If you’re thinking about selling your home, keep in mind that you can give potential buyers a great first impression of your digs by putting yourself in their shoes.
Think back to the tour you took before buying the home, for example, and try to remember what stood out to you—both good and bad—and how it impacted your senses. Of course, it’s always important to declutter and do a top-notch cleaning job, but customizing your home with some easy staging tricks also can make a big difference.
1. Decorate for the potential buyer
If you’re in a starter home neighborhood, then the buyer likely will be a younger person or couple who is looking for more space after living in a cramped apartment. That means you should select trendy paint colors like lilac gray or muted pastels, and keep the decor minimalistic and modern.
Forget about decorating a kid’s bedroom and opt instead for an office layout in the second bedroom. On the other hand, if you’re looking to downsize from a four-bedroom house on a cul-de-sac, you probably will attract the family crowd. To please them, be sure to emphasize your space by decorating according to their needs. Have a finished basement? Boast the recreational feel with some movie theater loungers, or make it a game room.
2. Use resources
Rent a storage unit so you don’t have to worry about hiding away your must-keeps. This way, the items already are neatly packed away and ready for your new home, and they won’t get in the way of the buyer who can’t look past all of your personal belongings.
You also might want to hire a cleaning company. You can find some relatively affordable options, and once it’s clean, all you have to worry about is keeping it that way.
3. Focus on small accessories
Tour your own home with a set of fresh eyes. What do you see that stands out as grungy, old, and just a complete turn-off? It can be anything from a sticky, splattered garbage bin that needs a good cleaning to a shower curtain with a dense layer of soap scum. Replace any small accessories that won’t cost you a fortune, and clean anything that can look like new with some TLC.
4. Use your nose
Take another tour of your home, but this time focus on what you’re smelling. Better yet, find a friend or family member who can volunteer to do this for you. Then identify any sources of odor in your home and come up with a solution to rid the space of those unpleasant smells.
Cleaning and decluttering should help with this, but you also can open up the windows and let your home air out for an hour or two; light some candles to freshen up the rooms, and bake a cake or some cookies right before a potential buyer arrives for a viewing.