If you’re like most people, you know that staging your home is important – it helps you make the best possible impression on prospective buyers. Your Boston REALTOR® will be happy to answer your questions about staging and what you can do to show buyers the best aspects of your home, but in the meantime, here’s the ultimate home staging guide to get you started.

The Ultimate Home Staging Guide for Selling Your Home in Boston

Staging your home can help it sell faster and for more money. In fact, proper home staging can increase the dollar value of an offer between 1 and 5 percent – and in a $500,000 home, that could mean bringing in an additional to $5,000 to $25,000.

For almost all sellers, staging the living room is most important. That makes sense because people typically spend most of their time in this space. The primary bedroom and kitchen are almost equally important; these rooms can often make or break a deal.

Before you can stage anything, you need to clean your home from top to bottom. It may be worth hiring a professional cleaning service who can tackle everything within a day. Then, all you have to do is maintain the work they’ve done until your home sells (and if it’s properly staged, that may not be long at all).

With that said, here’s how to stage all the must-see rooms in your home.

How to Stage Your Living Room to Sell Fast

How to Stage Your Living Room to Sell Fast: 7 Tips You Can Use Now

Staging your living room is incredibly important. You’ll want to:

  1. Declutter your furniture. Remove pieces that interrupt the flow of traffic and those that have seen better days (sorry, old recliner – you’re headed for storage).
  2. Let there be light. Remove heavy window coverings and replace them with light, bright drapes. When it’s time for a showing, pull the blinds all the way up to maximize the amount of natural light that comes in.
  3. Add a tray to your coffee table or end table. Put your remote controls and other small items in it.
  4. Strategically place mirrors opposite windows to reflect natural light.
  5. Bring in the outdoors with healthy, live plants. If you don’t have a green thumb, choose hardy plants (like mother-in-law’s tongue) that are tough to kill.
  6. Keep things neutral. Don’t allow too much personality into the space; you want buyers to envision themselves living there when it’s theirs, not like they’re visiting someone else’s home. Take down family photos and any decor that could be considered controversial.
  7. Use accents to bring in color. Throw blankets and sofa pillows are a great way to create visual appeal without going overboard.

Pro Tip: Don’t push all your furniture against the wall. Doing so can make the sofa, chairs and other pieces look out of proportion to the rest of the room. Try pulling everything out six inches – you’ll notice that your room actually looks larger than it is.

How to Stage Your Master Bedroom

How to Stage Your Primary Bedroom

Your primary bedroom may be a make-or-break room for buyers, so staging it should be high on your priority list. Use these tips to make the best possible impression:

  1. Opt for neutral colors. The bedroom should be soothing and relaxing, so if you must, repaint your walls. Beige, gray, blue and soft green are all popular colors – but talk to your REALTOR first, because what sells in one neighborhood may not be popular in another.
  2. Minimize the amount of furniture you keep in your bedroom (unless the space is enormous and would look like a cavern without it). You generally only need the bed, bedside tables and a dresser.
  3. Add a full-length mirror. The mirror has two purposes: It shows buyers that the space is more than adequate for getting ready in and it reflects light – so you (and buyers) win twice.
  4. Remove all clutter and personal decor from the room. Replace family photos and cute sayings on the wall with neutral art, like floral pieces or city scenes.
  5. Dress up your bed with a new duvet cover, a skirt to cover the box spring and coordinated pillows. You want the space to look inviting – so inviting that buyers perceive it as a vacation space.
  6. Put lamps on bedside tables. The lamps don’t have to match, but they should have the same general design style. (And turn them on when buyers are coming to see your home! They’ll appreciate the room’s bright, airy feel.)
  7. Bring in a live, potted plant. You can choose a tree in an unused corner, a flowering plant on the dresser, or even a cactus on the bedside table.

How to Stage a Kitchen to Get Higher Offers

How to Stage a Kitchen to Get Higher Offers

When you want to sell your home for the highest possible profit, spend some time and energy on staging the kitchen. You probably don’t need to remodel it just to sell (and you should always talk to your REALTOR before making a major investment like that) – you most likely just need to give it some TLC. Use these tips to help your kitchen steal the show:

  1. Think about painting. Even if it’s only been a few years since you’ve repainted your kitchen, there’s a good chance that a fresh coat will brighten up the space.
  2. Clear everything off your kitchen windowsills. The one exception: a live plant. If the kitchen has a great view, choose something small. If the view isn’t as pleasant as you’d like, pick something bigger.
  3. Clear out your cabinets. If you haven’t used something in the last three months, it needs to go into storage until you sell your home. That goes for appliances, such as toasters and waffle makers, pots and pans, and even cooking utensils. The goal here is to show an abundance of storage space, so take out anything you can live without while your house is on the market.
  4. Organize every inch of space. Buyers can – and probably will – open all your cupboards and drawers, so you may as well give them a good show when they do it. That means organizing the pantry so all your canned goods are lined up with the labels facing out, your coffee cups are facing the same direction and all your plates are stacked neatly.
  5. Get rid of the sponges or dishcloth. Seeing these items can repel buyers – and nobody wants to think about working in the kitchen, anyway.
  6. Add a tea kettle (one in good condition) to your stovetop. Choose a pretty, brand-new piece that complements the room’s style and color palette. While you’re at it, hang a brand-new tea towel on the oven handle (and resist the urge to use it between showings).
  7. Put out fresh fruit in a basket. Shiny apples and bright oranges are must-haves – and if there’s another fruit in season, add that, too.

Do You Need to Talk to a Boston REALTOR About Selling Your Home Fast?

If you’re thinking about putting your home on the market, we can help you sell it quickly and at the right price. Using innovative marketing techniques, we can bring in qualified buyers who can’t wait to see the inside of your home – so let’s talk. Call us at 617-966-2475 or 617-262-3075 now, or fill out the form below, to find out how we’ll help you sell your home in Boston.

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