Here are a few of the biggest staging pitfalls we’ve seen when sellers over-stage a home and how agents can help them avoid these missteps.
Staging Pitfalls
Don’t be Dull
Smelling With Smell
The Sound of Music
The Elephant Graveyard
Wasting money on the wrong renovations
Remove the Clutter, just don’t move it around
Don’t be Dull
Are you selling a hotel room? No? Then a home shouldn’t look like a hotel! The purpose of staging is not to make the home boring and bland. The goal of staging is to get the potential buyer to feel that the home looks nice all the time, so it should feel like real—but incredibly neat!—people live there. As agents, we typically prefer boring over cluttered and crazy, but remember, a few spots of color photograph well and will stand out in listing photos. Simple touches add subtle interest, like a red throw pillow or a turquoise fruit bowl—just don’t go too wild.
Smelling With Smell
When you’re listing a home where sellers are living, sometimes it can be tough to keep a listing in tip-top shape for spur of the moment
showings. Of course, no one wants a home to smell like last night’s beef stroganoff when a potential buyer arrives. But many sellers overcompensate with potpourri and air fresheners. Beware of overwhelming a serious buyer with seriously strong scents. A home should
smell fresh and clean, but not heavily perfumed. A seller’s best bet is to invest in a deep clean to remove lingering smells and avoid cooking anything too potent during the list time.
The Sound of Music
This one is short and very simple to do. Ditch the tunes. Mood music backfires more often than not. Sellers won’t be able to guess the buyer’s musical tastes, and it can make some buyers feel like they’re being manipulated.
The Elephant Graveyard
Sometimes it’s necessary for the homeowners to move out before the house sells. But too many sellers take their best furniture and possessions with them to their new home, leaving only the most run-down furniture behind. In a sparsely furnished house, it’s
even more important that the pieces left behind are tasteful and add to the ambiance of the home. The old sectional sofa sitting forlornly in an empty living room will just make the house feel abandoned. The house should be well furnished or completely empty. Not somewhere in between.
Wasting money on the wrong renovations
Many sellers undertake huge projects right before they sell. Perhaps the bathroom is outdated, and they’ve always wanted to fix it up. But it’s hard for sellers to guess which renovations will provide the greatest return on the investment. Small touches like new cabinet hardware or new light fixtures might go a long way toward making the home feel up to date, without doing a major renovation costing tens of thousands of dollars. Sellers should depend on their savvy agent to help figure out how much updating is needed so the home will sell easily in the current market.
Remove the Clutter, just don’t move it around
Agents say this to virtually every client: When it comes to selling a home, less is more. An uncluttered home makes listing photos more attractive, which translates to more showings, and it makes the house feel open and airy. But it rarely works to try to hide the clutter. A serious buyer will want to look under the hood, kick the tires a little. That means they’ll explore the basement, open up your closets, and even look under your sink. So it’s important to that agents stress the importance of getting rid of or storing extra belongings. It might seem like a lot of work, but it will make it easier to move out once the seller gets the offer they’ve been waiting for.
If you are thinking of selling and would like to set up a meeting with Nick & Cindy Davis. All you need to do is click here or call us at 813-300-7116 and we can schedule a time to come out and sit down with you.