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Staging Your Home for Resale


When evaluating your home for potential buyers, use your 5 senses:
1) Taste - is the home tastefully decorated? Are the wall, floors, and ceilings a tasteful color? Do you have tacky knick knacks everywhere, or does your son have posters of women with skimpy clothing on his walls?
2) Touch - what do the potential buyers touch? Probably the doorbell, doorknobs, and cabinet knobs. Are they sticky or need to be refinished?
3) Smell - what does your home smell like? Freshly baked cookies are a great smell. Consider buying packs at the store and backing them just before the potential buyers arrive. The smell of trash and pets is not welcoming.
4) Sound - do you or your neighbors have a barking dog? Do you live near the airport or a train? Does your air conditioner or ceiling fan make a lot of noise? Perhaps mask the sound with some light classical music in the background. Encourage potential buyers to come at a time when there is less noise.
5) Sight - most important! Make your home look as new and cozy as possible.

Start evaluating your home from the outside since a potential homebuyer may only see your for sale sign and immediately be disinterested and never see the inside of your home. Do not just think about the home, but also the yard, neighborhood, and community. If the main road leading to your home is under construction, lead the potential buyer to your home using a different path. Is there a lot of trash, old garage sale signs, or debris on the path to your home? Ask the neighborhood association to fix something particular that you feel is an eyesore. What about your neighbors? Do they have trash in their yards? Does their yard need mowing or landscaping need trimming? They are a reflection on your neighborhood. Perhaps you can organize a "spring clean up" for the neighborhood. If that is not an option, tell your neighbor the situation and offer to mow his front yard for him for free.

Lets work on your home now. Your goal is to not only make the home look good, but to make yourself look like a good homeowner who has loved and cared for the home. Stand on the sidewalk in front of your home for at least 10 minutes. Write down the good and bad qualities of your home, garden, and yard from this vantage point. Do you have annual colorful flowers to draw interest and show that you take pride in your garden? Is your yard splotchy or full and green? Does your home need painting? Are you missing some shingles? Are all of your exterior lights in working order? Is it welcoming? Can you see the house numbers? Is your sidewalk cracked or discolored? Next, stand in the driveway for at least 10 minutes and do the same. Consider renting a pressure washer and washing the outside of your home, sidewalks, decks, outdoor play equipment, BBQ grill, and anything else to make them look well maintained.

Your potential buyers will spend a minute or so standing on the front porch while the realtor fumbles to open the lock box in order to get the key. They will have nothing to do but take in the scenery. Do you have a nice doorbell? Is the porch welcoming? Consider adding a potted plant, a wreath on the door, and a nice doormat. Do not make it cluttered. Keep only what is necessary. Remove inexpensive seasonal decorations, cutesy decorations, and things that protrude too far into the porch. Consider keeping the porch light on, even during the day, to keep the porch from looking dark. Is there a foul pet odor?

The potential buyers step into the entryway. They should be greeted by either no smell, or a nice cozy fragrance of cinnamon, cookies, fruit, vanilla, or something nice, but not too heavy. I would not suggest keeping a candle burning while you are not home, but you can burn it prior to them arriving. Make sure all rooms smell nice, not just the entry. This is especially important for the bathrooms, laundry room, back yard, and garage (where you may have pets). Once again, stand in the entryway for a few minutes. What do you see? Is anything untidy? Does the room need a fresh coat of paint? Is this room lit appropriately? Make sure to turn on all lights and make sure that all the bulbs work. You do not need anyone fumbling trying to find the light switch. Open window coverings to let in light, but shield unattractive views.

Your living room should be clutter free. Clutter makes your home feel smaller and cramped. Even after 2 years of living in my home, I have lots of clutter. If you have lived in your home a while, you probably have even more clutter than I do. Consider removing all but the big pieces of furniture in your room and starting over. Have a big garage sale and get rid of a lot of stuff. If you cannot get rid of it, box it up. If you have no room to store the box, consider renting a storage unit or storing it in your car temporarily. Maybe have a friend come over and arrange if for you. The less knick knacks you have, the bigger your home looks.




For more home resale resources, visit the designer resources section of this website.