Many real estate investors believe that staging is unnecessary for their properties. They could not be more wrong! Whether you are hoping to sell for top dollar or rent out a buy-and-hold property, a few economical staging investments will give your property that “special something” that attracts buyers or renters eager to pay top dollar for the privilege of living in your investment.
Here are three things you will soon find you can’t afford not to do before showing a property:
1. Be Smart About Your Rugs
Area rugs show off hardwoods and help pull the color palette into the room while preventing echoing. Invest in a carpet remnant that has a high knap, not quite a shag, but close. Cut it to the needed size and hot-glue the edges to prevent unraveling. Inexpensive to make (about $30), but a key addition to any room with hardwood floors.
Pro Tip: If you have carpet, don’t put a rug down! It doesn’t matter how pretty and expensive that rug is, it looks like you are covering something up. Furthermore, doubling up makes the room look smaller.
2. Stage the Master Bedroom
Even if you do not stage any other room, minimally stage the master bedroom with a nice bed and bedspread (solids, no florals, so you get a larger, cleaner-looking room and bed) and some nice-but-generic art on the walls. I hang all my art with monkey hooks, which do not mess up the wall and will hold up to 100 pounds.
Pro Tip: If the master bedroom is not on the same level with the rest of the bedrooms, stage the house so it is clear that upstairs bedrooms are still easily accessible to parents. Parents may shy away if they think they won’t be near their babies.
3. Hang Some Curtains
A lot of times when you walk into a house and there is minimal staging, you encounter a terrible echo. Absorb that echo with staging curtains made from remnant material or even a table cloth if you don’t want to buy new fabric or hang real curtains. Install a one-by-four piece of wood over each window using L-brackets, then staple or hot-glue the fabric in a waterfall fashion over the top. The family room and master bedroom are the best places to add these drapery panels.
Pro Tip: Make those curtains a pop of color in the room. Using the same color as the wall will absorb sound, but you will not get the visual advantage of color in having curtains in the room.
Most real estate investors do not think of staging as a money-saving activity, but, in reality, it is. A strategically-staged home will fly off the market long before one that is equally nice but not staged every time, and it will usually sell for more as well.
Color Palette: A color palette is the color scheme that you use in the home. It can change from room to room or flow throughout the house. Most designers recommend color palettes that vary but do not clash.
Staging: The act of improving a property’s appeal to buyers using art, accessories, lighting, greenery, carpet, furniture, and other home-décor items to create an attractive first impression of the home.
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