Preparing your home to sell can be a stressful process, but fortunately, your real estate agent will be able to walk you through the process. As you get ready to sell, your agent will likely talk to you about staging, which refers to making your home look attractive to buyers by arranging furniture and performing maintenance touch-ups.
But where to begin with staging your home? Here are some tips to make your space look as appealing as possible.
1. Declutter and depersonalize
You might love the kids’ artwork adorning your fridge and the years of family photos hanging in frames along the hallway, but to a potential buyer, these can be distracting. Buyers will want to visualize themselves inhabiting the space, which becomes more difficult when confronted with details of the current owners’ daily lives.
Remove all personal touches, stash any items like toothbrushes or deodorant, and box up those piles of paper that have accumulated on your desk. The home should be free of clutter, even if that means renting a storage unit for a bit to get extraneous furniture and items out of the way.
2. Let there be light
The brighter the space, the bigger it looks, so make sure to open up all the blinds, pull back the curtains, and switch on lights in darker areas like bathrooms. Buyers will want to see how much natural light streams into the space on a sunny day, so make sure to play this up. You can even repaint some walls with lighter shades like off-white, pale gray, or tan.
3. Make minor repairs
You don’t need to complete a whole home renovation to get your space looking in great shape. Do a walk-through of your home and see what stands out: are there any cracks in the basement that you can patch up or any loose boards on the deck that should be replaced? Double-check all lightbulbs, change any that need it, and do a thorough dusting and cleaning of hard-to-reach spots. You might not often think about the back corner of the pantry or the basement crawl space, but potential buyers will want to scope everything out. Of course, if you’re feeling overwhelmed with staging, you can always hire a professional cleaning service or maintenance company to complete repairs while you focus on other things.
Browsing Pleasanton homes for sale? Contact experienced Pleasanton real estate agent Sarina Dhanoa today! She and her knowledgeable team are happy to help you find your dream home.
