South Lake Tahoe real estate

Simple Home Staging Tips

Staging your home can be as simple as re-arranging, cleaning, and adding a few unique decorations. Staging can also be as extensive as hiring a professional home stager and spending thousands thousands on high-end furnishings. For those of you who want to make staging simple, I have put together some great tips to sell your Lake Tahoe homes.

LOOSE THE CLUTTER!
Today’s Lake Tahoe home buyers are looking for light, bright, and large open rooms. Clutter will make a room look small, non inviting, and ultimately make it hard to sell your home.
It’s time to to put away all of the trinkets, nick knacks, and miscellaneous “stuff” that you have accumulated over the years. Throw out the old magazines and catalogues that are spread out on the coffee table, and store those old books cluttering up the book shelves. Stand back and take a look at the room. Are there too many pictures cluttering up the walls? Is there too much furniture crammed into the room? Is the room lopsided with all of the furniture on one side? If so, you should correct any of those problems to create a more inviting, balanced and open feeling room.

Clean it up!

Cleaning your home is an often overlooked element of staging. If your carpet is stained or dirty, have it cleaned. Even if you think the new owners will be replacing the old carpet, your house will  show and smell a lot better. If you have dirty or scuffed walls, break out the Spackle and paint. Make sure that you use lighter neutral colors instead of dark and bold ones. Your taste will probably not be the same as the prospective buyers, and dark colors will make the room  look smaller.

Time for some elbow grease!

 The kitchen and bathrooms are very important rooms for prospective buyers. Clean off the kitchen counters and put away any unused small appliances. Do not overlook the major appliances like the stove, cook-top, oven, microwave, or the infamous refrigerator. This is where the prospective buyer will be preparing his or her meals!  Moving on to the bathrooms, scrub those toilets, showers, sinks and behind the faucets. Empty the waste baskets, and don’t forget to put the toilet seat down!

Time for the details!

Once your house is clean and free of clutter, it’s time for some flair. Add some fresh flowers (I would avoid the fake ones), a bowl of colorful fresh fruit in the kitchen, some towels wrapped in ribbons and scented soap in the bathrooms, be creative! Try to draw attention to the focal points. For example, put some unique candle holders on the mantle, and always try to display decorative items in groups of odd numbers. It doesn’t take much, we just got rid of the clutter!

Look outside!

The outside is just as important, and the most overlooked aspect of home staging. First impressions are key, and the outside is the first part of your home that prospective buyers will see. If the exterior is looking tired, think about a paint job. Sweep or even pressure wash the driveway and walk ways, cut the lawn, and dust the spider webs. Finally, add some colorful flower pots around the yard.

According to staged homes .com, most staging efforts have a 400% to 500% return on investment. Furthermore, staged homes spend 50% less time on the market and lead to an average of 6.9% higher sales price than unstaged homes. Staging might just be worth the effort, and the difference between a “For Sale” sign and a “Sold” sign on your South Lake Tahoe Real Estate!