Seller's Guide to Staging a House While Living in It
Selling a house is never easy. A lot of thought and effort goes into it, from when you decide to sell to when you seal the deal with a buyer. To attract buyers, you need to put a lot of energy into staging your property. It's one of the most important and challenging things to pay attention to. Also, it doesn't help if you must live on the property while doing so. To make things easier, we devised this seller's guide to staging a house while living in it.
1. Don't let your cleaning tools out of sight
The first rule of any good staging is - the property needs to be spotless. All the fancy design in this world will mean nothing if you're house is dirty. It's easy for the people that are staying outside of the property. However, this will be a continuous effort, as you are still living in your house. Having your property on the market may force you to alter your typical routine.
It is crucial that the kitchen and bathroom shine. Keep the floors clean by regularly using a dry broom and then damp mopping up any stray hairs or dust you may have missed. Freshening your home using essential oils is another option.
Play on the sense of smell
Citrus oils like lemon are an excellent start, particularly if you combine them with other aromas such as eucalyptus or lavender. You won't regret making your home smell amazing. Good smell is another (invisible but quite effective) staging strategy since the sense of smell is directly connected with the emotional parts of our brains and significantly impacts memory and decision-making.
2. Remove half of the clutter
Now we're going into deeper and more complex parts. One of the top and timeless tips for staging is depersonalization. Yes, removing your personal belongings while you still live inside the property is not easy. However, you need to prioritize. The potential buyers will like the cozy vibe of your home, but no one likes mess and chaos. So, try making a list of things that are not necessary for your daily life. Try keeping only items you'll use every day. Put others into boxes and decide what you will do with them. You can:
· Put them in a garage sale
· Place them in storage
· Give them away Home decluttering will be beneficial for you in the long run. It will make moving easier too. Once it's time to move after a successful sale, your stuff will be waiting for you in those boxes, prepared, and you'll have way less work to do.
3. Find a safe place for your belongings
A perfect place for all that stuff you had to remove from your house is a storage facility. You can choose from many good ones. There are facilities of different shapes and sizes. So, decide on appropriate storage depending on what stuff you need to remove. You will still need a storage unit even if you don't hire a professional home stager to help you prepare your house for the market. Invest in a storage unit that's a little bigger than you anticipate using.
4. Find the right professionals to help with staging a house while living in it
To move the excess furniture and other personal belongings, you'll probably need some help. Pro movers can be reliable allies during this time. There are many things to worry about in this process, so you'll need an extra set of (experienced) hands when moving your belongings to storage. Yes, you can ask some friends for help, but they likely won't know how to handle some delicate things.
So, pack your glassware with extra care in order to secure these fragile pieces and leave them to the care of professionals. Pro movers can also help you find a good storage facility, and it can be good to keep in touch with them once the time to move comes.
Consider hiring a professional stager
A different type of professionals to consider contacting are professional stagers. A professional stager is impartial and can help you decide what to retain and modify in your house. With their keen eye for design, they can make your home seem more prominent, modern, and appealing to purchasers. They can make your kitchen look like it came out straight from the magazine. Also,
they probably have a solid working connection with a local furniture rental firm, should you need such services. And it's possible that they already own all of the necessary furnishings.
5. Have fun with it - but not too much fun
If you decide to do it yourself, get creative with the staging. Play with colors, and think about what will look appealing with other pieces. However, don't play too much - don't go crazy with colors. Remember - you need to attract many buyers of different tastes to get many offers and interesting bidding wars over your property.
Final thoughts
It's easier to make your home perfectly staged when you're doing your daily tasks outside of it. And for that matter, we still strongly advise you to find a place to crash during this process. However, if you follow the advice in this guide, staging a house while living in it doesn't have to be that big of a struggle. In any case, we wish you to have fun throughout this experience and a lot of luck with your sale!
Meta description: If you need to stay at home in the process of selling, read this seller's guide to staging a house while living in it.
- Home Staging Warehouse
