As the old saying goes, “Home is where the heart is.” Unfortunately, so are all of the clothes stacked on the floor of your closet waiting to be donated and the miscellaneous family possessions cluttering up shelves and space throughout your house.
And now it’s time to put your house on the market! What are you going to do with all of this stuff!!?
Before letting any potential buyers in, one piece of advice: use the convenience of a storage room to safely stash all of your furniture away from view while staging your home. Let us guide you through the latest tips and tricks on how to stage a house for sale while living in it.
Our goal is to help you transform your cozy, and slightly messy, home into a beautiful space that homebuyers can easily imagine themselves in and want to purchase.
WHAT IS STAGING?
If you’ve ever watched popular HGTV shows like House Hunters or Fixer Upper, the staging process is when the interior designers style, rearrange and furnish the house in order to make it more inviting to homebuyers. This includes removing personal belongings and putting your bulky furniture in storage for safekeeping. But you don’t have to spend oodles of money on a team of experts to stage your house. All you need are some simple changes and self storage.
WHY DO YOU WANT TO STAGE YOUR HOME?
Although it may take some time to prepare, a staged home sells faster than non-staged homes because it gives potential buyers the opportunity to picture themselves in your place. Whether they’re newlyweds looking to expand or empty nesters, staging your house gives you a better chance at selling quickly so it doesn’t chase the market down. Below are some amazing fun facts that really give meaning to staging.
According to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR):
- More than seven in 10 agents find photos, videos and virtual tours more important since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- 82% percent of buyers’ agents said staging made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home.
- 18% of sellers’ agents said home staging increased the dollar value of a residence between 6% and 10%.
- Agents surveyed said that typically 10% of buyers believed homes should look the way they appear on TV shows, while 63% said buyers requested their homes to look like homes staged on television.
HOW TO STAGE YOUR HOUSE WHILE LIVING IN IT
While it may be more convenient to hire a professional stager, it can be cost-effective to take the DIY route to depersonalize. Here are some tips to transform your humble abode into a model home:
Paint it Neutral
Avoid bold colors. Picture walking into a cozy home and seeing lime green paint on the bedroom walls. While bold colors may be your thing, it may not be the same for people interested in buying your house. Professional home stagers recommend sticking to a neutral palette such as beiges, light grays, and whites to catch more natural light and make the room feel larger.
Remove Bulky Furniture
To create more space in your rooms you will want to place your bulkier or unused furniture in a climate-controlled self storage for safekeeping. Potential homebuyers will want to move easily from room to room without tripping over toys or being blocked by furniture. Make sure they can easily access all of your home’s best features such as the fireplace, windows, and doors to the outside.
Declutter & Organize
One of the most important steps in staging your house while living in it is decluttering. Imagine scrolling on Zillow and you see a nice house that’s decently priced in a safe area, but, upon further examination, you see knick-knacks on the counters, a random pile of clothes on a chair, and bulky garage-sale, unattractive furniture. All of sudden this house loses its attractiveness because it appears messy and looks like a lot of work for you to clean up.
Enter climate-controlled self storage. It reduces the stress of moving by removing the priority of what to keep and what to get rid of. It allows you to get through the move first and then focus on the furniture that you want to bring into your new house. Simply move the furniture into storage, sell the house, and then take the time, when you have more of it, to focus on the furniture and items you want to keep.
If you’re having a hard time getting rid of the clutter and need help with more organization tips, check out our article on “Four Steps to Help a Hoarder Declutter.” A house with less furniture appears clean and attractive.
Remove Personal Items
In addition to removing bulky furniture and organizing your space, remove family photos and personal items such as school diplomas, trophies, and private collections. You want to depersonalize your home so that homebuyers can envision themselves in your place as they walk through the front door. You want a potential buyer to focus on the home’s potential rather than getting hung up on your random collection of snowglobes or your child’s first-place trophy.
Clean
Let’s repeat this again, CLEAN. First impressions are everything when it comes to staging your house, and a dirty home is a fast track to chasing your potential buyers away. It’s understandable for your house to get dirty as you continue living in it, especially with children and pets, but keeping your spaces clean and uncluttered as much as possible will help you when you’re short on time and have homebuyers coming over. Adding pleasant aromas after cleaning such as Air Wick® Scented Oils, candles or diffusers will create the right mood for anyone who walks through your door.
Consider Hiring a Personal Stager
If after reading these tips and tricks, you still feel like you need some guidance or want to put your house on the market faster, consider hiring a personal stager to efficiently transform your home into the next person’s dream home. While they might tell you similar tips, it is always good to have a second pair of hands and eyes to help sell your house without chasing the market down.
Rent a Self Storage
As you continue to stage your house while living in it, renting a short-term storage unit at Pleasant Grove to store your furniture and personal items safely will give you the peace of mind and the space you need to sell effectively. Talk to one of our friendly associates for more details on how to rent your unit today to start transforming your home into an HGTV-worthy model home.
For information on Pleasant Grove Self Storage unit sizes and more: “Home Staging Tips Using Self Storage.”