The Benefits of Staging Your Home: Why it’s important to create a blank slate
How will your home stand out on the real estate market?
If you’ve ever watched a home-buying show on HGTV, you’ve heard the buyer say, “I can picture myself sitting here in the mornings drinking coffee” or “I can see us turning this room into a nursery someday” when they walk through a home.
The ability to envision a life in an open space is key to making your home attractive to buyers. If your home has been on the market longer than you expected, it’s time to stage with confidence!
Explaining to a seller that their home is too cluttered, too specific, or too niche is a fine line to walk. It isn’t that your neon walls are wrong, it’s just that they can distract a buyer from the attributes that suit their needs. Here are some tips to make your home objectively more marketable when it’s time to sell:
My number one tip is always to declutter. Not just because I do it for a living, but because you can’t see the home’s bones if there are piles everywhere. If closets are packed to the brim, it’s difficult to appreciate the size or features for a future owner. If your garage is chock full of projects and boxes, that will distract from the epoxy floors or built in storage you’ve spent money on to make it functional and appealing. Don’t let anything stand in the way of your home’s selling features. If you’ve got a great primary closet, clean it out so it can be appreciated in all its glory. If your bathroom vanities are a high-end upgrade, clear off the countertops so they shine.
Stuffed closets give the appearance of a lack of storage in the home. If you pare down, even if it’s just for showings, you’ll communicate that your house has ample storage for a family. Get everything off the floor of your pantry and closets to let the space breathe and feel open.
Keep it neutral. Pops of color definitely spark joy for homeowners, but if your potential buyer can’t see past the paint job, you’ll lose them. If they are walking around tallying up little fixes that need to be done and they have to add in repainting every wall in the house, even though painting is relatively cheap and easy, you’re setting up obstacles to the sale. You want to communicate “move in ready” as clearly as possible.
Clean up any DIY. When I was looking at homes, I immediately noticed when repairs had clearly been done by the homeowner and it spooked me. Sloppy work doesn’t communicate “professional repair” and I was left wondering what other DIY projects were hidden behind furniture and drywall that would cause me problems after I moved in. maybe you’re really handy, or maybe you went to the school of YouTube and there’s a fried electrical panel in my future.
Hide your niche. Whenever buyers see a home with something unique, it gets a nickname. If you’ve got a room full of gear from your alma mater, your home will be referred to as the “Red Raider Ranch.” Nude art? You’re the “Topless Townhouse.” A lot of houses look similar, so it’s not always a bad thing to be memorable, just make sure it’s for something positive.
Depersonalize. Any realtor will tell you to hide your family photos, and maybe diplomas and awards, too. It’s important for privacy, but also for the subconscious of a buyer who thinks this house belongs to that family, not my family when they see your gallery wall of cute family photoshoots.
I would encourage sellers to go further than family photos and also remove anything that could be remotely polarizing. It’s not that people are that picky, it’s that any hint of something that doesn’t suit is another obstacle to a sale. Anything political or religious should be packed away for your future home. Even if we know the political lawn signs you made into a collage feature wall will come down when you leave, the subtext could be that everyone in the neighborhood is of the same political opinion and you may not fit in, even if that’s not the case.
The same goes for an abundance of religious or cultural items. A wall covered in 47 crucifixes may send the signal that this area is heavily Catholic and a family who worships differently might feel out of place, even if the opposite is true. A member of the LDS church is naturally going to have a harder time picturing themselves having coffee in your kitchen if your wall art depicts a naked devil and inverted cross. It’s not that your religion is wrong, it’s that your home should have far less personality when you’re attracting buyers, and a house doesn’t need a religious affiliation when you’re on your way out.
There is a reason we prefer our future homes to look like blank slates - we can easily envision whatever we want taking place around a table in a neutral environment. The same is true of your current home - if it’s decluttered and tidy, you can envision a full life taking place within those walls.
Often, when I stage a home, the seller doesn’t miss what I’ve packed away for realtor photos and enjoys the open and airy look of a professionally decluttered space. Decluttering before a move can help it sell and save you the work and cost of packing, shipping, and unpacking stuff that doesn’t serve you anymore, but a clean slate doesn’t have to wait. You can reset your space just for you and your family, so that more life can happen unencumbered.
