When you’re selling your home, you want to attract your ideal buyer, receive an offer and exchange contracts as soon as possible so you can move on with your life.
Staging your home for sale can make a significant difference.
Ensuring your home looks as attractive as possible will make it easier to attract potential buyers, encourage property viewings, showcase your home and secure a quick sale, ideally for your preferred asking price.
With this in mind, here is our guide to getting your property ready to sell. We’ll first explain why this can have a positive effect on the sale of your home and how to stage your home in the UK for less.
Why is it so important to stage your home for sale?
By staging your home, you’ll make your listing look more attractive in a highly competitive market, encourage people to react emotionally to the space and allow buyers to imagine themselves living in your home.
As the name suggests, it’s all about adding a bit of theatre, setting the stage for the prospective buyer, decluttering, redecorating, tidying up, highlighting key features and ensuring that everything looks as welcoming and comfortable as possible to encourage the prospective buyer to make an offer. You’re trying to achieve the ‘wow’ factor, as opposed to the ‘grim’ factor.
If the property is currently empty, adding furniture and personal items and taking care of the property’s interior and exterior can prevent your home from looking sterile and bring a sense of warmth and life to the space.
Done correctly, it can also increase the perceived value of your home, leave a memorable impression and help you sell your home faster. In fact, according to the UK Home Staging Report (2022) staged properties sell in an average of 45 days whereas non-staged properties typically take 99 days or more.
7 key tips on staging your home for a faster sale
As you have just seen, staging your home for sale in the UK clearly has numerous benefits for seller and buyer alike. Here are seven tips on how you can do this effectively for a faster property sale.
1. Clean the property thoroughly
Before anything else, make sure you do a deep clean of the property, including those hard-to-reach places such as ceilings, the tops of doors and shelves and skirting boards.
By doing so, you’ll create an instant impression of cleanliness and beauty, adding to the charm of your property and making it more appealing for the prospective buyer.
2. Declutter and remove personal items
Next, take time to declutter your space, removing personal items like family photos and making sure you store away items correctly. This will make your home feel more spacious and inviting and encourage them to imagine themselves living there. After all, you’re going to be moving home soon anyway, so it doesn’t hurt to pack some of it in boxes now, anyway.
But a word of warning – don’t remove every single personal item in an attempt to make your home look like a show home. If you make this mistake, you could actually make your home feel unwelcoming and cold and make it less likely you’ll sell your property quickly.
If you are listing your home as a family home, it helps to have a few key items displayed to add to the appeal. Likewise, if your listing says that your property features a home office, ensure you have your computer, tidy filing system and other office equipment neatly arranged but in view.
3. Boost natural light
Properties with plenty of natural light feel brighter, spacious, appealing and are more likely to get property viewings. Therefore, when staging your home for sale, ensure you make the most of what you have.
Open your curtains and blinds, clean your windows (very important!) and remove any furniture that blocks the light. You can also strategically place mirrors opposite your windows to help reflect the light and make your home seem brighter.
4. Improve your kerb appeal
It’s not only the inside of your house that counts when staging your home for sale. You should also consider tidying up and making improvements to the exterior and any outside space you have to enhance your home’s overall appearance, improve kerb appeal, and make it more desirable to the market.
After all, this will be the first impression your potential buyers have of your property so make sure that it is positive.
- Start with the garden if you have one. Make sure the grass is cut, any clippings or rubbish is removed and trim any hedges or bushes.
- Consider your garden space. Does it offer any entertainment options? If not, consider investing in some garden furniture or even decking to add value and make your home more appealing.
- Once you’ve done this, turn your focus to your front door. Could it do with a lick of paint? Should you replace the lock, letterbox or door knocker?
5. Give each room in your home a purpose
Have you turned your spare room into an office? Or perhaps stored items where they shouldn’t be? If so, declutter, organise and make sure that the room has a clear purpose.
For example, if this room is listed as a bedroom, ensure that it has the bed and furnishings to match. If it’s listed as a home office, ensure it looks like one.
This will help potential buyers understand your home and as a result, they will be more likely to imagine themselves living there and make an offer.
6. Highlight your home’s best features
Does your property boast any unique features such as a beautiful fireplace, built-in shelving, a stunning chimney or even a panoramic view of the countryside?
If so, make sure you are highlighting these features when you are staging your home for sale in the UK. For example, place fresh flowers on a feature table, add a stack of wood to your open fireplace, and so on.
By doing so, you’ll be emphasising this key selling point of your home and make it more attractive to buyers.
7. Consider a quick refresh
Finally, consider whether you should refresh your property’s interior when you are staging your home.
Look for a neutral palette and decor that appeals to a wide range of buyers and consider updating your furniture if it is out of date or looking tired or old. By making this small extra investment, you will breathe new life into your space and help you sell your home faster and for more.
Summary
Staging your home for sale in the UK is a crucial step in the selling process that helps you attract your ideal buyers and secure a quick sale.
Start with a deep clean of the property, consider updating or refreshing your interior, boost your kerb appeal, maximise natural light, declutter and ensure each room has a clear purpose so you can stage your home like a professional and make your property stand out in a competitive market.
The irony of you only doing these things now, when you are trying to sell the property is not lost on us! However, they are a worthwhile investment so if you have been holding back because of the expense, this is the time to invest and see a return.
Want help staging your home for sale in Bath, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire or Somerset?
Contact our friendly team at Cobb Farr today.
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Our 7 Best Tips on How to Stage Your Home for Sale UK | Cobb Farr
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Wondering how to stage your home for sale in the UK to highlight its best features, attract buyers and secure a quick sale? Here are some expert tips from Cobb Farr
