3 Big Home Staging Mistakes That Ruin Sales

When it comes to selling your house, excellent home staging is your best and most reliable tool for a quick sale. In addition to making your home comfortable and accessible to would-be buyers, good home staging also shows off the best attributes of your home, which helps increase the sale price. Unfortunately, many sellers miss the mark on home staging and commit three big home staging mistakes.

To ensure that your home sale goes smoothly, avoid these three home staging mistakes:

1. Over-staging

While a little staging is a great thing, too much staging makes your home feel cold and impersonal. Because of this, it’s critical to strike a balance between showing off a home’s best features and cramming your home full of flashy staging pieces that confuse buyers. Because home staging is meant to enhance a home’s good points and make buyers feel at home in the space, avoid making a room feel crowded by filling it with too much furniture or art. Good home staging helps a buyer get an idea of how it would feel to live in the home, so it’s important to keep your staging practices neutral and minimal rather than trying to paint the entire picture for buyers.

2. Overlooking the little things

Think, for a moment, about what makes a space feel like home to you. Is it the smell of a good meal cooking in the kitchen or beautiful summer blooms in a sunny spot on the bathroom counter? While things like furniture placement and de-cluttering are necessary for good home staging, one of the biggest mistakes sellers make is a simple one: they overlook the little things. When staging your home, be sure to go the extra mile to make it feel lived-in and comfortable. This means staging a bar area with shakers and glasses, draping a soft throw over the corner of a couch, or placing a jar of freshly cut flowers on the kitchen counter. While these may be small changes, they can go a long way toward making would-be buyers feel more comfortable in the space.

3. Staging every room in the home

Part of staging a home well is learning to leave some blank space. With this in mind, avoid staging every room in the home. Instead, focus your staging efforts on bedrooms, bathrooms, the living room, and the kitchen. Offices, play rooms, and garages should be clean, but un-staged so as to allow the buyer freedom of imagination when evaluating the house.

While home staging can be a complex process, avoiding these three staging mistakes can help your home sale run more smoothly from beginning to end.