Staging Your Home For Sale: Room By Room

Learn how to stage each room of your home to show off its best features and create an environment where buyers can see themselves at home.

Staging your home for sale is especially important in a buyer’s market. With housing inventory high and prices falling, potential buyers have many more options available to them. And their demands are high. If you want to get your asking price (or sometimes higher), you’ll need to spend some time staging your home.

There are some basic home staging items you’ll need to do. Once those are complete, there is more you can do to help your home sell faster and for more. Here’s a room by room guide to stage your home for sale.

Stage the front and back yards

Most home owners worry about the inside of their homes and forget about the outside. But your curb appeal is just as important, if not more, for getting buyers to even walk through the door. Here are a few easy-to-do, low-cost ways to spruce up your curb appeal.

• Weed your flower beds.
• Prune bushes and trees so they don’t block windows.
• Mow the lawn.
• Power-wash patios and walkways.
• Add potted plants to the patio in front of your door.
• Add colorful flowers to your flower beds.
• Update the light fixture next to your front door.
• Clean your front door, or add a new coat of paint.

While you’re outside, don’t forget the backyard. Buyers want space and if you have a patio or deck, then you have the ability to add extra square footage to your home by staging a room outdoors. Here are some tips:

• If you have a wood deck that’s looking its age, sand and re-stain it.
• If you have a concrete patio that’s looking a little dingy, power wash it and then apply a concrete stain to give it new life.
• Switch out the light fixture on your patio or deck.
• Add an outdoor rug and an outdoor patio set for lounging and eating.
• Add some colorful pots around the patio and deck.

Stage your kitchen

We all know that kitchens sell homes. So spend a little time making your kitchen shine.

• Paint or stain old cabinets, using either a high-gloss or enamel paint.
• Update your countertop if your budget allows. Granite is popular, but if your countertop is especially worn or dated, any update will be an improvement.
• Replace old appliances. Stainless steel appliances are all the rage right now. If your appliances are in good working order, and you don’t want to replace then, consider wrapping them with a stainless steel stick-on covering. Just clean the surface, cut to fit and apply.
• Update the hardware on your kitchen cabinets.
• Keep your countertops and cabinets clean and organized. Too many appliances on your countertop tells buyers that you don’t have enough space in your kitchen to store them. And buyers will be opening your cabinet doors so be sure everything inside is neat and tidy!

Stage your bathroom

The bathroom is the other really important room of the house. The good news is that they’re small, so you can afford to make a big splash when staging your bathroom.

• Paint or stain your bathroom vanity and add new hardware.
• Update the light fixture.
• Update the flooring and countertop of the bathroom vanity.
• Clean your shower door and refinish an outdated bathtub.
• If your bathroom is full of tiles from another decade, but they are still in good shape (no cracks or chips), paint them instead of replacing them.
• Accessorize your bathroom for a luxury spa feel – add candles, roll up and pile towels in threes, and add pretty baskets.

Stage your living and dining rooms

You spend a lot of time in your living and dining rooms, and so will the buyer of your home.

• Truly define the dining room space. Place a light fixture over your dining room table and a rug underneath it.
• Pay attention to the details. Make sure your flooring is in good shape, your rugs are clean and not worn, and that your window treatments are up-to-date. Detail touches such as crown molding can add an extra “wow” factor without breaking the bank.
• Highlight the architecture and features of these rooms. If your living room has a fireplace, be sure it’s looking fresh with a good cleaning or a fresh coat of paint—and keep it free of furniture and other items which could hide it from view. If your room has interesting architectural details, work with them so buyers fall in love with them the same way you did.

Stage your bedroom

Bedrooms are seen as a place of relaxation and luxury. Help yours give off this vibe.

• Coordinate bedding and window treatments.
• Draw attention to the bed with a beautiful headboard. You can either fix up your current headboard with new paint or make one of your own.
• Remove unnecessary furniture. If you’re using your bedroom as a multi-purpose room (a bedroom, a gym, an office, etc.), then buyers will assume that there’s not enough space in the house for these other purposes. Make your bedroom just about the bedroom—a place to relax and unwind from the day.
• Clear out your closets. Buyers will look in your closets and if they see them stuffed full, then they will again assume that the house is lacking space. Remove clothing and other items that you don’t need while the house is on the market and put it all in storage.

Looking for other ways to help sell your home quickly? Learn about creative selling techniques that can help your home go from “for sale” to “sold.”

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