10 Budget-Friendly Home Staging Tips
Affordable Home Staging Tips
Are you searching for the best ways to stage a house on a budget? Here are ten great budget-friendly home staging tips that will impress buyers!
Home staging is the process of preparing a home for sale by making it more appealing for potential buyers so that they can visualize themselves living there. Home staging involves "setting the stage" by redecorating, rearranging furniture, and cleaning and decluttering a space to impress potential buyers.
There are many home staging tips that will lead to a home sale, but depending on what needs to be done to attract buyers and encourage a sale, home staging can cost a lot of money.
The process of home staging is an important part of selling, but fortunately, it can be a manageable amount of your paycheck as long as you follow these ten budget-friendly home staging tips.
Check out these affordable home staging tips
Chapters
1. Declutter
Decluttering the house is one of the most important things to do when home staging and it is also highly budget-friendly since it does not require you to spend money.
Generally not a difficult task, it is a crucial step in home staging since it allows potential home buyers to focus on the space and imagine themselves living there without extra clutter getting in the way.
Decluttering is often a necessary step when downsizing or relocating cross-country. It can help a home feel bigger and open up space. A lot of clutter spread throughout the house can distract buyers and make the space feel small and messy.
One of the best ways to declutter is by following the 80/20 decluttering rule. This rule states that your home should be filled 80% of the way, and the extra 20% of space should remain empty to provide visual relief and allow new objects to enter without feeling overly crowded.
Though it can be tempting to stuff any unwanted items into the closets, it is essential to declutter those, too, since many potential homebuyers will likely open closets to check for storage space.
2. Add Mirrors
Adding mirrors to an interior is a great tip for home staging since the reflective surface of a mirror makes a room appear brighter and more spacious. Mirrors are great anywhere they are placed during the staging process and are a go-to piece to have in entryways, living rooms, hallways, and bedrooms.
Affordable mirrors can be found at home stores, consignment stores, and online retailers.
3. Enhance Curb Appeal
Did you know that curb appeal can account for up to 7% of a home's value when sold? Curb appeal is the attractiveness of a property for sale and its surroundings when viewed from the street to a prospective buyer. Curb appeal is extremely important and is the first thing that potential homebuyers will notice when looking at a property.
If curb appeal is maximized, more homebuyers will want to tour the home and consider living there. One of the first things that listing agents bring up to home sellers is to boost curb appeal for home staging.
The best way to enhance curb appeal without breaking the bank is to repaint the house to make the home more appealing, repaint the front door, clean the windows, refresh the landscaping with new colorful flowers, add outdoor lighting in garden beds and along pathways, make sure the mailbox is in good condition, and clean the entryway of spiderwebs and other debris.
Sprucing up the front lawn and adding a bit of color will go a long way and make your home stand out. Not only will curb appeal boost your home's charm, but it could also lead to a quicker sale and maximize profits.
4. Rearrange Furniture
Instead of going out to buy new furniture and art for the walls, sometimes the best way to stage a home is to use what you already have but rearrange it. By simply moving furniture around, you can make a space feel completly different and fresh.
By strategically placing furniture and decorations throughout the home, you can make a significant impact and create an inviting and attractive space. Start by rearranging furniture in the main communal spaces, such as the living room.
5. Virtual Staging
Virtually staging a home is a new concept that allows sellers to style rooms by adding features such as art, furniture, and lighting through software. This computer-assisted design process digitally decorates and furnishes a picture of a room to make the space more visually appealing for buyers.
During the pandemic, virtual staging became popular since many buyers started looking at homes more online. 97% of homebuyers consider photographs to be a critical aspect of a home listing and, when done correctly, will help lead to a sale.
Cheaper than traditional home staging, virtual staging has no restrictions and greatly increases a home's appeal. While virtual staging only benefits buyers who look at photos of a home online, it does a great job of showing a home's potential and what it could look like decorated professionally.
Generally, virtual staging is only charged once for the whole service or per photo, which can help sellers save money.
6. Deep Clean
Much like decluttering, you should deep clean your home before preparing for home staging or an open house. Deep cleaning is an affordable way to help create an open and inviting space that homebuyers will be impressed with.
This step enhances the property's appeal and will help the home feel refreshed and clean. No potential homebuyer wants to walk into a dirty house. When deep cleaning, focus on wiping down surfaces, cleaning the windows, cleaning rugs, mopping floors, scrubbing bathrooms, and wiping down the walls, baseboards, appliances, glass, and mirrors.
Deep cleaning and decluttering are simple enough tasks when getting ready to sell your home, but they can take up a lot of time. Much like spring cleaning, get the whole family involved and have a plan before getting started.
7. Remove Personal Items
Removing personal items from the home during the home staging process helps potential home buyers imagine themselves living in the space. Depersonalizing the house and creating a blank slate creates a neutral and welcoming environment for homebuyers.
Removing all traces of personal photos, unique collections, sayings on the walls, personal items in the bathrooms or the bedrooms, controversial items that may stir up negative feelings, and anything hanging on the fridge is good.
If a potential homebuyer has pet allergies, removing all traces of pets living in the home is also a good idea, such as pet beds, toys, food, and water bowls.
The goal is to create a warm and inviting space for potential homebuyers to see how a home could be lived in rather than seeing how a home is currently being lived in at the time.
While depersonalizing a home can be overwhelming, the best places to start are the living room, primary bedroom, and kitchen since homebuyers generally seem to care most about these rooms.
8. Organize Closets
When cleaning, it can be easy to shove everything you want out of the way inside closets. This is not a good idea during home staging since many buyers like looking inside closets to see how much storage space a home has.
This is why it is imperative to keep all closets throughout the home organized and spacious, specifically closets in bedrooms. During the decluttering process, remove all unused and unwanted clothing and consider displaying only the current season's clothing. Organizing clothing by color or type is also a great idea.
Check that all hangers are the same, and keep the closet floor as clean as possible. No one likes looking at clutter. If the closet is dark, consider installing extra lighting.
9. Make Use of Plants
Highlighting areas in the home with plants is an excellent tip for home staging that does not have to cost a lot of money. Houseplants not only help improve air quality, but they are known to relieve stress and can boost creativity and focus.
Perhaps one of the best benefits of houseplants is that they look pretty and can really brighten a space. Not all plants are created equal, but if you are strategic with your plant placement, it can go a long when home staging and can give specific areas in the home more purpose during an open house.
Some of the best ways to stage houseplants are to group them in threes, place them on stands, select plants of different heights, and place them in communal spaces like the kitchen or the living room.
10. Let in Natural Light
Natural light in a staged home leaves a lasting impression on potential homebuyers and can make your home more open and inviting. Lighting is very important during home staging, and natural light not only improves your mood and helps you maintain your energy but, when done correctly, can create a stunning space.
Natural light has power, and during home staging, you can clean the windows, trim shrubbery, paint the walls light or neutral colors, rearrange furniture, and add mirrors to reflect light in order to let in as much sunlight into the home as possible.
Many buyers like to see how much natural light a home has, and sometimes, sellers schedule showings during the sunniest parts of the day to take advantage of this. Natural lighting is free and will cost the seller nothing; plus, it makes any small space seem bigger.
Methodology
We used data and information from many reliable sources, including Vogue, The University of Texas at Arlington, and Healthline, to determine the best budget-friendly home staging tips that every seller should follow.
FAQs
Is staging an empty house worth it?
Staging an empty house is definitely worth it since staged homes are more appealing to potential buyers and tend to sell for a higher price than empty houses.
Is home staging stressful?
Home staging is a lot of work and can be a very stressful part of the home-selling process. It takes a lot of time and can cost a lot of money to complete, but it is worth the stress once the home sells.
Should you set the table when staging a home?
It is not recommended to set the table when staging a home since many professionals advise sellers to keep the space clean and uncluttered. Potential buyers should be focused on the space itself rather than the stuff inside the home.
Budget-Friendly Home Staging Tips - Final Thoughts
Decluttering and deep cleaning a space are some of the first steps of home staging and do not have to cost you money. The truth is home staging can be overwhelming and stressful but there are many affordable and budget-friendly ways to approach home staging that will create an attractive and welcoming space that potential buyers will love.
Whether you are selling or buying a home, the experts at Raleigh Realty are ready to help. Contact us today so that we can assist you in any way we can.
Ryan Fitzgerald
Hi there! Nice to 'meet' you and thanks for visiting our Raleigh Real Estate Blog! My name is Ryan Fitzgerald, and I'm a REALTOR® in Raleigh-Durham, NC, the owner of Raleigh Realty. I work alongside some of the best Realtors in Raleigh. You can find more of my real estate content on Forbes, Wall Street Journal, U.S. News and more. Realtor Magazine named me a top 30 under 30 Realtor in the country (it was a long time ago haha). Any way, that's enough about me. I'd love to learn more about you if you'd like to connect with me on Facebook and Instagram or connect with our team at Raleigh Realty. Looking forward to connecting!
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