What Not to Do When Staging a Home

Staging a home is a critical part of selling it. Unfortunately, it’s easy to make basic mistakes that can negatively impact your home sale. By understanding what not to do during your home staging, and knowing how to avoid these mistakes, you can take your home staging to the next level.

5 Home Staging Mistakes Most People Make

Whether you’ve staged homes before or this is your first time, avoiding these mistakes is always a smart idea:

1. Only Staging the Main Rooms

The purpose of staging is to help buyers see themselves in your space. That said, only staging the main rooms is a mistake. In addition to leaving the house feeling unfinished, this also makes it more difficult for the buyer to imagine your home as theirs.

2. Not Getting the Lighting Right

Lighting is essential to great staging. Professional stagers use quality lighting to draw attention to the home’s best attributes and make it feel large, spacious, and clean. For best results, mix ambient, accent, and task lighting throughout your home. This will help it look professionally-staged and ensure your buyers are impressed by what they see.

3. Forgetting About the Outside of the Home

The outside of the home needs to be staged, as well. Forgetting about it makes the home look bland and cheats you out of a great deal of the impact it could be offering. Don’t forget to dress up the exterior of your home. This involves trimming your hedges, planting blooming flowers, and placing a few comfortable chairs and exterior furniture pieces in key areas.

4. Over-staging

Over-staging can be as much of a problem as under-staging. While buyers like walking into a nicely staged, welcoming home, overdoing it can be alienating. Keep your colors and design elements simple. You should also avoid overly personal elements, such as framed personal photos or unique designs that only appeal to you.

5. Not Hiring a Professional

Hiring a professional will take your staging to the next level. While you can stage your home on your own, it’s difficult to get it right. Consider hiring a professional stager. Not only will this person have the knowledge and expertise needed to overhaul your space, but they may also have access to design discounts and outlets that can help you stage your home better.

Staging a Home the Smart Way

If you’re in the process of staging a home, avoiding these mistakes can go a long way toward helping you sell your home. When a home is beautifully staged, it’s more attractive to buyers and will generally sell more quickly than a home that is poorly staged. It’s well worth the time and investment great staging takes. At the end of the day, staging a home the right way is one of the easiest things you can do to enhance its value and make it more attractive.