Tips for Easy Home Staging

By Monica Schaefer

Your home is a reflection of your personal taste and style, where you have free reign to decorate as you please. However, when it comes time to put your home on the market, the first and often most difficult step, is to switch your mindset.

This wonderful place you call home is now on the market and open to other individual tastes and opinions. While you may love the custom cases that creatively showcase your snow globe collection, chances are others will not share your passion.

Military families with homes to sell prior to relocating often have a narrow window of time to procure a buyer, so selling a home quickly is critical. This is where home staging can assist all buyers but particularly military homeowners.

Neutralizing your home to broaden the appeal to buyers is an important aspect of preparing your home for sale. Step back and take an objective look at your home so you can evaluate how to create an atmosphere that will attract potential buyers. If you have a hard time seeing the forest through the trees, ask a trusted friend or family member that will offer their honest opinion about how best to spruce up your home.

Many companies offer their services to help stage your home, from the basic de-cluttering to a whole home makeover. The right home stager can transform your home from shabby to chic, resulting in a quick and lucrative sale. Most homeowners who have invested the money in hiring a professional home stager will tell you that it was money well spent.

But, what if you don’t have extra money to put into the preparation of your home?

Catching an episode of HGTV’s “My First Sale” or “The Unsellables” will give you an idea of simple fixes you can employ to avoid making a seller misstep. However, we wanted to make it easier for our service members and families to access tips and tricks for staging your home.

With a small amount of preparation, you can transform a colorful boys room into a neutral and open space that appeals to potential buyers. Cleaning, painting, de-cluttering, rearranging, and replacing colorful bedding can take that room from personal space to a blissful place.

While the four walls of our home hold dear memories, when it comes time to put your home on the market, it is important to remember that you are now entering a business transaction. Take down the items that you hold dear and prepare them to move to the next place you will call home. The sooner you are able to make this mental switch, the easier it will be for you to take an objective look at your home and prepare it for the next owner.

If you have easy and inexpensive tips for preparing a home for sale, please share them below!