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Get Your Bradenton Home Noticed with These Staging Tips
Accentuate the Positive and Eliminate the Negative with These 5 Home Staging Tips
If you're planning your first open house, you've no doubt completed a long list of fixes and upgrades. You're probably depending on the attraction of the seaside ambiance, lush tropical climate, and other natural highlights that make Bradenton homes so engaging. These features will attract buyers to your open house, but you'll need great staging to keep them interested.
Our real estate agents understand how the idea of staging can seem vague. But it's critical to selling your home. When it's done right, great staging gives potential buyers the room to imagine their family in your space.
Staging is a step-by-step process that assumes you've already done the heavy repairs and fix-ups.
1. Declutter
Your home probably contains too much stuff. That happens when you live in one place for a long time and you keep bringing things in but don't take any out. Clutter makes your rooms look small and crowded. That's a problem because buyers want spacious floor plans.
If you can't bear to donate your stuff or throw it away, hide it in a rented storage unit. The biggest offenders?
- Too much furniture: Keep only what's necessary.
- Toys everywhere: Place some in a toy chest. Store the rest.
- Kitchen counters: Display only a few high-end appliances.
- Cabinets, closets, storage areas: Remove and store all but the basics. (Potential buyers will open closed doors.)
- Over, under, on-top-of: Remove accumulated clutter on refrigerators, under beds, inside bathroom vanities, etc.
- Outside: Implement the same ruthless decluttering strategy in your yard, garage, and outdoor storage areas.
2. Depersonalize
Buyers want to see themselves in your home. That means you must remove all kid-created art, vacation photos, and vintage pics of sweet Auntie Sally at age 4. You must remove any items that tag your home as... your home.
- Culturally specific art
- Most books
- Portraits and framed photos
- Souvenirs and mementos
- Anything that tugs at your heart
3. Make Each Room a Blank Canvas
Walls painted in neutral colors are a great way to freshen up a room and start over from scratch. Of course, you should know that today's "neutral" doesn't have to be eggshell or beige. Consider these alternative blank-slate colors.
- Create a soothing bedroom with gray-blue, pale gray, or cerulean blue.
- Brighten your bathroom with Light blue.
- Use beige or taupe to enhance your living room.
- Light blue and gray-blue will brighten your kitchen.
- Paint adjoining rooms the same color to enhance spaciousness.
4. Brighten and Lighten
Home buyers are attracted to bright open spaces. Painting is the first step. Here are a few other things you can do.
- Remove heavy drapes.
- Consider blinds only or light airy window treatments.
- Turn your lights on during your open house.
- Open curtains and drapes to let the sunshine in.
- Upgrade your lighting with new fixtures, freestanding lamps, and increased bulb wattage.
5. Rework Your Spaces
If your newly decluttered rooms seem devoid of character, that's not such a bad thing. Transform these nearly-empty rooms into attractive minimalist arrangements.
- Place your remaining furniture into comfortable groupings with space to navigate.
- Add attractive object arrangements (candles, statuary, vases) to a table, sideboard or buffet.
- Add natural floral accents.
- Hang interesting 2D art or 3D wall sculptures.
Your Bradenton Real Estate Professionals
You have a lot to do when you're preparing to sell your home. Our professionals have the experience to advise you every step of the way. Contact Wagner Realty when you're ready to buy or sell a home or if you simply want information on activities, businesses, and events in Bradenton.
