8 Home Staging Tips You Need in 2020 (and beyond)
Yeesh. 2020, huh? With pessimism setting in for some realtors as listings dry up a little, professional home stagers are tasked with the duty of making each and every showing that much more meaningful for potential buyers. Seems like another day at the office but in times like these, it’s always crucial to keep in mind the buyer and what they’re feeling while they seek a home in one of the craziest years ever.
Here are 10 absolutely now and forever tips for home staging when you go to market to sell your home.
Stage rooms that matter most
A home stager is going to want to create a new space. These spaces do not always have to be the ones you suspect if you’re the seller. A home stager should be trained in the strategy of the sell and they have (hopefully) done this for years. In 2020, however, we’re thinking beyond the basic rooms and considering the work from home lifestyle, home offices, kitchen virtual classroom nooks, home gym life,… you get the idea. Of course, grand open space and entryways matter. But in this year, if you’re trying to sell a home, consider the family moving into the space and how lockdown might play a part in the house becoming a home and so much more for a homeowner and their families. Not all rooms are equal anymore and each room can be a space that is designed for the new definition of home.
De-personalize & Make it New
In a pandemic, it’s pretty easy to let the laundry pile up. In the case of staging a home, it is pretty easy to see that lots of “laundry” pile up. With this, a professional home stager actually needs to move at a much more methodical clip, keeping in mind that the de-personalization of a space comes with added elements. This includes the fact that the homeowner (if doing an occupied stage) literally has no where else to go. The same is said of their belongings. So the staging process of decluttering could take on a whole new element of moving the occupants from one side of the space to the other so that it doesn’t look as though the family lives, works, schools, gyms, and quarantine under one roof.
Personal touches in the home in any year is actually a no-no when going to market. This new approach is just an obstacle to overcome. The home should belong to the home buyer’s imagination. It’s the professional home stager’s job to create the fantasy of safety, warmth, and turn key readiness.
Clutter Be Gone!
This is just good standard home staging 101. Maybe you have a shoe rack upon entering your home. Be gone! Perhaps there’s a Live Laugh Love sign on every wall. Be gone! Did your family take a ski trip to Tahoe and now you have memories all over the fridge about it? Be gone. A professional home stager will definitely be clearing out the space in whatever way possible. This creates a clean slate to work with but it also just eliminates distraction from the key features and highlights of the space (aka the selling points that’ll make your home stand out) that will do what it is all meant to do: get maximum dollar for your home. So, be gone clutter and let the neutral-you-are-home vibes sink in for the potential buyer.
Clean like your life depends on it
There are buyers that can overlook a bit of dust. There are also buyers that expect a white glove test when they walk throughout potential spaces. Then there are 2020 homebuyers with masks and face shields expecting a home to be hospital clean as they walk through. This is all very new and will probably change but when you are preparing a home to sell right now, it is vital that you put in the level of effort to cleaning that respects the potential buyer - whatever the believe in. Maybe it’s a bit much for some. For others, it’s just scratching the germ covered surface. With this in mind, cleaning a space and preparing it for luxury home staging is what needs to be done if you want to make that home sell for top dollar.
Patching up things
Scuff marks, scratches, nicks, dents, wobbly legs, and chipped edges. These are all part of a home that been well lived in. If you have home that is ready to get to market but needs to be fixed before staging, it’s important to note that many professional home stagers offer more than just catty corner shelves to make the room look bigger. Professional home stagers in your area like The Stagency offer upgrades, mini renovations, and of course patching and repairing to make the home as appealing as possible. So what does this mean for 2020 and beyond? Nothing different. This just part of the expert home staging services that can lower the number of service repair people coming in and out of your house.
Beige Ain’t Bad
Big, bright, bold, and surprising colors are fantastic for some homeowners. They seem to have an aversion to white walls which is understandable for personalizing a home. But when it is time to sell, it is definitely time to give the next home buyer an opportunity to envision the space without the insistence of a bold colored wall, telling them that the space IS the purple wall. The job of the home stager is to tone everything down to a neutral palette and, yes, this does mean a beige, off white, cool, easy to absorb color. So if you’re selling your home and have a professional home stager ready to get started, don’t be shocked when they say that they have to paint the walls. If you’re doing an occupied home staging, you’ll just have to live with it. But when staged right, the odds are you won’t have to live with it for long.
Let the sunshine in
Dark rooms are hard to see in. No, honestly. They are literally hard to see in and they’re also a big bummer on the emotions. Potential buyers need to see the room’s space and elements first of all. And secondly, in 2020 and beyond, a home buyer is looking for a feeling of hope. Optimism can be generating with good old fashioned vitamin D. Home staging should let the light completely fill the space so that it is all encompassing brightness (hopefulness) and good vibes fill the air. As mentioned before, buyers are emotional. If the staging instills emotional connection to the room, that increases the chance of an offer. So don’t be afraid of the light! Just open the windows and bring warmth to a space. Even in #thesetryingtimes there’s always a way to look forward to the future with lightness and hope. It begins with the home stager presenting a space with light. They can do this with lighter furnishings, brighter linens for window dressing, maybe even light upgrades on windows and doors. This is all to create the perfect home in the buyer’s mind.
Open, walkable space
Spaciousness is the key theme here. If you are working with potential buyers who have been cooped up in a small apartment, townhome, or even a large space that had a poor interior design, they are probably feeling the aftermath of lockdown quarantine. The idea of walking into a space and immediately feeling closed in will send them running. This is something to keep in mind when staging. Eliminate any excessive furnishings, even if they are the most intricate and delightful looking pieces. Keep the eyes moving towards the focal point of the room and be sure there is a pathway directly leading there. This means that you absolutely make use of walkable space. Just because there is an empty space does not mean you immediately fill it with coat rack. Air the space out, let it breath, and allow the potential home buyer a chance to roam around the room - something they probably have been missing a lot of.
Summary
Many of these tips for home staging are essential, forever tips for home stagers. While you don’t have to follow exact rules for 2020 post-quarantine lockdown staging, it is just part of the human experience and the art of the sell to keep buyers in mind. This means that an expert home stager will always have to imagine the mindset of this new buyer in a year full of “what?” For more information on professional home staging and what The Stagency offers, contact us here.