If you're selling your home, you're probably aware that there are more homes for sale in Cary NC than there are home buyers, giving buyers the opportunity to be a little selective about choosing a new home. Price, location, and quality are important, but when checking out your home, buyers are also looking at the style of each room. Not all buyers possess the ability to see past your decor to envision renovating your home to fit their individual style. The following home staging ideas will help buyers see themselves living in your home.



What Style is Your Home?

If your home has "gone country," "high-tech modern," or any other specific style, it may be costing you the sale. Buyers usually shy away from homes decorated in a too specific style. The only thing worse to buyers than a home with a specific style is a home with no style. In addition, empty homes are sometimes a turnoff to buyers who need furniture to imagine themselves and their furniture in your home. A furnished home helps a buyer envision a different wall color, new curtains, or even changing from carpeting to hardwood floors.

If potential buyers have a hard time picturing themselves in your home because of your florescent pink bathroom, you will lose the sale. Home staging assists buyers in envisioning themselves in your home by helping them picture the home the way they would like it decorated. Try using home staging ideas from home decor magazines, by taking a trip to your local decorating store, or by visiting open houses of other homes for sale to get inspiration for what works and what does not.

Give Rooms a Purpose

Do you hang clothes all over the labyrinth of dusty exercise equipment in your master bedroom? Does your home office really belong in the living room? Is there laundry piled all over your dining room table, giving the impression your home is short on closet space? Take the time to clean your closets, move extra pieces of furniture from cluttered rooms into a storage space, and remove items that don't belong in a room so that each room has a clear purpose. Home staging will help buyers see a room's potential by showing off the amount of space with an efficient and stylish layout.

Depersonalize Your Home

Your charming collection of thimbles, children's artwork on the refrigerator, and shelves full of sports trophies may mean a lot to your family, but it makes buyers feel as if they are intruding in personalized home. Move your collections into storage to help buyers picture their things in your home without having to get past your personal belongings. It's fine to leave up a couple of family photographs, but move every other personal item into storage to help your buyers feel welcome in your home. You want buyers to look at your home, not your possessions.

Clean it Up

Nobody wants to buy a dirty house. It's easy to overlook the dust bunnies living in the corner when you see them every day, but a buyer will notice them immediately. Clean your home like it's never been cleaned before. Make sure you maintain the clean you've achieved, even if it requires hiring a house cleaning company. Many cleaning companies offer specials for people selling their homes. This ensures your home is always "ready to be seen" and gives you the time to focus on home staging.

The Exterior is Important

Just because you have finished home staging inside your home doesn't mean you're ready for buyers. Home staging is just as important for the exterior of your home as it is for the interior. Cut the lawn, plant colorful flowers, stain the deck, fill cracks in the driveway, and paint your home if needed to give a great first impression when buyers drive up. A beautiful yard will entice buyers to come inside and give the interior a look.

Home Staging Personalization

Packing away your personal items is a wonderful way to depersonalize your home, but consider adding a touch of home staging personalization. Place a vase full of your favorite fresh cut flowers in each room to add a personal touch. In addition, burn a nice smelling scented candle or put a relaxing CD on the stereo. These little home staging personal touches will give buyers a good feeling and positive memory when viewing your home.