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Selling your home is about creating a space where buyers can envision themselves living. This means finding a way to appeal to a large number of potential buyers. In order to do this properly, it is important to stage your home. Here are five tips on how you can stage your home for a faster sale.

Showcase Space & Declutter

Buyers want to be able to visualize how their furniture and artwork will look in the house. In order to accomplish this, less is more. Take away big bulky furniture that may be impeding the flow of traffic and remove large pieces of furniture like bookcases, providing buyers with a wall as a blank slate to do as they wish. Remove heavy drapery and make sure blinds are always open during a showing to emphasize the light coming into a room.

Update the Look of the Home

Everyone loves the feeling of walking into a new home, even if the home is 20, 30 or 40 years old. Sometimes the smell of new paint, the appearance of new hardware or redoing the floors can give buyers the confidence that you have loved the home and it has been taken care of during your ownership. Consider a quick coat of paint and wall repairs to the common areas; changing door knobs, bathroom fixtures and/or cabinet handles for a more updated look; and/or removing or repairing old flooring with new carpet, tile or a refinished look.

Remove Personal Items

The purpose of staging a home is to help buyers see their own future in the home, not your past. Removing personal items includes taking everything off the refrigerator, like children's art, putting away family photos in the bedroom and taking down pictures and posters from the walls. Sometimes less is more in this case, so consider replacing a cluster of family wall photos with scenic art or take the opportunity to reorientate the configuration of the room and change the focal point from the family reunion photograph on one wall to one of the room's features, like a fireplace or large picture window.

Add Updated Furniture for a Faster Sale

If you have been living in your home for a while, chances are that your furniture has too. While you may love the look and feel of your couch, it may be tired, faded from the sun in some places or show just the normal wear and tear of family living. Consider removing pieces that are dated, too bulky or don't provide buyers with the ability to see the potential of the home. If you have already moved out, adding pieces back to the home helps people imagine how they would use a room. This is particularly important if a space is not well defined, like an office nook or reading space.

Create Curb Appeal

Sometimes, small changes can make all the difference. Buyers create their first impression of a home before they even step foot across the threshold. Aside from lawn and shrub maintenance, consider adding a pop of color anytime of the year. This can be planter boxes outside bedroom windows, small potted plants on the front stairs or even repairing/replacing/repainting the front door. Make your home look inviting to potential buyers, a place they will want to call home.

Just putting a "for sale" sign in front of your home may not bring top-dollar offers. Create a space that has buyers offering above and beyond list price. For more information about how we can help with the process, contact us at The Mortgage Firm

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We hope this article was of value to you. For more great tips, bookmark our site and for all your mortgage needs, visit the A Team at TMFFMS.