STAGING AND HOME PRESENTATION FOR SELLERS
Why is home staging so important when selling a DC property? Statistics show that staged homes sell faster and at a higher price than empty ones, or furnished homes that aren't staged. Seem like a lot of work and expense? Don't worry, follow our home presentation and staging tips and you'll save time and come out ahead on the sales price. Oh, and when you reach the bottom of the page, be sure to click on me to get a free home evaluation and start your home selling process!
OUR DC HOME STAGING TIPS
Essential staging and presentation tips for Washington DC homes.
- Address repairs and updates first. Get our free home evaluation
- Discuss with us: Easy design fixes for floor plan challenges
- Deep Clean. Follow our checklist
- Paint if needed. Walls, ceilings and trim. Which shade is best? Let us suggest!
- Change all light bulbs to 4000k LEDs @ a lumens equivalent min. of 60w per bulb
- Change light fixtures as needed
- Edit window treatments
- Control temperature | 69 degrees 24/7
- Evaluate noise | Potential remedies
- Follow our Curb Appeal Checklist
NOW ADD TO IT!
- Collaborate with us to identify your target buyer
- Discuss with us: The design profile of your target buyer and how to tailor your home's appearance to it
- Decide on a color palette and use it throughout the home
- Create a modified staging plan because furnished homes should be styled
- Declutter mercilessly
- Furnish rooms for their intended purpose (a bedroom is a bedroom, not a den)
- Show more floor space, less furniture to make your home look larger
- Remove evidence of pets
- Turn on every light in the home before showings
- Remove garbage cans from sight (and smell)
- Remove small appliances and accessories/tools from kitchen counters
- Avoid use of scent aids. A clean home is the best scent of all
- Collaborate with us to identify your target buyer
- Discuss with us: The design profile of your target buyer and how to tailor your home's appearance to it
- Decide on a color palette and use it throughout the home
- Vacant homes should be furnished. Create a staging or virtual staging plan for interior/exterior
- Leave all lights on at all times
- Place a staging kit under the kitchen sink (trash bin & bags, essential cleaning supplies, tools)
INSPO FROM PROS
GENERAL HOME PREP AND STAGING STEPS
This video from Design Time lays out the basics of prepping your home before you put it on the market.
STAGNG AN OCCUPIED HOME
Staging an occupied home is more challenging than starting from scratch with a vacant home. There are literally obstacles to good design everywhere--and throughout the home buyers will find challenges to their standards of taste and comfort. Here's a video--also from Design Time--that might help!
IN MORE DETAIL | TRANSFORMING HOMES WITH STAGING
Let's drill down into some of those items on our list.
1. APPEALING TO YOUR TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC
We’ve researched, discussed and pinpointed your target home buyer using demographics, local market data and neighborhood impressions. Now, our staging and presentation decisions will determine a persona for your home that’s tailored to them.
Our goal is to sell the home more quickly and for the best possible price by diminishing flaws and playing up attributes. With proper staging and presentation of your DC home, we can create the illusion that small space is larger, dark space is lighter, awkward space is useful and compartmentalized space has good ‘flow.’
Many buyers say they “just knew” when they walked into the house they purchased. They felt it reflected their personalities, style and needs. Rather than kismet, this is more often the result of buyer demographic research and good staging and presentation. Buyers will even purchase a home that doesn’t meet all their layout criteria if it is designed to feel like [their] home.
2. CREATE STAGING “MOMENTS”
Outstanding DC home staging creates “moments” throughout the home that are consistent withe the “persona” you’ve selected for it based on the profile of your target buyer. These relate particularly to perceived lifestyle as reflected in small details throughout the space, rather than standard furnishings dictating its use. Buyers will refer to these ‘moments’ and talk about them later. They’re “tags” for your home, so make them memorable!
3. STAGING VS DECORATING
Aren’t decorating and home staging the same thing? No. As homeowners, we decorate spaces to our taste and often create rooms with strong colors, statements and objects we like. That’s decorating. When you’re selling your home, it becomes a product to be packaged for appeal to your target buyer. Staging is furnishing the home so that it reflects their style and makes the most of the product. Good staging suggests the best use for each area of the home, alluding to spaciousness and practicality even where none exists. So when your stager and agent start discussing the rearrangement or total reimagining of your home, don’t take it personally. If they offered their own home for sale, chances are they’d do exactly the same.
PROFESSIONAL STAGERS
Professional stagers are designers who should be skilled in making a home feel perfect whatever its flaws, and in creating spaces that not only appeal to the eye and the other four senses, but to the imagination and photographer's lens. They should know when to stop before it is “too much,” how to make small or disproportionate rooms look large and symmetrical and whip up sumptuousness on a budget. Balance, theme, color palette, texture, sensory stimulants… all are components of professional DC home staging.
STAGING COST
We highly recommend hiring a professional stager as a component of listing your home. A pro can point out potential problem areas and suggest ways of eliminating or minimizing them, offer ideas on playing up the home’s attributes and create value that spurs buyers to make higher offers, and more quickly. How much does it cost? Plans vary by staging company, level of sophistication, home size, duration, and deadline. Ask us for recommendations!
