Home staging is the preparation of a private residence for sale. The objective is to present the property in as appealing a manner as time and budget allow. Ensuring the home is attractive to the highest number of potential buyers also enables the promptest and most effective sales results.  

Staging your home for maximum effect

Given time, effort and meagre financial outlay, most homeowners are equipped to implement their own home-staging touches. Larger-scale home improvements, such as cosmetic makeovers and landscaping projects, might require specialist assistance.

Creating home staging with the wow factor

Whether you do it yourself or enlist professional help, preparation and design vision will add immeasurable value to your staging projects. These include: 

• Freshly painted interiors in white or neutral colours provide a new look to any property. 
• A coat of lacquer will brighten a dull, wood-based kitchen.
• Declutter your furniture, decorative pieces, books and items that are not necessary or eye-catching. Less is always more in the presentation stakes. A couple of key furniture items, side tables instead of a central coffee table, adding a framed or wall-hung mirror for the illusion of extra space, one feature artwork and elegantly potted plant per room often create all the style and pizzazz required to win over your customer base.
• First impressions are lasting, so the exterior must dazzle the eye to attract potential buyers inside. Investing in light landscaping work, such as fresh planting, a statement outdoor sculpture or artwork and, if budget permits, installing an outdoor cooking zone or calm-inducing water feature, will work wonders for your resale value in the long run. At the very least, decluttering the extraneous elements of your exterior, weeding out dead plants and shrubbery, cleaning gutters and removing moss or mould build-up, will provide a new lease on life for your outdoor area.   

Detail outlines the big picture

Lastly, ensure that everything is spic and span for home inspections. Extend the impression of solidity, uniformity and personal style with little touches that you can impart on the day. These include:

• Freshly brewed coffee, subtle incense or interior fragrances create olfactory evocation that is designed to draw in new or unexpected buyers.
• A bowl brimming with seasonal fruit and fresh baguettes in a basket in the kitchen add to the aspirational quality of homeownership.  
• Include coordinated accessories and fresh flowers in the bathroom and WC.
• Matching, freshly laundered linen, plump cushions and soft music in the bedroom create a relaxing atmosphere.
• Decorative pieces spaced in odd-numbered arrangements offer the most pleasing effect for visual symmetry, but keep these to a minimum.
• Make sure wardrobes, cupboards and cabinets are neat as a pin and stocked with the bare minimum. Potential buyers always look inside as further proof of the type of storage they are seeking.  

Your real estate agent can offer advice and professional contacts for creating home staging that is designed to secure your home buyer with the quickest and most value-added approach.