Are you looking to sell a home in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia?
If so, you may be wondering how to make your home stand out from the rest of the real estate market, attract more buyers, and get a higher sales price.
A relatively inexpensive way to do that is with home staging. You may have heard of home staging before, but you may not know exactly what it entails, why it is important, or how to do it. In this article, we will answer those questions and give you some practical staging ideas for selling a home in the Shenandoah Valley to highlight your property’s strengths, downplay its weaknesses, and appeal to the largest pool of potential buyers.
What Is Home Staging?
Home staging is the process of preparing a property for sale by enhancing the interior appearance and external curb appeal. The goal of home staging is to make the property look as appealing as possible to potential buyers, so they are more likely to make you an offer.
Why Is Staging Important for Selling a Home?
Home staging is important because it can help to sell a property quickly and for a higher price. When you stage your home, you are presenting it in the best possible light, which can make a big difference to potential buyers. Staging can help you highlight your home’s best features and downplay any potential drawbacks.
According to the National Association of Realtors, a survey from the International Association of Home Staging Professionals shows that staging helps sell homes up to 30 times faster and increases the sale price by up to 20% on average than the non-staged competition. That makes home staging a worthwhile investment for any homeowner who wants to get the most out of their house sale in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
Now, let’s dive into the home staging ideas!
Staging Ideas for Selling Your Home In the Shenandoah Valley
1. Boost Your Curb Appeal
First impressions are everything, so you want to make sure your home stands out the minute buyers pull up to the curb or look at your house listing online. A well-maintained and attractive exterior can make potential buyers want to see more of the home’s interior and offer more money for it.
Here are some budget-friendly ideas to boost your home’s curb appeal:
- Paint your front door a bright or contrasting color to make it stand out and add personality.
- Install window boxes with colorful flowers or plants around the front to enhance your landscape and add charm.
- Replace old or damaged hardware, such as house numbers, door locksets, light fixtures, and the mailbox with new ones that look up to date.
- If you have porch furniture, create symmetry and balance with accessories, such as chairs, tables, rugs, pillows, and lanterns.
- Keep your lawn and garden tidy by mowing, edging, weeding, pruning, and adding a fresh top layer of mulch or gravel.
2. Declutter and Depersonalize
Decluttering and removing personal items is important for staging a home because it can make your house look more spacious, neutral, and appealing to potential buyers. By removing excess and personal items, you can showcase your home’s best features and create a positive first impression during the walkthrough.
Use these staging ideas to declutter and depersonalize to show your home before selling:
- Start early and tackle one room at a time. Don’t wait until the last minute to declutter before the photos are taken by the real estate agent.
- Sort your belongings into four categories: keep, sell, donate, and trash. Be ruthless and only keep the items that you need, use, and love. Less is more when it comes to staging the interior of a home to make it look attractive to buyers.
- Pack and store the items that you don’t need until you move. This includes seasonal clothing, holiday decorations, sentimental items, and extra belongings. Keep the surfaces and floors clear of anything that is not necessary for daily living.
- Depersonalize each room. Remove personal items from your home so potential buyers can imagine themselves living there. Pack away family photos, hobby items, religious symbols, political signs, family name elements, etc.
- Clean and dust your home thoroughly. Wipe down the walls, windows, countertops, cabinets, appliances, and fixtures. Vacuum and mop the floors, carpets, and rugs. Make your home sparkle and shine and keep it as neat as possible each day so there is less for you to do before a showing.
3. Create a Neutral and Fresh Look
Creating a neutral and fresh look is another great idea for staging a home for sale because it can help your property appeal to a wider range of buyers and make your home look more spacious, clean, and updated.
By painting your walls and trim a light and neutral color, such as white, beige, or gray, it can brighten up your space and make it look bigger to prospective home buyers.
4. Add Pops of Color and Personality
Another simple home staging idea is to add pops of color and personality to the main living areas. Doing this can make the spaces feel more inviting, stylish, and memorable to potential buyers.
A splash of color against a neutral background, as mentioned in the previous tip, can also brighten up the listing photos and catch the eye of online shoppers.
Here are some ideas on how to add pops of color and personality to your home:
- Use throw pillows, rugs, or curtains in bright and contrasting colors to create visual interest and accentuate the neutral furniture or walls.
- Color-coordinate your display shelves or bookcases with books, vases, or other accessories that match the color scheme of the room.
- Keep (or add) a colorful piece of furniture or artwork that complements the space and adds some character.
- Paint one wall in the bedroom with a soothing or classic color that works well with the bedding and/or add a mirror to make the room look bigger and brighter.
- Choose a cheerful color for your front door, mailbox, or planters, and coordinate it with seasonal flowers or wreaths to create a more welcoming curb appeal.
5. Freshen Up Your Furniture
Freshening up furniture with slipcovers and throw pillows can make your furniture look more attractive, comfortable, and updated without much investment. Slipcovers can hide stains, tears, or outdated patterns, while throw pillows can add pops of color and texture to give the room a more comfortable feel.
6. Create a Welcoming and Cozy Atmosphere
Using candles and lighting enhancements is another budget-friendly idea for home staging to improve the mood and create a sense of warmth and comfort in the house.
Simple ideas for candles and lighting include:
- Adding groups of candles of different shapes and sizes together on shelves, side tables, or coffee tables.
- Putting candles in glass containers or lanterns or on top of reflective surfaces like mirrors and metallic accents to amplify the lighting effect.
- Using natural lighting as much as possible by drawing back the curtains or using sheer white curtains to let the sunlight in.
- Using dimmers on ceiling lights to lower the brightness to create a cozy ambience.
- Adding decorative elements such as flowers, books, or pillows that match the color scheme of the candles and lighting in the room.
7. Stage Your Kitchen to Show Off Features and Functionality
Kitchens are one of the top-selling factors for houses, so any updates you make have the potential to go a long way. A well-staged kitchen can help your home sell faster and for more money without having to break the bank with a full renovation.
Here are some ideas for how to stage your kitchen to show off features and functionality:
- Remove any clutter, personal items, or unnecessary objects from the countertops, cabinets, drawers, and pantry. This will make the kitchen look more organized and spacious.
- Clean everything thoroughly, including the sink, faucet, stove, oven, refrigerator, and dishwasher. Make sure there are no stains, grease, or odors. A sparkling-clean kitchen will impress buyers and make them feel like it is move-in ready.
- Update the cabinets and hardware if they are outdated or worn out. Stores like Lowes and Home Depot located in the Shenandoah Valley have special cabinet painting kits you can use to give the doors and facing panels a fresh look.
- Replacing knobs and handles is another cheap way to make the kitchen cabinet hardware look more modern and stylish.
- Add some color and personality with accessories, such as a bowl of fresh fruit, a vase of flowers, a cookbook, or a cutting board.
- Set the table or the island with some plates, glasses, napkins, and utensils, as if you are ready to serve a meal. This will create a welcoming and cozy atmosphere, and showcase the functionality of the space.
8. Beautify the Bathroom
Similar to the kitchen, the bathrooms can often make or break a home sale, so you should stage them as best as possible for potential buyers. Beautifying the bathroom is important because it can make the space feel more clean and easy to care for. A beautiful bathroom can also showcase the features and functionality of the space, such as the lighting, the fixtures, or the storage options.
Focus on these things when staging the bathroom:
- Clean everything thoroughly, including the sink, faucet, shower, tub, toilet, and mirror. Make sure there are no stains, dirt, or odors. A sparkling-clean bathroom will impress buyers and make them feel like it is move-in ready.
- Remove any clutter, personal items, or unnecessary objects from the countertops, cabinets, drawers, and shelves. This will make the bathroom look more organized and spacious.
- Update the cabinets and hardware if they are outdated or worn out. You can paint the cabinets a neutral or classic color and/or replace the knobs and handles with something more modern and stylish.
- Add some color and personality with accessories, such as a vase of flowers, a candle, or a soap dispenser. Also, install additional towel racks for added convenience, if necessary.
- Improve the lighting by replacing dead or dim bulbs. Consider adding a light over the mirror or using a lamp or a sconce if one does not exist. Good lighting can enhance the mood, highlight the features, and create a sense of warmth and comfort in the bathroom.
9. Make Your Bedrooms and Closets Look Spacious
Making your bedrooms and closets look spacious is important when staging a home for sale because it can attract buyers who are looking for a house that can accommodate their needs and preferences. Spacious bedrooms and closets can also create a sense of comfort, relaxation, and luxury in the home, which may be the tipping point needed to sell your house in a competitive market.
Similar to the previous staging ideas, you want to remove as much clutter as possible from the bedrooms and closets so they look tidy. Also, you can instantly create a more inviting and serene main bedroom with a well-made bed covered in fresh linens, a solid color duvet or comforter, a few throw pillows, and an extra blanket draped over the foot of the bed.
As for the closets, remove as much clothing as possible and store it somewhere else where potential buyers will not see it. Many people will open the closet doors during a showing to take a peek inside and you want this area to look as clutter-free and spacious as possible.
10. Add Functional Office Space
With more people working from home and homeschooling becoming common, a workspace is a must-have for some buyers. If you don’t have an entire room to spare for this purpose, carve out a space in a spare bedroom, a corner of the living room, or even a closet to show the potential of an at-home workspace or homeschooling area. Doing so could make it easier for buyers who need those types of spaces to submit an offer on your home.
Want Some Expert Help Staging Your Home In the Shenandoah Valley?
As one of Shenandoah Valley’s premier realtors, we offer home staging services as part of our client package. We have experienced stagers in our office who know how to spruce up your home to make it more appealing, functional, and memorable to potential buyers.
We can tell you what does—and does not—need to be improved in your home for a quicker sale based on our history of working with thousands of buyers and sellers. Plus, we can even lend you accessories and furniture from our home staging warehouse to decorate the areas that potential buyers care about most.
Call us today at 540-476-1212 to learn more about the home staging services we provide to our clients. Our top goal is to help make the home selling process for you stress-free and successful!