If you’re selling a luxury home in Scottsdale, your real estate agent has probably already talked to you about the importance of staging – you need the home to appeal to the widest possible range of qualified buyers. Your agent may have suggested that you hire a professional home stager, but there are several things you can do to improve your prospects on your own.
3 Pre-Staging Tips to Sell Your Luxury Scottsdale Home Quickly
Before your home stager arrives:
- Depersonalize the house
- Clean the interior and exterior of your home
- Focus on first impressions
Let’s explore each of these staging tips in detail so you can prep your luxury home for its first viewing.
Staging Tip #1: Depersonalize Your Luxury Listing
Your goal as a seller is to help buyers envision themselves in your space. That means making your home neutral enough to appeal to a wide range of imaginative guests. Take down and replace everything that makes your home uniquely yours, including:
- Family photos
- Inspirational wall art
- Kitschy or quirky decor
- Collections and memorabilia
- Toys
- Trophies, awards and certificates
You want buyers to use your furnishings and decor as a frame of reference for buyers’ own belongings – but you definitely don’t want to distract them. Replacing personal items allows buyers to start with a fairly clean slate. That way, they don’t feel like they’re encroaching on your personal space.
Staging Tip #2: A Clean Home is an Appealing Home
Clear off your counter tops, put away paperwork and pick up toys. Buyers want to see that your home is easy to keep clutter-free – most people are fighting clutter battles of their own – so that they get a good overall impression of the space. Banishing clutter makes your home appear more spacious and easier to maintain, and those are two things buyers love.
Invest in an in-depth professional cleaning before you put your home on the market (but after it’s been decluttered and depersonalized). That way, you only have to maintain what the experts did while your home is open to prospective buyers.
Hiring professional cleaners saves you a tremendous amount of time – time that you could spend making improvements and repairs that will enable you to bring in better offers. Professionals know all the hot spots and can tackle cleaning as a team, which means it’ll get done faster and be easier to keep up with while your home is on the market.
Remember: Buyers may not notice every little thing you clean, but they’ll certainly notice the things you don’t. That’s why it’s usually best to hire professionals, at least for a one-time cleaning just before you list your home.
Staging Tip #3. Focus on the First Impression
Buyers begin to form an impression of your home when they first pull up at the curb. They take it all in – your mailbox, landscaping and front entrance. If your home looks cheerful and welcoming on the outside, they’ll carry that impression with them when they enter the house. Place heavy emphasis on staging and styling your front yard, entry way and foyer so that buyers bring their positive first impression further into your home.
Here are some quick and easy tips to make sure you meet the mark from the start:
- Add tasteful and seasonal accents to your home decor
- Hire a professional landscaper for your front yard
- Get a bright and cheerful welcome mat
- Add planters to your entryway
