Selling - Home Staging and First Impressions

Photo by 영훈 박 via Pixabay

The saying goes that you only get one chance to make a first impression and that applies not only to our personal and professional lives but also to real estate. Humans are sensory by nature, and those senses are linked to emotions that often determine our decisions.

When you have the opportunity to capture someone’s emotions, make them gasp when they walk in a room or see a home for the first time. If you can do that you’ve won the first impression – and made a great one.

As you begin the home staging process, keep this in mind and target those emotions through sensory input. Colors, smells, sounds, even the temperature, and humidity of the interior of the home can have a powerful impact on a buyer. This is where they will live their lives, raise their families, live out their retirement, tell their stories. Staging should make it easy for them to place themselves in each room and picture a life there.

This is how you make that happen.

Depersonalize to create a blank slate for buyers to write their own lives upon.

Your buyers want to be able to see themselves living in their new home, not someone else’s. So before you do anything, depersonalize it. Remove the family photos, the artwork on the fridge, the personalized plaque over your desk, and other “homey” items. Turn your home into a blank slate so that buyers can see themselves in the space.

Freshen up the interior with a new coat of paint.

A fresh coat of paint just looks nice, it’s relatively inexpensive, and when combined with cleaning and decluttering, it can really add some oomph to your selling power. However, when you decide to take the plunge and pick up the brush, choose neutral colors. Go with soft, inviting colors like off-white, beige, white, and pale gray. You can even use several complimentary colors throughout the house, but avoid emotionally charged colors like lavender, lime green, or pink.

Define the purpose of each room to maximize the living space.

Making every square foot of a home appear to be usable space is definitely a great selling point. An unused room with no real purpose can be turned into a craft room or home office. Transform attics and basements into family rooms, guest bedrooms, or libraries. When buyers can see the potential of a room, they can easily place themselves in it, and they also see that no space is wasted

Use lighting to your advantage.

The right light can transform a room. In fact, good lighting is at the top of most homebuyers’ wishlists. Letting outside light in can make a room larger, but interior light is also key. For maximum effect, use three types of lighting: accent (table, shelf, wall), task (reading, pendant), and ambient (overhead). Combine these three to create an attractive, inviting space that will draw your buyers in and make it feel like home.