Affordable Home Staging Tips
Are you wondering how to stage a house for sale inexpensively? Many potential sellers are wise to look for cheap staging tips.
When trying to sell your home, you know that it is crucial to give an excellent first impression to buyers – and part of that good impression requires staging a home.
I am not talking about professional home staging, which is entirely different.
In most circumstances, professional home staging is not worth the money and is entirely unnecessary.
Other things are far more essential in home selling, like pricing it correctly and having exceptional online marketing.
It’s not to say your home doesn’t need to look its best – far from it! How your home is presented will go a long way toward how quickly it sells.
It would help if you made the home as appealing as possible to the broadest range of buyers.
Realtors will tell you how important it is to clean the house and remove the clutter so that buyers have room to imagine themselves in the home.
Staging takes this idea even further, presenting the ideal image of a comfortable, welcoming home that is wonderful.
But what if you don’t want to hire a home stager because you want to save money?
Fortunately, there are numerous ways to stage your home without spending a lot.
Following the advice will put you in a better position to have your property go under contract quickly.
Cheapest Staging Tips When You’re on a Budget
Let’s examine how you can stage a home on a budget. These cheap home staging tips will get your home looking its best before listing for sale.
There will always be things you can do before listing for sale that will help the process go smoother. You should not sell your house until you are ready.
1. Put Away The Family Photos.
It can feel a little weird to think about putting away images of your loved ones, but there is a good reason for the suggestion. Your family photos make the home feel like yours. You want buyers to feel like it could be theirs. A lack of family photos can give them space to have that feeling.
However, it should be clear that you don’t need to make your home feel sterile. Having a few family photos spread out around the house is not a problem.
You don’t want to have a family collage in every room. You want the buyer to be able to have a personal connection to the home, not to your family.
2. Put Away The Memorabilia.
Memorabilia is a lot like family photos – it’s personalized. And you are trying to get away from personal when you stage your home. Putting away the memorabilia is recommended because there is no way to know if the buyers viewing the house will have an appreciation for your collection – or possibly even an aversion to your collection.
It is also a good idea to change themed rooms for the same reasons. The buyer could hate your favorite sports team, for example. While you may disagree, it’s worth avoiding the conversation to get your home sold.
Believe it or not, some home improvements don’t add value and can make a home harder to sell. Just because you have spent money on something doesn’t mean it translates into dollars in your pocket. It could be the exact opposite!
Again, if you have one room in the house, like your office or the man cave, that’s perfectly acceptable. Don’t go overboard, making your home feel like a sports complex.
3. Throwing Slipcovers Over Old Furniture is a Cheap Fix.
Slipcovers are a relatively affordable way to make your old furniture look newer and more attractive.
When your sofa is upholstered in 70s prints, a slipcover is recommended. Staging your furniture can be helpful when it is needed.
It is an inexpensive way to make your family room look better than it does with old ratty furniture.
Many things can cause a home not to sell. A shabby appearance is one of them.
4. Give Rooms a Purpose.
One of the things that professional home stagers will do is design the look of each room to reflect a purpose – like a child’s room, a nursery, an office, and so on.
You can do the same. You can look at listing descriptions of homes to see how parts of the property are marketed.
If you have a 3-bedroom, you could easily turn one bedroom into an office and one into a child’s room, even if you don’t have kids.
The goal is to make your home more attractive to buyers and help them with ideas on how they could make it their own with personal touches.
5. Clear Away The Clutter.
Clutter makes a home look dirty and makes rooms look smaller – including closets and garages.
It is easy to lose sight of what constitutes clutter when you have lived in a home for a long time, so you might want to recruit your real estate agent or another outsider to help you identify what areas of clutter need to be addressed.
Closets and other storage areas like the garage are prime locations for clutter. You want buyers to see your home as a spacious place to live, easily holding all of their possessions. That may mean cleaning your closets and garage to reduce or eliminate clutter.
One beautiful thing about attacking the clutter in your home is that it will make it easier for you to move later after you sell – that is, as long as you don’t just pack up the clutter and store it elsewhere.
Try to give everything home by separating each item into a designated pile, like trash, donations, storage, sale, etc.
Hire a Junk Removal Company
A great way to stage your home inexpensively is by calling in a professional junk removal company. Put all the items in your home, basement, and garage that you no longer need or want. You will be amazed at how much better your home will look.
One of my favorite junk removal companies is 1-800-Got-Junk. They do an excellent job.
Donate Items of Value to Charity
While getting rid of junk is a cheap home staging tip, even more affordable is a donation pickup. Have one of the top charitable organizations visit your home. You can also visit one of their donation centers as well.
Put Large Excess Furniture in Storage
While renting a storage unit will be a more expensive home staging tip, it could be worth it. You very well could sell for more money.
You can use this helpful guide for organizing your things for storage. If there is going to be an interim move before you reach your final destination picking a storage facility will also need to be necessary.
6. Don’t Forget About Your Closets
The closets don’t need to look like a masterpiece but should be neat and presentable. You want to give buyers the thought they are spacious and valuable.
The buyer will be picturing what they can do with them. If they are filled to the brim with “stuff,” that will be challenging. A few hours of your time is an inexpensive way to get these spaces looking their best.
7. Paint The Rooms That Need Painting.
One of the most inexpensive and worthwhile home improvements is painting. It is an affordable way to make a room look bright and new.
Your rooms may be decorated in dark, oppressive colors, be covered in dated wallpaper, or have scuffed and dirty paint. Any spaces with issues with the color, texture, or appearance of the walls should be painted before you start showing the home.
Painting a room is not hard. Watch some painting videos on YouTube or bring over a friend that has done it before and have a painting party. You will increase the value of your home in as little as a few hours.
It is one of the most affordable staging projects you can do with the biggest bang for your buck!
8. Draw All The Blinds and Curtains
My favorite home staging tip when you are on a budget is to let as much natural light into the home as possible. When a home is dark and dreary, it does not give a buyer a good first impression.
On the other hand, a bright and cheery home does! Over my thirty-seven-year career in real estate, asking my seller clients to ensure their blinds are up and curtains are drawn is always part of my advice.
9. Deep Clean When You’re Staging a House on a Budget.
One of the least expensive ways to stage your home is to clean the hell out of it. Unless you price your home way below market value, you cannot expect buyers to jump in with offers if your home is dirty.
All the other homes they look at will be spotless, so you need to clean yours just to be competitive. You’ll want to clean it thoroughly because buyers tend to look everywhere before they offer money for a home.
One of the biggest home-selling mistakes is not spending the time to prepare your property for the market. Understanding the best time to sell a house is vital because you should not sell before you are ready.
If you are not much of a cleaner, consider hiring a cleaning service to clean the home. It is well worth the money you spend on cleaners. Buyers that come into a dirty home will be turned off and view your home negatively, no matter how great a home is.
10. Deodorizing is Also an Inexpensive Budget Conscious Exercise.
Many Realtors will tell you that bad smells are the biggest turnoff to buyers, so you want to ensure your home smells nice before you try to sell the property.
You need someone else to help you identify foul odors in your home because we tend to stop smelling unpleasant smells when we live with them for a little while. Don’t assume your property smells fine. Buyers might not feel the same way.
Talk to your real estate agent about how your home smells. They can tell you whether there are odors that need to be addressed.
If you have pets, there is a big chance that your house smells like those pets – not a problem for you, but definitely a potential problem for buyers and most certainly for buyers with pet allergies.
Some buyers that smell such smells will not even consider buying a home afterward, so you are best off having the carpets cleaned and addressing other pet odors before you show the house.
Gizmodo has an excellent resource for removing bad odors in your home. Leaving an awful stench in your home is being downright lazy.
11. Fix Any Glaring Defects.
When selling a home, it is essential to take care of any defects readily apparent to a buyer.
It could be something simple like an old water stain on the ceiling or an issue more significant like a dripping pipe. Whatever the problem is, take care of it.
When there is an extensive list of items for a buyer to repair, you’ll find that buyers will account for it in the offer they make.
Quite often, what it would cost to repair or improve is much less than what the buyer will discount their offer.
Something you may want to consider if you think there might be problems you’re unaware of is a pre-listing home inspection. A professional home inspector will discover the vast majority of issues that might not be apparent to you.
Remember, the buyer will have their inspection, so preparing for their inspector in advance will be wise and well worth the money.
Make these fixes part of your spring home maintenance checklist if you plan on selling later in the year.
12. Remove Pets From The home During Showings.
For dog and cat lovers, it can seem crazy that buyers wouldn’t want to meet your pets.
But the fact is, there are a lot of potential buyers who are not into pets due to allergies or some other aversion. Even dog and cat lovers may prefer to buy a home with minimal pet presence.
That is why your agent recommends removing your pets from the premises when you show the home.
You can take them to the neighbors, a family member’s or friend’s home, or anywhere you like. The goal is to get them out of the house – and remove any fur or odors – to present a clean, pet-free home in case buyers prefer it.
You can read up on several tips on selling a home with pets.
When it comes time to move, it will also be worthwhile to read up on moving when you have a pet. The article provides thirteen exceptional tips.
13. Provide Flyers With Useful Information About The home, The School District, etc.
There may be some information that potential buyers will find helpful when they view the home, like information about the repairs the house has had or the school districts in the area. Making a list of improvements you have made to your property is helpful to a buyer.
Outstanding real estate agents will use this as part of their marketing material that a buyer will take when viewing the home. Your list should include what you did and when.
You may even create a flyer showing all the fantastic places you can walk to from your home. It all depends on the type of buyer you are courting and what your home has to offer.
14. Know The Pros and Cons of Virtual Staging.
One of the latest rages in the real estate industry is what’s known as virtual staging. Most real estate agents will tell you that a first impression is critical when selling a home.
Your online photography is where buyers will start to form opinions about your home.
Given this, companies are now virtually staging vacant homes online. There are, of course, pros and cons of doing it. What needs to be abundantly clear is the importance of disclosing when you are virtually staging.
The last thing you’ll want to do is give a buyer the wrong impression of your property. Making it something it’s not is an abysmal decision.
Real Estate agents need to avoid fooling home buyers with misleading virtual staging.Click To Tweet.Final Thoughts On Staging a House Inexpensively
Getting your home ready for the real estate market is a critical exercise. Making your home appealing to the real estate market should be an important goal.
It would be best never to put your home on the market before you are ready. Doing so could be disastrous. Hopefully, you have enjoyed these cheap ways to stage your home before it goes on the market.
Other Helpful Home Selling and Buying Real Estate Resources
- Should I stage or leave my house vacant – see some tips and thoughts on whether it is necessary to stage your home when selling or leave it empty. If your budget is of any concern leaving a house empty is not a big deal, even though some real estate agents who push staging will tell you it’s necessary.
- Getting a mortgage as a single mom – will you be purchasing a home as a single parent? Learn about some great mortgage programs for singles buying a house for the first time.
- Options for financing luxury property – will you buy a luxury home? Do you know some of the more popular mortgage options? Discover financing options when buying luxury real estate.
Look at the above real estate resources for sound advice when buying or selling your next home.
About the author: The above Real Estate information on how to stage a house for sale inexpensively was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-625-0191. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 37+ years.
Are you thinking of selling your home? I am passionate about real estate and love sharing my marketing expertise!
I service Real Estate sales in the following Metrowest MA towns: Ashland, Bellingham, Douglas, Framingham, Franklin, Grafton, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hopedale, Medway, Mendon, Milford, Millbury, Millville, Natick, Northborough, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Southborough, Sutton, Wayland, Westborough, Whitinsville, Worcester, Upton, and Uxbridge MA.
