Selling Your Home

This weeks Frugal Friday I will discuss easy and thrifty ways to stage your home to get it sold as fast as possible.  Yes, even in this market.

Staging your home is an easy thing to do if you can keep focused on only one thing; staging.  When a home is staged it 'appears' as if it could be comfortably lived in as shown.  It should be roomy yet comfortable, modern yet cozy.

Something to first consider is where to store all of your excess 'junk', this includes all furniture that doesn't fit, extra clothing crowding closets and anything you may have 'stored' in the basement, garage, ect.  If you dont have a relative nearby with an empty garage than you should consider renting a storage unit.  Fifty or eighty dollars a month is nothing compared with the thousands you will be paying toward your mortgage each month your home does not sell.

To stage a home, each room should be looked at as an individual.  Start with, say, the master bedroom.  Empty everything out.   Only place the few items that look good in it.  Remember, it does not need to be livable, just look livable. 

Is your bed too big for the room?  You mustn't make the room look crowded or small.  Swap your large bed for a smaller one.  Maybe a friend or family member can trade you for a bit?  How about your dressers or night-stands?  Keep maybe one or two night-stands and the dresser only if it does not crowed the room.  Keep all items cleared off with the exception on one or 2 items each, maybe a lamp or vase of flowers.  NO TV, NO family pictures and nothing else.  Your room must resemble one you would see in a magazine.

Keep personal items away.  This includes all family pictures, nicknacks, baby toys and pet items.  You want your buyers imagining their families in this house, not yours.  

Bring in fresh flowers.  These can be inexpensive when purchased at grocerys stores and mixed with any floral items you can pick from your own yard, be it flowers, leaves or branches.  Also inexpensive small plants can be purchased at nurserys or home improvement stores and placed inside the home.  Just wrap a piece of decorative paper (or newsprint or brown paper bag) around plastic container and tie with a ribbon.

It is so important to remember that you are staging and your home may not be very functional. It is just a small inconvenience and you would be surprised how easy it is to live with very little.

Still need help staging?  Check out any local open-houses, especially ones in new developments featuring new homes.  These are perfect inspiration and examples of how staging works.

The goal of a staged home can be achieved with a little hard labor, some helpful opinions and extra attention to details.  It will make your house so unbelievably cute that everyone will want to call it their own.

It worked for us.