Staging: My Number One Tip

If there is one staging tip I could give everyone wanting to sell a house, it would have nothing to do with paint color, decluttering, or furniture arrangement. It would simply be: Don't Procrastinate!!!

If you are even toying with the idea of selling your home, then NOW is the time to start staging. Look around your house (or better yet, have a friend or family member known for their brutal honestly look around your house) and identify areas that need to be decluttered, things that need to be repaired, things that are hopelessly out of date, etc. Get a notebook and make a list.

I suggest starting with decluttering. We all need to do it to one degree or another, and more often than we think. Getting rid of clutter makes our homes feel brighter and more spacious, and it frees up mental and emotional space for us to spend on other things like friends, family, and hobbies. Starting long before you might want to sell gives you a chance to really think about what you want to keep instead of waiting and just frantically pitching stuff at random 2 weeks before your listing date.

When you look at repairs, think about the things that are driving you bonkers around the house. Why live with a switch that doesn't work or a faucet that drips? Some things can even be safety issues or cost you money, so make those repairs!

After that, look at the things on your list that are changes you would enjoy. Did you paint your dining room dark red when you moved in, but now you'd really like a lighter color? Did you buy a house with a green toilet, and you've always wanted a white one? Why wait to make changes that YOU will enjoy? Plus, starting ahead of time gives you a chance to take advantage of sales and coupons and saves you money in the end.

There are so many reasons to take a critical look at our homes and make changes long before we plan to list.
1. Avoid the mad rush (and stress and anxiety) to get the house sale ready. I call this the "Don't kill yourself" rule as in, don't kill yourself doing in two weeks what you have had years to do.
2. YOU get to enjoy the changes you make for awhile.
3. You may decide that you love your home so much that you don't want to sell after all. (I've had it happen.) Sometimes we think we need a bigger, newer house when what we really need is to get all the junk we don't use out of ours and freshen it up.

So whether you are thinking about selling 6 months from now, 2 years from now, or not at all, NOW is a good time to apply some of the basic rules of staging to your home.