6 DIY Staging Tips and Tricks to Make Your Listing Shine

Need to stage your home for selling? Don’t worry! Here’s what you should know about DIY staging and six tips and tricks to get your home ready for the camera and, ultimately, listing-ready.

What Do Buyers Want?
Staging your own home is a great way to save money, but it’s also easy to do wrong. Many homeowners struggle to separate their personal tastes from what buyers want. Even if you’re doing your own staging, have a conversation with your real estate agent to learn about the preferences of buyers in your market. An experienced agent will know what has worked for other homes in your neighborhood and have the objective viewpoint to see your home through a buyer’s eyes. Just make sure not to take negative feedback personally. If you want the best price for your home, you have to be open to constructive criticism.

What Should You Spend?
The cost of professional home staging depends on the size of your home, whether you’re renting furniture or using your own, and how long it takes your home to sell. If you have the funds, it’s definitely worth paying for a consultation with a professional stager like Prime Home Staging to guide your DIY efforts.

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​6 DIY Staging Tips
These tips will help you get your home ready to impress buyers without spending a lot.

1. Declutter thoroughly. Cluttered is the worst thing a home can be when trying to sell. So try to clear out as many personal belongings as practical, particularly when it comes to books, media, knick-knacks, and other items on display. Store the excess in a storage unit, not in closets and basements — buyers want to see these areas spacious and organized, too.
2. Revamp your walls. It probably goes without saying that if you have chipped or muddied paint on your walls that you’ll need a new paint job before showing your home. Fortunately, painting a room is a DIY job. Just make sure you have a stable ladder and use quality equipment and paint and primer. One fashionable option is peel-and-stick wallpaper which comes in many elegant designs and is removable and easy to apply to your walls. If you order online, you’ll be able to customize your design and make the rooms in your home more attractive to buyers. 
3. Rearrange furniture. To create visual appeal and promote traffic flow through your home, arrange furniture in groupings. Living room seating clustered around a coffee table looks inviting while leaving plenty of space to wander. This can be hard to achieve with oversized furniture, so if your furnishings are bulky, get rid of unnecessary pieces or rent scaled-down furniture for staging.
4. Use inexpensive accessories. A vase of eucalyptus in the bathroom, matching place settings on the kitchen table, a framed art print over the bed — these are the little touches that add personality to your home. While you want to add character, it’s also important that your home’s styling appeals to everyone. Discount retailers like T.J. Maxx, craft stores like Michaels, and even the dollar store are good places to shop for inexpensive décor with mass appeal.
5. Turn up the lighting. Great lighting makes your home look cleaner, larger, and more inviting. Open curtains during showings and open houses to maximize natural light and replace light bulbs with the maximum wattage allowed for each fixture.
6. Appeal to the senses. Nothing spoils a first impression faster than unpleasant odors. Before hosting potential buyers, empty interior garbage cans, clean up pet waste, and open the windows for 10 minutes. A pleasant aroma gives your house a homey feel, but avoid air fresheners and artificial fragrances, which bother some people. Instead, mull stovetop potpourri, diffuse essential oils, or use another natural air freshener.

Professional staging may not be in your budget, but a quick consultation to get you headed in the right direction will save you time and money!  Home staging is key to making a good first impression on buyers, and without it, you may struggle to sell your property. No matter how small your staging budget, you can use these tips to sell your home.

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""We used Prime Home Staging to stage our newly renovated rental property.  Not only did we have a tenant offer above asking, but they also asked if they could buy the furniture." 

​Harry Cline