Designer Secrets for Home Staging

Thinking of selling your home? Now is a great time! To get top dollar for your home sale, professionals suggest staging it, either by doing it yourself, or hiring a professional staging company. Here are some of the designer secrets for home staging.

The top selling point for a home is, of course, location, location, location. Next in line though, is “curb appeal.” This is not only the first impression when the potential home buyer drives up, it is also the first impressions they receive inside your home. That’s why physical or virtual home staging is so important for both an unoccupied and a currently occupied home.

Things that home buyers love include:

• Spotlessly clean; clean above, below and around items
• Light and bright; sunlit; welcoming light colors
• Large rooms (or the look of being large)
• Well maintained; buyers don’t want to have to put a lot of work into their home purchase
• Fresh and current look and feel

Six Designer Secrets for Home Staging

There are six steps to staging your home, according to Karen Prince, an award-winning New York staging professional and author of Secrets of Home Staging (2021). They include:

Repair

Repair any visible and known defects both inside and outside the home.

• Pro tip: Get a pre-inspection by a qualified home inspector before listing the home. This proves to buyers that the home is in good repair, and outlines selling points like upgrades.

Update

If you have been in your home a while, it probably needs upgrades. Spend a little on cosmetic updates like color, flooring or hardware changes, or remodel for more drastic effect. Key rooms to update are the kitchen and bathrooms.

• Pro tip: Take down drapes & valances; remove wallpaper; remove wall-to-wall carpet; paint in light neutrals; update lighting; update tiles; change cabinet hardware.

Depersonalize

You must begin thinking of your home as a product to sell, and make it appealing to a broad audience. This mean removing personal items from both the interior and exterior of your home. Pack them for your move and store them off premises if possible.

• Pro tip: Emotionally disconnect yourself from the home to enable buyers to visualize their own lives in the house.

Remove and store:

• Personal photos
• Items with your name on them like college degrees, trophies, awards, etc.
• Collections from travels, crafts, hobbies, sports, etc.
• Religious & political items
• Decorations – front door and exterior; inspirational sayings; statues; decorative items, etc.

Declutter

Your home stager is looking to create clean, neutral lines throughout your home that make it show better in photographs and in person. This means removing all clutter and extra items from rooms, surfaces, shelves, windows, closets, garages and storage areas that could distract a buyer. Box these items up and store them for your move. And don’t forget the lawn items! The decluttering process will also make it easier to live in the home while it’s up for sale.

• Pro tip: When decluttering, it’s a great time to get rid of items you no longer need or want to take to your new home. Make several piles designated as keep/donate/dispose. For items you want to keep, box them up. For those to donate or dispose of, contact 123JUNK. We’ll be glad to deliver your donations to area donation center, recycle things like paper and electronics, and dispose of unusable items or trash for you.

Deep Clean

A home that looks and smells clean will offer maximum appeal to a potential buyer. You may not notice the dirt in areas you’ve overlooked, but the buyers will! Hire a professional cleaning company, power wash the exterior and deck, and remove or mask odors.

• Pro tip: Don’t forget to clean the doors, light switches and fixtures, ceiling fans and vents.

Add Style

A professional home stager may relocate your furniture and belongings to create wow-worthy vignettes and a room’s focal point. Many stagers have storerooms of items they can use to stage an unoccupied home. Stick to a neutral palette, but items of color and whimsy are allowed in order to add contrast; an all-beige room is boring. You’ll also want to make each room look larger, and increase the flow by using fewer items. Another reason to declutter!

• Pro tip: Establish just one purpose for each room, and try to refer to the room’s original intention. For example, if you’re using a child’s room as a home office, revert it back to a child’s room.

To Stage Your Home Beautifully, Get Rid of Unused Goods and Furniture with 123JUNK

For convenient pick-up in MD, NOVA or DC of all those items to donate and trash when you’re ready to stage your home, call 123JUNK. We’ll divide out the perfectly-good items and donate them to our charity partners. We’ll recycle electronics and materials like paper to the local recycling center. And we’ll take only what’s left to the area landfill. It’s our 1-2-3 commitment to Donate-Recycle-Dispose and to protecting our environment.

We work with designers, home stagers, Realtors and homeowners to help remove items from the home. After all, statistics prove that a beautifully-staged home sells faster and for more money.

Contact 123JUNK today to speak with a live representative. We’ll find out more about your junk hauling needs, give you a one-price all-inclusive quote, and schedule your pick-up date.