There are many different staging tips and tricks out there but there are three things one should never, ever forget to do!
1.) Hide your personal information. If you have a home office you will want to keep it neat and tidy so that it looks good for showings but you should also be tucking things away so you don’t have personal information lying out in the open for everyone to see. Things like bank statements are an obvious thing to have put away but you don’t want to leave your computer open with an email from your Mom on the screen talking about how excited she is that you are moving and asking if you have done that price reduction yet. That gives a potential buyer a leg up when it comes to negotiating. Don’t leave them clues as to why you are moving or how motivated your might be (i.e. put away the offer you made on the other house that is conditional to the sale of yours)!
2.) Let the light shine in baby! Open the curtains, tilt the blind slats to let in light. People feel better if they are in a home full of light and are likely to spend a bit more time looking around. If you have the curtains drawn and all the blinds closed it can make people feel like they are intruding in on your space and then they might rush through.
3.) Put down the toilet seat! I’m just going to call it like it is here folks – you use the toilet for all things unpleasant and no one wants to see any evidence of that. Even if your toilet is impeccably clean it still isn’t pretty, so put down the seat and keep it as inconspicuous as possible. People know there is a toilet, you don’t need to draw attention to it.
All the staging in the world can go to waste if you miss these important points! None of these tasks take much time and they are all easy to do so make it a habit if your home is on the market.
