The Canadian housing market is going through a period of unforeseen high activity. With the global coronavirus pandemic still driving more people than ever to work from home, thus demanding more space, real estate prices have skyrocketed. There has never been a better time to sell your home for its maximum value.
However, if you want to get the best value for your home, you need to ensure your home is properly staged. What is home staging? How can it help your home sell faster than any others on the market? Here's what you need to know about this critical part of the home sale preparation process.
What Is Home Staging?
Let's dive right into the heart of the matter: What is home staging? In essence, staging your home means making it look the best it can for potential buyers.
It's the process of making your home look showroom-ready so that buyers can project themselves into it. This makes it a crucial piece of the home selling process.
Why Staging Your Home Is Important
Now that you know what home staging is, you might wonder, "Why is this so important?" As mentioned above, staging your home gives buyers a neutral canvas on which they can project themselves and their life needs.
Over the years, your home adapts to the needs of you and your family. However, those needs may not match the needs of the next family to use the house. You don't want to show buyers how you live. Rather, you want to let them imagine how they could live.
Additionally, staging your home means maximizing its benefits while minimizing its weaknesses. You want to put the best properties of your property forward while covering and accounting for any weaknesses it may have.
How to Stage Your Kitchen
Your kitchen will need the most work of any room in your house as far as staging goes. The reason why? The kitchen is the most important room in your house. Kitchens sell homes or make people pass on them more than any other room.
In order to put your best culinary space forward, you should make use of the following kitchen home staging ideas:
Clean, Declutter, and Organize
The first step of staging any room in your home is to clean it, organize it, and bust clutter. Alphabetise your spices and keep their labels facing forward. Make sure you have no dirty dishes in the sink or dishwasher, since buyers often open and examine those spaces. Clean every inch of the kitchen so that it's spic and span. Potential homebuyers will notice anything you try to overlook.
Update Appliances Where Possible
The appliances in your kitchen can make or break your home's value. You can have a beautiful kitchen flow with plenty of light and space. However, if the buyer will need to replace all of the appliances with new ones, they may well pass on the home itself. After all, if they have the choice between a home that's already up to date and one they'll need to invest in, the choice is pretty clear.
How to Stage Your Living Room
After your kitchen, your living room is one of the most important rooms to stage. The living room creates the atmosphere of the overall home. Here are some home staging living room ideas that will help you sell your home fast:
Depersonalise, But Don't Leave Walls Empty
As in the kitchen, you need to ensure that every inch of the living room is cleaned from top to bottom. However, unlike the kitchen, you'll need to put more work into depersonalising the living room.
This means removing pictures of the family and any evidence of pets in the home. If you've gone for dramatic colours in your living room, you may need to repaint or redecorate it to more neutral tones to make it more appropriate for 'everyone'.
However, you shouldn't leave the walls barren. Empty walls can make a space feel hollow and depressing. This is the perfect space for those "Live, Laugh, Love" signs.
Highlight Desirable Features
Does your living room have a fireplace? A sliding door leading out to a patio? A skylight? Each of these is a desirable feature, so you want to make sure your living room gets arranged to highlight them. Don't hesitate to decorate with a pop of colour on the fireplace mantle to draw the eye to it.
Pare Down on Excess Furniture
Staging your home is one case in which the adage "less is more" applies. You want to make sure your living room's walkways are clear and easy to navigate. Bulky furniture should either leave the space entirely or get placed to maximize space. You don't want your living room to look small or cluttered.
Decorate and Accessorise in Threes
If you place any decorations on the shelves or the coffee table, make sure to do so in odd numbers. Threes and fives look the most appealing to the eye, so keep that in mind as you arrange your smaller decorations.
Make the Room Smell Nice
Lastly, while this is not a necessity, filling your living room with a pleasant scent can make it stand out in a buyer's mind. You want to ensure any unpleasant aromas get dealt with at their source, lest you drive the buyer away. However, by making the living room smell nice with flowers, diffusers, or air fresheners, you can make it stand out in a buyer's memory.
Scent memories are the strongest type of sense memory, after all.
Getting Back to Basics
So, what is home staging and why is it important? Staging your home helps it to sell for the maximum value on the market, letting you get the best price you can. It lets buyers visualize themselves in your home and helps it to sell faster.
If you need some more tips on getting your home ready to sell, don't hesitate to reach out to Bermont Realty today! Our helpful agents are on standby and will be happy to assist you!