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Save Money on Home Staging and Still Sell Faster
Spend only where it matters on home staging to keep money in your pocket and buyers lined up
Color Expert, Interior Decorator, & Design Blogger (http://thedecorologist.com). The Decorologist creates spaces that nourish the eye and nurture the soul. It's about helping you define your personal style, gain confidence in your choices, and express yourself through the decoration of home. Admitting you need help is the first step!
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Being resourceful and frugal doesn't just apply to interior design. When staging a home to sell, be careful about spending money. Many people spend their money in all the wrong places, when consulting with a good Home Stager on those decisions first could actually save them money.
Discover where you can save when staging your home to sell with these guidelines.
Discover where you can save when staging your home to sell with these guidelines.
Don't paint the trim. Even if you need to paint the walls in a few rooms, there's usually no need to paint the trim when staging your home. Having your trim painted requires more time, effort and money (if you hire it out) than painting your walls. You'll get more bang for your buck if you paint the walls and skip the trim.
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Don't refinish the floor. If you have hardwood and it isn't in perfect shape, don't spend your money having the floors refinished.
Home buyers love hardwood, and it's always seen as an upgrade even if it's imperfect. Sometimes a good cleaning and some touch-ups with wood stain are all you need to revive your floor.
If your floor really needs more than that, consider a low-cost alternative to refinishing: Apply a fresh topcoat of nonyellowing polyurethane, found in the flooring section of a home improvement store.
Be sure to very lightly sand the floors with a pole sander and fine-grit sandpaper. No heavy sanding is necessary here. You are just looking to knock down the gloss so that the new coat of poly will stick. I've done this myself with 60-year-old hardwoods and couldn't believe how great the result was.
Home buyers love hardwood, and it's always seen as an upgrade even if it's imperfect. Sometimes a good cleaning and some touch-ups with wood stain are all you need to revive your floor.
If your floor really needs more than that, consider a low-cost alternative to refinishing: Apply a fresh topcoat of nonyellowing polyurethane, found in the flooring section of a home improvement store.
Be sure to very lightly sand the floors with a pole sander and fine-grit sandpaper. No heavy sanding is necessary here. You are just looking to knock down the gloss so that the new coat of poly will stick. I've done this myself with 60-year-old hardwoods and couldn't believe how great the result was.
Don't buy new furniture. Just pare down what you have and declutter. You may want to borrow a few things from a relative or a close friend if it will help make a space feel "finished."
In bedrooms, all you need is a nicely dressed bed, a side table and a lamp. If your decor is dated or tired, you may want to purchase new bedding, a few updated lamps and fresh throw pillows — but make sure they are things you'd like to take with you to your new home.
In bedrooms, all you need is a nicely dressed bed, a side table and a lamp. If your decor is dated or tired, you may want to purchase new bedding, a few updated lamps and fresh throw pillows — but make sure they are things you'd like to take with you to your new home.
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| Don't replace appliances in good condition. If your white or black kitchen appliances are newish and in good condition, don't worry about replacing them with trendy stainless steel versions. If your appliances are worn or old, however, that's another story. |
Don't automatically buy new lights. Do you have hanging light fixtures that look dated? Rather than replacing them, consider painting them black. It'll be an instant update for very little cash.
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Don't replace all your brass. Shiny brass can make a home look dated, but often there are so many doorknobs, fixtures and hinges that replacing them all is cost prohibitive.
Antiqued or satin-finish brass is beginning to trend and looks more expensive than the brushed nickel many people use to update their brass. You can inexpensively purchase a product to "age" or slightly debrass your hardware. If you don't have time to get to all of it, just focus on the bathroom fixtures.
Antiqued or satin-finish brass is beginning to trend and looks more expensive than the brushed nickel many people use to update their brass. You can inexpensively purchase a product to "age" or slightly debrass your hardware. If you don't have time to get to all of it, just focus on the bathroom fixtures.
Guess what? It's totally design forward to mix metals in your finishes if you mix the right ones.
Designer's tip: If you can afford to update some but not all of your dated light fixtures, faucets and cabinet pulls, know that:
• Brushed nickel and chrome look great paired with iron and black finishes.
• Gold and brass look great paired with an oil-rubbed-bronze finish.
Mix away!
Designer's tip: If you can afford to update some but not all of your dated light fixtures, faucets and cabinet pulls, know that:
• Brushed nickel and chrome look great paired with iron and black finishes.
• Gold and brass look great paired with an oil-rubbed-bronze finish.
Mix away!
Don't repaint or neutralize your children's rooms. Most people expect themed kids' rooms. They aren't overwhelmed with the idea of repainting a small child's room to meet their specific needs or taste. This is not an area that will make or break a sale, so don't bother redoing it.
Tell us: Any other ideas for saving money when staging a home to sell?
Tell us: Any other ideas for saving money when staging a home to sell?
Ideabook published on July 30, 2012.
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But what really made the difference was how well it was maintained. People entered our 16 year old house and said "wow, it looks brandnew!". We got so much positive feedback and heard so many horror stories about filthy homes (and lazy realtors) - we could write a book.
So my recommendation is to do all necessary repairs, to paint and to clean to perfection. Absolute perfection. It is exhausting, but it is worth it.
To achieve a clean look, I recommended that unnecessary furniture be placed in storage, heavy window treatments taken down and suggested that rooms that were too dark or faded should be painted in pure white or in a very light color, in order to brighten the spaces.
Fresh towels displayed.in the bathrooms, a new neutral shower curtain, new bed linens with matching pillows and toss cushions don't cost much and can always been used in your new home. Indoors plants also make a home feel more lived in, without imposing your taste on the future buyer.
Keep the minimum in your closets and kitchen cabinets. This is also very important. Put in storage anything that is not going to be used in the coming months.
The smell of a house should always appeal positively to your senses. When it is all clean, some scented candles can provide a nice feeling. Don't forget to turn on the lights of all your table lamps, even during the day... it softens the whole scene.
The final finishing touch is to set an elegant table in the dining room. It is always so welcoming!
These inexpensive tips will help you sell your home quickly and at the right price. Actually, after my last staging, the people liked their home so much that they decided to keep it!
Re 'midmodfans' comment. Recall when assisting my daughter (a first time home buyer at that time), the home that she decided upon was immaculate. Though it was ten years old the young 'frugal' Asian couple who owned it hadn't even removed the Manufacturer's label/sticker on some of the main appliances and even the toilets. The oven itself had never been used (they cooked with a Wok) and the accessories were in their original packaging. All furniture was cushioned on padding so as not to make indentations in the carpet. Needless to say, after viewing many, many houses prior to it, her search for the perfect one abruptly ended. She quickly signed on the dotted line, as it was just like moving into a brand new home without the big price tag. :)
Maintenance is part of the cost of owning a home and if you have skimped on that, the money saved will come directly off the selling price and increase the number of days on market considerably -- so make sure the home is perfectly maintained or be prepared to sell at a reduced price. (Paint is maintenance - sorry! So are weeds in the flowerbeds, dead trees and wet basements.)
Architectural upgrades affect the structure of the home or grounds and should deliver a return on your investment -- or be revenue neutral but speed the sale. For example, spending $3K to replace linoleum with hardwood should increase your selling price at least $3K -- or don't do it. Re-planting the foundation in the front of your house is also considered "architecture" and is an overlooked project to consider.
Decor is the stuff you can take with you. Furniture, art, bedding, curtains etc. and shouldn't factor in financially unless you are buying or renting it only for the purpose of selling the house. In our experience, you will likely be taking a lot of stuff OUT of your house and bringing in a minimal amount of new stuff.
You should, in our opinion, be increasing the net cash from closing when you stage your home. It is not an expense -- it's the upfront cost of optimizing your return. But you need to think through each project strategically and make a plan before you start. A good realtor can help and hiring a stager to give you advice is always money well spent. We are professionals but we still hire stagers, professional photographers for the listing photos and even an architect for architectural issues. In the big scheme of things, professional advice will deliver a return on your investment.
Those extra tips are very useful.
I froze, however, when I came to your suggestion about scented candles. Scents are just as emotion-invoking, if not moreso, than colors. For myself, when looking at houses, if someone used those godawful plugins or scented candles, that was a dealbreaker. Those fake perfumes do two things for me: first, they leave me wondering what the homeowner is trying to cover up, and second, they give me headaches. My realtors at the time suggested things like simmering a few cloves and cinnamon on the stove, or brewing coffee, for a pleasurable scent. If you feel you need to scent the house.
I also like the suggestion of not neutralizing children's rooms. I might add though, that with our ten year old daughter's room, which was quite small, we put away all her cool ten year old girl toys and brought out her more toddlerish girly things - those pretty toys I kept as keepsakes with bunnies and fairies. Emotion sells houses and children's rooms are big elements in that formula.
Our next door neighbours, a young couple with no kids, dressed up one room for a child, displaying some of their art supplies and using some primary colored linens. They named their fictional son "Timmy" and their house sold very quickly. As did ours.
As a professional home stager, I always do my best to focus on the tasks that should be done to the house in order to transform the house into a product that sells. If you check out our Staged&SOLD page on our website, http://www.seattlestagedtosell.com/stagedsold/, you will see how fast our staged homes sell and many of them for more than asking price. And yes, we are still in tough real estate market.
Majority of home buyers these days are savvy and are looking for luxury at any price point. Home staging is about creating a life style for the targeted buyers. I do agree with some of the points made in this blog like don't replace all of the brass fixtures and paint the kid's rooms. However, wood floors and painting the trim is a always a good thing. The stats support this.
You don't have to take the word of a home stager of what you should do to prepare your home for sale and/or what projects gives you the best ROI. In one of my blogs, http://bitly.com/NlF0Ku, I share what 2011 HomeGain stats revealed about home staging and what projects are worth taking on by the home sellers.
If you are trying to sell your home, make sure to find and work with a professional home stager. She or he will be able to help you to determine the must to do projects and bust all of the home staging myths that are out there.
Great article Kristie!
my advice is KEEP ON holding those open houses. Don't give up.... and pray!
And, put out LOTS of SIGNS. (Paula VH)
Jocelyn Davis
The thing that occurs to me is, how much of staging is just doing the things you've been meaning to do anyway? I like my house to look uncluttered, but it's when I'm going to have a party that I think...I really need to get rid of some clutter and update the accent pillows. Or the houseplant that just isn't doing well, no matter how much I dislike killing a plant, it's getting replaced when I've got guests coming from out of town. And thinking back to your piece about decorating being different from staging, I'm wondering if that's completely true. When I hired a decorator, one of the things she did was walk through my house and move a lot of things around. She liked many of the things we had, but felt that they weren't quite right where they were. We have an armoire we like a lot but it looked kind of stumpy with our 12 foot ceilings, so she took some of our pottery pieces and wide candle sticks and arranged them on the top with a tall dried arrangement and it was a great improvement. She thought our entry way needed more pop and added some pillows to a bench and moved a painting that was in another room. So, I guess my point is, maybe what we would do to stage is just what we might want to do normally and need a kick the pants, so to speak.
Oh, except my studio. This baby may look cluttered, but it's just the way I want it!
By the way, thank you all for the great - and relatively easy and/or inexpensive - suggestions. I will add that natural scents (the cloves or cinnamon, coffee, cookies, bread, whatever) are far preferable to anything artificial. And believe me, even candles are artificial. Some of your prospective buyers may, like me, be allergic to those "fresh" scents. I thought one salesman was going to have to call an ambulance at one point - I very literally was choking on the fumes.
I'm also an "inveterate cruzer of real estate listings", as you put it, and I feel your pain. Staging a home - either by a professional or the seller - is fine and often necessary. But these days, where most people search for homes on the internet, taking photos of *meaningful subjects* is of utmost importance. I always wonder what a snap shot of a toilet is supposed to tell me (there's a toilet, really?), while photos of architectural features, the exterior of the house or the view are missing.
Aside to groovygranny: I've never seen sugar soap for sale in the U.S. I read online that it can be made from one part sugar, one part olive oil, and one part liquid soap. Would that work?
Aside to yytcm: Buying items to use for staging and then returning them to stores is quite unethical. At the height of the real estate boom I worked in a large furniture store and we had to revise our company's return policy. Because of people like you, others now have to suffer from a reduced return time.
When my daughter moved into her new home in LA the walls were covered in black patches from where pictures had been hanging and I'm sure she got something at Home Depot. She was happy with the result, the walls came up very well.
The website above does warn against it coming into contact with the skin but although I generally wear gloves, the product we have is actually lovely on the skin, it leaves hands very soft. It is an amazing product, you can clean anything from fabrics to engines!!
Another pointer is to turn ALL lights on when the house is being shown, regardless of the weather.
Carolcaffarel@gmail.com, Greensboro NC area..."Presentation-Southern
Style!"
After we brought the stylist in, it was a case of selling or freecycling a lot of our furniture. We are downsizing to an apartment so it had to be done at some stage.
Rather than buy new flowers every week, we bought orchids, very elegant.
I was very impressed in what adding some art pieces and rugs, as well as changing bed tables and lamps. We did paint my daughter's deep orange and purple walls as the room is 15'X15' so pretty overwhelming. I used my own linen as it was crisp and good quality. She changed all the cushions in the family room and outdoor room.
We kept our art deco furniture in our formal rooms and set the table with our vintage Royal Doulton china and crystal.
After the staging was completed, we had professional photos taken - it is amazing how they portray your house and get people in,,
For the viewings, the fireplace were lit as well as unscented candles. Dogs and hubby left during the view but I helped the REA - wearing a suit & very few people realised I was the owner. There were a lot of people at the open houses and having three people en site was helpful.
At the end we sold the week before the auction and had several offers. The purchaser said the fact the bathroom was so elegant was the clincher.
1. Window coverings - please have them cleaned. I don't care if there are shutters, curtains or shades, make sure that they are dust free. Open them so the sun comes in, and if there are several treatments layered take a step back and maybe remove one or two; it will enlarge and brighten the room.
2. I know Kristie said to save the money and not paint the trim, but if your tim is really scuffed up... maybe your painter - or yourself - could do one coat to spruce it up. Particularly with white trim, if it's not in good condition, it stands out.
3. Taking pics for listings - whether you or a photographer, please leek through the lens before you take the shot. I don't want to see the cars in the driveway, the pool toys on the deck, the dishes in the sink... it all detracts from the house.
4. You may have fantastic light fixtures but if they are dusty the home appears lacklustre. Please clean them and make sure you have the brightest bulbs possible in.
5. Window washing. It is amazing how much it changes the interior of a home. It is cheap (about $100 in the Toronto area for a detached two storey home) and it makes a huge difference).
6. Unless you have massive closet space and things are really not hung together, a simple and relatively easy trick to make your storage space look bigger is to box and store (outside the home) your non-seasonal items. Same for non-essentials in the kitchen and other closets. The reason s simple - most closets in our homes are overstuffed. I have visited homes where you open the closet and it looks like things are about to collapse. This makes you feel like the homeowners are untidy and not that great at taking care of things including their home, and also the closets appear small when overflowing.
7. The kitchen... yes, buyers will open your cupboards and drawers. If I see stains, spills, a general mess - again, I will wonder how well you took care of your home. Replace the drawer liners, store the nonessentials, wipe the spills. Same inside the fridge and oven if the home is sold with appliances.
Now, all this sounds like a lot of hassle and you are thinking the buyers must be crazy snoops. Not all buyers will look with so much attention to detail but as the seller, you should assume they will.
We did not refinish floors, original red oak bleached, with a male yellow Lab running in & out. But, here's the most important point: never use anything with Orange Oil on the hardwood floor (forget that stupid commercial.) Yes, it will look great for the first, umm, hour or so, maybe longer. However as my husband found out when he came home from work after taking off his shoes off & I am giggling as I type this, it makes even the roughest floor slick as an indoor skating rink. Good thing he was young(er) & had excellent balance. (And still reminds me about the "whoaaaaa!" as he skid across the floor :))