Putting a home on the market can be a stressful experience. Sometimes, it seems like homes almost sell before you can get them listed while others appear to languish due to shifts in the economy and buyer enthusiasm. Fortunately, there are ways to increase the likelihood of your home selling, even if the market isn’t at its best. The first impression is a huge part of this and improving your home staging so that potential buyers will be wowed by your property can help.

Some people view home staging as simply making sure that everything is neat and orderly so that buyers can see the home at its best. While this is important, it’s not the only thing you can do to improve the appeal of your home. Here are a few unexpected ways that you can make your home look better to prospective buyers.

Bigger and Brighter

When staging your home, you want to make sure that you not only present its best qualities, but that you also reduce the impact of some of its less-great aspects Take your bathrooms for example. If one or more of the bathrooms in your home seem kind of small, try putting a larger bathroom mirror in there to make the whole room seem bigger. Also, hang it slightly lower if possible so you don’t have a large mirrored surface looming over visitor’s heads; ideally the center of the mirror should be slightly below eye level for the average person using it.

Another tip that can work in both bathrooms and any room that seems a bit too dark is to lighten up the walls to improve the overall brightness of the room. this can be as simple as replacing dark colored curtains with light ones or adding white hand towels and decorative items to add light areas to the room. If you feel like taking on a larger project, add a couple of coats of paint in a light color that goes well with existing decorations such as a light blue or a soft light green.

Upscale and Comfortable

Tweaking your furniture and decorations is another way that you can improve your home staging and make your home a must-buy. If you wish that you had some more upscale furniture to show off, talk to developers that have model homes available in planned communities around where you live. Much of that furniture is used solely for staging and excess pieces can be purchased relatively cheaply because they are considered used. Staging companies may also have furniture available to rent or purchase under similar terms. The best part is, if you buy furniture for your staging, you may be able to recoup some of your money by selling the furniture along with the house.

While you want buyers to like the way your home looks, it’s also important that they think it looks comfortable and ready for them to move in. Add fluffy comforters and knit throws to beds, drape a soft blanket along the back of the couch, and add other little touches to make it look like the house is just waiting for someone to make it theirs. Just be sure that you remove photos and other personal items from the home before the staging since you want potential buyers to picture it as their house and not yours.

Knock Out Those Repairs

One last thing you can do to improve your staging is to go ahead and finish some of the little repairs around the house that you never got around to. If you need a contractor or handyman to help, let us know. We can connect you with professionals in your area to take care of little repairs and improvements that will take your home from being on the market to sold. Let us be your real estate resource for life.