Top 5 Things To Avoid In Home Staging

​If you’re trying to stage your home for sale, you might have questions about what can make it sell fast and for your biggest profit—and what might make it sit on the market longer than you want it to. At Heidi Ross Design, our certified experts are here to help you as you go through the process of staging and selling your home. Our training and experience has taught us what to do—and what to avoid.

Here, Heidi Ross--a certified Professional Real Estate Stager and our owner, lead stager, and designer—breaks down five top things to keep in mind as your stage and show your home.

1. Avoid too many accessories! 

It’s always better to have one large dramatic accent than several small ones. When buyers walk in, they want to feel that their new potential home is large, spacious, and welcoming, and while it might seem like a good idea to fill the room with multiple accents that make it feel lived in, this actually has the opposite effect.

Extra accessories can make a space feel tight and cluttered, and can leave buyers with the feeling that the house is too cramped. While you don’t want a bare room—which doesn’t provide scale and can feel too small—paring down and choosing accents thoughtfully can help buyers envision the space.

2. Avoid the darkness: think light and bright.

Buyers touring a home want to purchase their own little “slice of heaven”—well-lit, full of light, and pleasant to be in. When entering a dark room, buyers have a negative reaction, and are turned off of the space. Light and bright homes look larger and inviting—dark rooms can look smaller, less pleasant, and uncomfortable.

Rooms can be transformed by adding extra incandescent lighting, opening window shades, and/or painting the room a lighter neutral color. Some simple steps can increase sources of light and make a room quickly more appealing.

3. Avoid bad or cheap smells.

While you might have stopped noticing smells in your home, they’ll be new to buyers. Smell can have a big impact on how they perceive the space, so make sure your home is free of mold, human, and pet odors.

But don't just cover up smells with cheap plug-ins—these tend to make matters worse. These scents are often overwhelming, and because of the close association between smell and memory, can make a home seem dated. Fresh air or a light, gentle essential oil can help to lend a fresh, positive scent. But remember—the best smell to display is a truly clean home!

4. Avoid personal non-decorative items.

Leaving items like mail, laundry, or other daily-living items in plain sight can majorly take away from how your home looks—this is especially important for those doing occupied home staging. When buyers see these items, they’ll look like clutter, and can make the home feel like there’s not enough storage—which devalues the home.

So when you’re staging a kitchen, make sure to get those dishes washed and put away, and to put away the clutter that collects on countertops. And when bedroom staging, tuck away laundry, clothes, jewelry, and other personal items. This is especially important in photographing a space—when you want a home to look roomy, virtual staging can be a great tool when done by a professional, but also shows buyers every out-of-place item in great detail.

5. Avoid a mediocre clean home.
The cleaner your home is, the more valuable and well-maintained it appears. Buyers are there to imagine themselves in the space, and even if it seems that no one will notice crumbs in a drawer or dog hair in a rug, buyers will see it—and it can make the space feel dirty and tired. Not getting the house extremely clean prior to staging and marketing is the biggest mistake a seller can make!

Where can I get help staging my home for sale?

Staging houses for real estate can be challenging—but it doesn’t have to be. At Heidi Ross Design, we walk our clients through every step of the process as they sell their luxury homes. Whether you’re staging a vacant or an occupied home, we’re here with the expertise and experience to help you sell your house for the biggest profit.
 When you’re ready to get started, use our tool for a free quote, or contact us online or over the phone. We’re here to help you through this process.  

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