Best Tips for Staging a Flipped House
A wise man once said, “All the world’s a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.”
But as a house flipper, you have to be prepared for all eventualities. And home staging is all about that! But even staging a home has its stages (pun intended); one of it being the preparation. When you are selling your hard work after painstakingly fixing up the property, the house must show its absolute best.
Home staging begins when you are done with cleaning, wiring, plumbing, painting and decluttering after the repairs and renovations.
The renovation shows what the house looks like post construction. Perhaps even more important is what it would FEEL like, if the buyer decides to make it into their home.
You have to sell this experience.
But one step at a time. New or experienced, let us share some good house flip staging tips to start with. Here are some of the most important house staging tips, a shrewd house flipper must follow:
Sparkly clean: The house should be perfectly clean. The goal is to make every single thing in the house look new. Even if the kitchen have no new appliances, make sure the existing ones are clean. Similarly, bathrooms should be squeaky clean too.
Cut the clutter: Stuffy interiors tend to distract buyers from the home’s impressive features. Also, it makes the house look small. Box all the unnecessary things that you may not need and move it to storage.
Depersonalize: Buyers have to dream. They need to see themselves in your home. Remove all the keepsakes, family photos, and even the small knick-knacks on the refrigerator.
Keep It fresh: A little bit of green can add freshness as well as other vibrant colors in your home. Add a few potted plants so that your home feels fresh and looks inviting. Herbs, flowers, essential oils, candles, and air purifiers are a good bet for an inviting fragrance. Use inexpensive tricks such as baking cookies in the oven or burning vanilla-scented candles to give it a homely aroma.
Make more room: Make sure every room has a purpose. This includes alcoves, window seats, corners, nooks, and other areas. Say, an attic can turn into an office. A basement can be turned into a game room, and a store room can be changed into a guest room. It is important to have a prospective buyer visualizing the usable space.
Wallpaper and paint: Wallpapers tend to be personal so it is best to make it neutral or replace it with warmly painted walls. Neutral colors make your home look more inviting.
Flooring: Carpets are dust collectors buyers can have strong opinions on color, texture, and pile length. Invest in quality hardwood floors to add elegance to a home. They may be pricey, but are also low maintenance, give long-term value, and appeal to almost everyone. For bathrooms and kitchens, go for ceramic tiles or stone.
Lighting: Turn on all the lights and make full use of the natural light to make your home look brighter. Make sure to open all curtains and blinds when the buyers come knocking.
Furniture: Avoid cluttering the rooms with too much furniture. Maybe rent new pieces and add throw pillows for contrast and a dash of color. Make sure the furniture looks nice and tidy and don’t forget to arrange the seating that is ideal for conversations. Professional furniture stagers are in even the smallest market and can generate a nice return on investment.
Walls and ceilings: Get an inspector to check the foundation and repair any cracks in the ceiling or walls as they tend to hint at foundation problems.
Exterior: Use the outdoor space to your maximum advantage. Fix the lawn, hedges, and other plants. Don’t forget the windows, balconies, front porch or back yard.
Final touches: Light a few candles with soft and subtle fragrances, put flowers in vases, put new towels in the bathrooms and allow fresh air into the house for at least ten minutes prior to the showing.
Learn more about it in the case studies here.
Back to the basics it is! So, what should this experience entail?
What Is Home Staging?
Home staging refers to the decoration done to accentuate your flipped property’s most important assets to give your potential buyers a glimpse of what their life could be if they decided to buy your property. This essentially means that besides the aesthetic appeal, your flip should feel like a HOME – bigger and brighter but comforting at the same time.
Home staging is an investment to increase the return rate on the sale of the house.
Is home staging worth the cost? Yes, a BIG YES! Take a look!
How Does Home Staging Effect The Offer Price?
If you do it right, selling your home could definitely pay you big. As per a March 2019 report, 22% of sellers’ agents and 25% of buyers’ agents said that home staging increased the dollar value price of the property by 1% to 5%, as compared to other similar properties on the market that were not staged. Moreover, 83% of buyers’ agents affirmed that home staging “made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home.”
The National Association of Realtors’ 2019 Profile of Home Staging Report said that the median amount spent on home staging stood at $400.
The most important elements for buyers were living room (47 percent), master bedroom (42 percent) and kitchen (35 percent).
Is Home Staging Worth It?
The trend has been echoed by industry members as well.
As per a 2020 report by International Association of Home Staging Professionals, about 5 million properties were bought and sold in the United States in 2019. Based on their data, roughly one million of those properties involved home staging. Finally, home staging had impacted 20% of the properties that were bought and sold in the US.
Home staging to sell a property is not just about the cosmetics.
The association said that the numbers demonstrate the impact home staging has on property’s presence or the “days on market.” For average properties, stats showed that a home that is not staged spent 3‐30 times more days on the market, as opposed to a professionally home staged property.
The report added that a non‐staged property could stay two weeks to more than a year on the market. It is especially crucial because the properties that do not get a buyer in the first month tend to suffer a price reduction. The price reduction, international association of home staging professionals report also added, is usually far more than the staging investment the seller would have made.
