plays a story in their mind. They think that you didn’t take good care of the house and each little thing becomes a major price reduction.

Addressing the Human Senses

Another major factor when people tour homes is scent. You will see buyers coming out as soon as they entered the home. If you have pets, smoke in or near your house, or cook delicious meals, chances are that there will be a lingering smell in the air. It might not bother you or it may even appeal to you, but you’re trying to sell the house, not buy it. Bring in a 3rd party and ask them what they smell. One of the best, most appealing smell to most people is fresh baked pastries or cookies. Still, make sure its not too overwhelming. I once toured a home where the buyers covered their nose and mouth through the showing. Afterwards, they ran outside gasping for air to get away from the strong, wet dog smell. Needless to say, they did not make an offer.

Staging Your House for Flow

One of the most overlooked factors when it comes to designing your home for a fast sale is flow. You’ve set your home up how you like and how it best works for you. However, that may or may not be what works best for showing flow or for highlighting the best features of your home. A couple of quick examples are that chairs or couches should be 18 inches from a coffee table. Also, walkways should be 3 feet or more. Recently, I had a listing for a condo in Chehalis WA. As I was doing my staging walkthrough, I noticed a recliner that was, albeit comfy, making it feel incredibly small. Removing it allowed for a free flow throughout the living room area into the kitchen. Not only did we sell faster than the neighboring end unit condo, we sold for $20,000 more.

Maximizing Your Decor and Storage Space

Here are a couple more useful tips. When staging your house, you want to think of 3’s and 5’s. If you have pictures on your wall, reduce it to 3 or 5 units. You can choose whatever makes more sense for the size and shape of the space. These are very important concepts as well. If you have very small pictures, don’t place them on a large wall. If will make the space feel empty and cold. Regarding the shape of the space, if you have a room full of hard edges, a circular item will balance it out and make it feel more inviting.

This final tip is easy to remember. If you have a storage furniture piece such as a rack or bookshelf, each bay should be only two-thirds full. The final space can be empty or have a trinket of your choosing.

Staging Your House for Free

Hopefully after reading this article, you have a greater appreciation for staging and just how simple it can be. You don’t always have to bring in fancy new fixtures or furniture. You can use your own items and make a dramatic impact.

If you have any questions you can contact me HERE.

Still not convinced? Check out my video blog on the Benefits of Staging.

For even more information, snag my Free Staging Guide.