When you buy a home you should enjoy that house and make it yours in every possible way. Paint rooms in fun colors, hang creative artwork; whatever makes that home yours! This is your time to decorate and show off your personal touch! But when it comes time to sell your home that means selling a lifestyle, but not necessarily your own.
If you want top dollar and a quick sale you will want to stage your home with a look that is fresh and welcoming yet not taste specific. It is important that buyers with varying tastes feel that they can make the home their own if they purchase it. Staging is about strategic editing and depersonalizing, rather than decorating and personalizing.
Staging versus decorating – there is a difference! Although everyone has different tastes in decor and furnishings, most people want a home that is welcoming, functional, peaceful and organized. The trick is to stage your house so that buyers will describe it in those terms rather than by your style of decorating. Getting rid of clutter and having fewer but larger accessories is a great place to start.
This office space below is a great example. Organized space, clean, neutral and a few decorative pieces.
Whether your distinctive decorating style is Tuscan, shabby chic or modern — you’re going to need to scale it back a bit. If your decorating style comes through to much your home will appeal to the small percentage of potential buyers who love your chosen style.
Use neutrals on the walls, punches of color are great; just use them sparingly. A room arranged symmetrically and centered on the architecture reads as peaceful — one of those important aesthetics every buyer is drawn to.
This guest room is a great example of arranging symmetrically and choosing neutral colors that can appeal to both men and women.
If you are updating a kitchen or bath before putting your home on the market, keep the finishes neutral and classic. This is not the time to show off your personal style. You want to broaden your buying audience by appealing to a wide variety of tastes and preferences.
This bathroom would definitely appeal to buyers with either traditional or contemporary taste, and could later be personalized with the new homeowner’s preferences for color and accessories.
Remember, you are selling an idealized lifestyle, not your reality. So bills piled up on the kitchen counter, prescription bottles on the bathroom counter and shoes thrown by the back door are not a way to say “This home is calm, peaceful and welcoming”.
The bottom line is that you have to get outside your head and inside the mind of a potential home buyer. It’s very difficult to be objective about your own home, but it’s crucial if you want to sell it.
The difference between decorating and staging a home to sell is important to understand if you want to sell your house as quickly as you like.
