Home staging gets a house ready for sale by using specific techniques. Calgary home stagers use furniture and decor to help create a visual representation of any given room. They will also work on decluttering, depersonalizing and cleaning the home to make it as appealing as possible to potential buyers—fun fact: Realty Unleashed stages your Calgary home for free. We believe in and know the value of home staging and how it helps sell a house faster and for more money. Home staging in Calgary motivates a buyer to make a swift offer, leading to a faster sale at a higher price. The National Association of REALTORS® completed a survey in 2021, which found that homeowners could see a 5-15% return on investment when staging their home before it listing. Here are some of our do’s and don’t when it comes to staging your home!
DO: Declutter and depersonalize.
Decluttering your home will be one of the most critical elements of home staging. You must depersonalize and declutter to allow your house to appeal to most buyers; this is the time to take down your family photos and personalized items. For example, if you have a gallery wall behind your couch with all of your family’s photos, it makes it difficult for the buyer to picture their family living there! The same practices apply to clutter; get rid of it and keep what is necessary. Less is more! Professional home stagers will help you choose which furniture makes sense, as in the living room should have a couch and a coffee table. You only need the necessities when staging a home, so don’t concern yourself with over-decorating. Keep it basic!
DON’T: Forget about curb appeal.
When buyers walk into a home, they generally know if they like it or not within the first 5 minutes. The outside of a home can usually be a good prediction of what the inside looks like, meaning curb appeal is essential! Sometimes, buyers will drive by a property before an in-person viewing, so you want to ensure that your home’s exterior, including the landscaping, looks great! The reality is that most people don’t have the time to keep up with daily yard maintenance, but while your property is listed, try to give it some daily TLC.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself when considering curb appeal:
- How does my roof look? Are the shingles intact?
- Does my lawn need to be mowed?
- Do my walks need to be shovelled?
- Are my light fixtures outdated?
- Should I re-paint my front door?
- Are there overgrown plants or shrubs that take away from the attractiveness of my home?
DO: Stage your kitchen.
Kitchens tend to be the room where everyone gathers the most, family and friends. When buyers look at a home, they prioritize the kitchen; it is one of the most special places in someone’s house! Start by deep-cleaning because we all know how good a clean kitchen feels! Buyers open cupboards and look underneath the sink; ensure you’re cleaning everywhere! You can place a few things on the counters to make your space look inviting and friendly. For example, think about putting a tea kettle on the stove, a few cookbooks on the counter, and a vase with fresh flowers on your dining table. If you have open shelves in your kitchen, decorate them with a few plates and simple decor pieces.
DON’T: Spend tons of money on furniture or decor.
Home staging is not about interior design; it is a marketing and selling strategy. When it comes time to stage your home, look at the community you’re in, what schools are nearby, what the list price of your house will be, comparables in the neighbourhood, etc. Realty Unleashed has staged homes in Calgary on all sides of the pricing spectrum, from the lower, higher, and everything in between. It’s our team’s job to determine who the most likely buyer would be of your home and to stage it that way! Once we have decided who will most likely be interested in buying your house (i.e. larger families, new parents, empty-nesters, retired folks, a student, etc.), we stage it to suit how they would live in the home. Long story short, home staging comes down to marketing, not how much money your duvet costs.
We’re here to stage your home in Calgary!
Realty Unleashed is an independent real estate brokerage serving clients in Edmonton and Calgary. We offer free home staging, free listing cleaning, free yard maintenance, free eco-station and donation centre runs, and more because we value acts of service. We also have seen time and time again the proof that staging your home before you list it is the key to selling fast and for more money. If you are considering listing your Calgary home and are in the market for a REALTOR®, you can fill out the form below – our team would love to help you sell your house!