What Are 5 Home Staging Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Sale? | Home Staging Company
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What Are 5 Home Staging Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Sale?

As the old adage goes, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” This is definitely true in the world of real estate. But beyond aesthetic, there is a science behind staging and styling homes for sale. Every decor or renovation is geared towards maximizing the house’s appeal to the broadest number of target buyers.

It’s a huge pressure on the homeowner’s shoulders. The only thing worse than not staging your home is not staging it correctly and have buyers react negatively on the outcome.  Here are 5 common home staging mistakes that can ruin your sale and how we can correct them:

  1. USING WORN OUT OR UGLY FURNISHINGS AND DECOR

Homeowners tend to cut costs when staging their homes. They would want to use existing furniture and decor as much as possible just to save a little on the budget. But if these pieces are old-looking and mismatching, their aesthetic appeal may not match most buyers’ and may even turn them off. Professional home stagers have access to furniture rental companies which may supplement the needed furnishings in your home for staging without buying or paying for the actual furniture price. These can save the homeowners a bulk of cash, especially if they have mismatched furniture in the place.

  1. USING DISTRACTING THEMES AND SCENES

The goal of home staging is to “prepare the home for sale so the buyer can mentally move in”, according to Barb Schwarz, head of the International Home Staging Professionals Association.  So if a home’s scenes and design vignettes go rogue, it can spell chaos and disastrous sales. It is best to choose a design theme and try to recreate it throughout the house to convey a sense of harmony. Through that, we entice the buyers’ imagination of integrating into the space if they see a common theme connecting all the rooms together.

  1. NOT CLEANING AND ORGANIZING

One common home staging mistake is simply allowing to design around the personal “clutter” of the homeowners. The little “mess” accumulated by daily living, including personal items like family photographs and personal toiletries, can be perceived by buyers as “clutter” and these can be distracting them from mentally integrating into the space.  However, proper organizing and cleaning techniques can come in handy when trying to portray a neat and well-arranged space.

  1. GETTING GLARING GAPS

Glaring gaps happen when sellers run out of time or money to prepare the space. Usually, homeowners tend to invest too much on a few areas of the house and forget  to organize or stage the other areas. Imagine a perfectly curated interior of a house with a run-down and filthy looking exterior, or a beautifully staged house that smells bad or has noise issues. These are examples of glaring gaps that break a potential sale. Consider areas like the garage, closets, cupboards and drawers, too. Buyers tend to look inside these spaces to see how much storage area is available, only to be disappointed by the crammed junk. It creates the impression that the house lacks storage and order.  To prevent this, smart advanced planning and budgeting for the property is needed.

  1. NOT GETTING NEUTRAL, EXPERT ADVICE IN STAGING

Another common home staging mistake that can break the sale is not seeking neutral and expert advice on home staging. Hiring a professional home stager does wonders on sales. These pros can give you advice about what buyers love to see in a home. They are trained on ways to “neutralize” your space and not “personalize” it, so that clients get enticed to buy the house.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/trulia/2014/06/06/5-reasons-your-homes-staging-may-be-stalling-your-home-sale/#5c0fd436a829