How to Stage Your Home to Sell it Fast

Our house is on the market and our Realtor did a walk through to help determine our asking price. We reviewed comparable listings and discussed upgrades made since we purchased the house. The next and possibly most important topic of discussion was how to stage our house to sell. We wanted top dollar for our home. How do you make it look most attractive and encourage sellers to buy quickly and at our desired asking price?

• Depersonalize
• Declutter
  
• Clean your entire house
  
• Repair any damages
  
• Maintain yard and landscaping
  

Depersonalizing our house was something I was aware of and least happy about. We have five super cute kids and you can tell how much we adore them by how many pictures of them are hanging in our house.

The pictures had to go.

Buyers want to see themselves in your house, not you. We needed to erase the fact that a happy family currently lives there and stage it such that a new family can see where they might put their pictures and decorations.

Our Realtor made another interesting comment about depersonalizing that I had not considered. If your mantle is full of decorations and family pictures, interested buyers could be drawn to the cute faces in the frames and fail to notice the intricate detail in the mantle wood or how much they love the fire place.

Therefore, the moment the realtor walked out the door, our depersonalization began.

With five young children, clutter had run amuck. My husband was thrilled that our house would be decluttered. We first needed to get everything off the counters. You would be amazed how much space will reappear when magazines and books are not stacked.

The kids needed to get their rooms free of clutter as well. We let them each keep their favorite stuffed animals in their rooms, but other toys needed to be boxed up and moved out of the room. We assured our kids they we weren’t selling their toys, but we were setting them aside for the move.

We removed extra furniture. Our oversized chair in our great room has an ottoman and we decided that the ottoman needed to be removed. A room really opens up when a few furniture items are put in storage.

• Wipe down all counters
• Clean all windows
• Vacuum carpets/clean floors
• Make beds
• Put away all laundry
• Put down toilet seats
• Remove kitchen and bathroom towels

We should always have a clean house, but there are times that a busy lifestyle can result in a house that looks lived in. Potential buyers want to see the house they can live in, not the one that you currently do.

Clean your house.

Move in condition attracts buyers. A clean house shows that you care for your property. Buyers want to buy a home that was cared for and maintained.

Depending on how long you have lived in your house, repair might be necessary. We had an issue where our roof had a leak and created dry wall damage. The roof was repaired and this was disclosed to our realtor. While the dry wall was replaced, it needs to be repainted. We will be addressing this issue immediately. Acknowledging a repair issue is one thing, but failing to finalize the repair is quite another.

Additionally, do you have any nicks or other drywall damage? Consider a container of spackle and a small paint brush for touch ups.

An hour or so of touch up and repair can help translate into a quick sale of your home.

Your first impression of a home is when you drive by or pull up in the driveway. The day our house went on the market, we cut our grass and worked in our gardens. We cut back plants and removed a few that became victims to the summer drought. We wanted our landscaping to look maintained and add to the house’s curb appeal.

How you maintain the outside of your home is a good indicator of how you maintain the inside.

Interest rates are low and the market is starting to recover. We will see if we can sell our home and purchase a new place to personalize and clutter. In the meantime, we will do our best to maintain a home that someone else will fall in love with.

We built our house before our children were born and all of our children will know this as their first home. We will remember their first steps; first throw up on the carpet and five rounds of potty training. We have been tracking their heights for years behind the pantry door in the kitchen. I will also remember daily walks around the block saying hello to our amazing neighbors.

We have found ourselves at a cross roads. We love our house, but are considering a new place to call home. We will be packing memories along with our belongings.

New memories and adventure could be just on the horizon.