How to Stage Your Home on a Budget

When it comes to selling your home, it’s important to make sure your space is not only clean and organized, but free of overly personal items such as family photos and bathroom toiletries. Potential buyers will want to imagine themselves living in your house, so you’ll want to make each room into a blank canvass of sorts.

However, while removing certain items may play a vital role in getting your listing sold quickly, you’ll still want to make sure that what’s left is appealing to a wide range of buyers.

This is where home staging comes in.

While it’s possible to hire a company or individual to stage your property, it will probably cost you an average of $1,800—and even upwards of $5,000—so it’s generally wise to seek the advice of a real estate agent in advance. While they may determine that, yes, staging will make a positive difference, it may be something you can easily do on your own.

If it is, consider the following tips for doing it on a budget:

1. POSITION FURNITURE WITH CONVERSATION IN MIND – You’ll want to make sure your living room furniture is placed in a way that not only supports entertainment, but conversation as well. Potential buyers will want to be able to envision themselves sitting in your space, so make sure it’s someplace they can easily talk without having to move a chair or turn completely around.

2. REMOVE THOSE CARPET DENTS – If you wind up rearranging your furniture before a showing, you’ll want to make sure you don’t leave an assortment of indentations where things like table legs or couches have flattened the carpet. To combat this, try putting a medium-sized ice cube in each imprint. As the ice melts, it will cause the compacted fibers to expand, which should make the depressions easy to brush out.

3. INVOKE THE OUTDOORS – A great decorating tool is to add a bit of nature into each room. Whether your home is bedecked in modern or traditional furniture, creating a bit of flow by using cuttings, flowers, or twigs will help draw the buyer in and make them feel at ease.

4. ADD LUXURIOUS, YET AFFORDABLE TOUCHES – If your master bedroom feels a bit boring, try purchasing elegant new curtains or a beautiful comforter set at a discount store such as TJ MAXX or ROSS. Plain and simple, the right window treatment or bed set can transform a bland room and it’s entirely possible to find deals for $100 or less.

5. ACCESSORIZE – While part of marketing your home requires you to remove things during the de-clutter process, don’t forget to leave a few tasteful accessories! Decorative items can bring warmth into your home and can be found for cheap at resale shops and thrift stores. In the kitchen, fill a large glass bowl with pretzels, cookies, etc. and in the bathrooms, highlight with decorative hand towels and colorful candles.

While it might be easy to assume that your home will sell based solely upon its structural merits, try to keep in mind that human beings are sensory creatures who respond to subconscious undertones. Oftentimes, buyers will respond to the feeling they get from a home before they will respond to the actual layout, which should be heartening since you, as the seller, have the ability to control that aspect of process.

If you are preparing to market your home and want to know more about the staging process or what steps you can personally take to entice the right buyer, I’d love to help you. Please contact me for assistance.

Pam Evans | Hello Pam Evans | www.HelloPamEvans.com | 678-778-6551