Home staging can be great when it comes to helping prospective buyers imagine themselves in your space. On the other spectrum, staging also can go wrong. Here, Realtor.com points out some mistakes that are easy to make when beautifying your home for the market.
1. Overdesigning
The goal of home staging is to help buyers visualize what the house could look like once they are settled. The trick is to subtly emit that feeling. Keep it simple with furnishings, some decor and textiles to add softness. Don’t cover every nook and cranny, even if you think it’ll look amazing.
2. Displaying fake everything
Making a home feel lived in without actually being lived in is tricky. But if your home stager suggests a nice bowl of fake fruit or anything inflatable, run quickly in the other direction. Keep it real, and forget the artificial bananas and silk leaf palm trees.
3. Not staging to scale
You might think that you need to use smaller, lightweight items to create the illusion of spaciousness. Sometimes that tactic can actually dwarf a home, experts say. Instead, make sure your furniture and accessories match the room in scale and proportion. Buyers should walk in and feel like there’s room for the family to grow and for entertaining. If the furniture used for staging is too small, the entire space will give the feeling that there’s not enough room in the house. The same goes for accessories. If they’re disproportional to the space, the entire room can seem visually cluttered.
4. Staging your entire home in one aesthetic
Buyers are trying to envision themselves—and everything they already own—in the space. To help them get there, feel free to showcase eclectic furniture that proves to buyers their mismatched furniture also will go great in the house. When in doubt, however, opt for traditional pieces: light-colored sofas, tables with clean lines and timeless accessories.
5. Keeping doors closed
Sometimes an entire floor can be missed by potential buyers because a door was closed. The buyer might assume that the door was a closet rather than a staircase to the basement or upper floor. Before your real estate agent shows your house, do a final walk-through and make sure everything is open and ready to go.
6. Going too neutral
There’s nothing wrong with a classic color scheme, but if you keep everything ivory and beige, it won’t make your house stand out from the pack.
We’re not saying you should go crazy with the color. Your home should have a bit of unique appeal with some pops of color and different rooms.