DIY Staging Tips to Sell Your Charlotte House FAST

When a homeowners see how much it costs to stage a home, their stomach usually drops.

“Why would I pay $300-$600 for a consultation and potentially another $7,000 to stage my home with furniture I’m RENTING?!”

Look, I get it. Sounds insane on first thought, but there is a statistical impact of staging a home, which is why SO many people do it.

In fact, 22 percent of sellers’ agents reported an increase of one to five percent of the dollar value offered by buyers, in comparison to similar homes. Seventeen percent of respondents stated that staging a home increased the dollar value of the home between six and 10 percent.

More or less, if you’d like to get top dollar in your neighborhood, staging is a non-negotiable.

There are however several staging tips that are inexpensive and can be done with very little time, effort, and capital.

If you decide you want to take this on yourself, here’s some pointers for how to stage your home without a professional.

Staging Tip #1 – Lighting

Home-owners are numb to the poor lighting in their own homes because they’ve lived with it for so long.

By in large, this breaks down to two problems:

Wrong Lighting “Temperature”:

Have you gone in to a bathroom/kitchen/bedroom with a florescent blue tint lighting? It’s like being in a hospital or insane asylum.

Thankfully, THIS IS AN EASY FIX. Go to Home Depot right now and just replace your bulbs with more tungsten bulbs.

“Warmer” bulbs may have a higher energy usage, but it’ll feel like home instead of an episode of CSI Miami.

LACK of Lighting Altogether:

A dim-lit room might seem romantic on date night, but it makes your home seem like a prison built in the 50s.

Grab a couple extra lamps for cheap and see a huge difference in how your home shows.

When you have a showing, turn on EVERY light, open up the blinds and maximize lighting in your home.

Staging Tip #2 – Outdoor

This is the beginning of the experience for buyers:

(1) what’s the curb appeal

(2) “How BBQs am I going to have here!?”

Don’t underestimate this.. Outdoor space can be just as important as indoor spaces.

By this point you’ve repainted the front of the house, repaired/replaced the old fence/deck, lighting, mailbox, replaced the blinds, have some new door hardware etc.

For staging the exterior, first focus on all the small details: old house numbers, clean up the edging around flowerbeds, toss down a new welcome mat, lay down fresh mulch, etc.

Even if it’s the dead of winter, fill in empty beds with small shrubs, seasonal flowers and get a pair of urns or large planters to fill them with plants to make the place pop.

Lastly is furniture. Help people visualize the social components of the outside: add some chairs, a table, and huge kudos if you can install a swing!

Staging Tip #3 – Show off your SPACE (pun)

Clean your house out. FULLY.

You need to MAXIMIZE the square footage of your home, regardless if your home is 1100sqft or 5,000sqft.

Pack up all those small appliances, put the holiday dish-ware and fine china set (if you have that kind of thing) straight into a storage unit offsite.

The cost to rent a “POD” or storage unit for a couple months is much less than letting a home that is cluttered with “stuff” sit on the market for 6-10 months.

Toss the old oil in the garage, bring the bikes to your cousin’s house, usually remove a LOT of furniture, clear the items on the coffee table & shelves by half..

Many folks believe a room feels bigger if furniture is against the wall, but this is RARELY true. Instead, reposition furniture away from the walls to show more places to walk about the house.

The goal here is to show people a comfy home that doesn’t have clutter and is optimally an improvement to their existing living situation.

Staging Tip #4 – Be clean and BLAND (really…)

Not the advise I’d give you for a first date, but play it vanilla. Really.

When selecting a piece of furniture, pick the one that is grey, beige or neutral. Do NOT go for the floral chair, or the green couch.

A designer can pull that off, but you cannot. You’re doing this DIY and I promise you that your living room does not look the same as the Restoration Hardware ad you saw online.

The buyer should be focused on their OWN vision for the home, not a poor rendition of a Dr. Seuss book.

SAME GOES WITH PAINT. Just because you’ve heard of Pinterest doesn’t mean you can pull off the color purple.

No zebras, no neon, no patterns in general. Stick with Earth tones or just go white/light-grey.

Small note: Minor repairs can help buyers focus on the space instead of the problems, but this can be done on the cheap. Instead of replacing the dishwasher, check with the manufacturer to see if they sell replacement panels for your model.

Staging Tip #5 – Every room has a purpose

You do not want your buyers to be confused about whether a room is a living room or the foyer.

If a bedroom is being used as an office, stage it in ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.

Most buyers will not automatically envision how a room can be used unless it’s clearly defined for them.

Need a referral?

We buy homes for cash fast in Charlotte North Carolina, but we also LOVE recommending people to our favorite vendors.

Whether you need a realtor that can maximize the price of your home, a solid staging company or landscaper to “wow” your buyers, we’re happy to throw you some phone numbers for the best in the biz.

Just ask us what you need on our Contact Form and we’ll connect you with the best!

We service the following Greater Charlotte, NC areas: Kannapolis, Gastonia, Concord, Harrisburg, Huntersville, Lake Norman area, Matthews, Weddington, Fort Mill South Carolina, Rock Hill South Carolina, Mint Hill, Indian Land, Mecklenburg County, Cabarrus County, Gaston County, Lincoln County, Union County