How To Stage Your Home To Sell Faster And At A Higher Price In Just 6 Steps?

Imagine this – it’s a Saturday night.

You’re about to go on your first date with a lady you’ve met on Tinder.

You’ve spent hours standing in front of the mirror, looking for the perfect outfit.

You get your hair styled and dab the finest cologne.

You even spend the time to ensure that you’ve planned out the perfect date.

It’s a lot of effort for someone you’ve never met, so why do you do it?

Well, the answer is simple – FIRST IMPRESSIONS!

When it comes to selling your property, first impressions can either make or break a deal. If the buyers aren’t impressed the first time they check your listing online, there’s a good chance the property sale just ends there.

So unless your property is the only unit for sale in your neighbourhood and the buyer has no other option, here’s our step-by-step guide on how to stage your home to sell like a pro:

1. Clean and declutter your unit
2. Avoid putting your life on show
3. Ensure good lighting and ventilation in your unit
4. Transform your unit with inexpensive furniture
5. Make sure you highlight available storage
6. Don’t forget to clean your outdoor space

Want help to stage your home and sell at record prices? Click here for a free consultation.

1. Clean and declutter your unit

When it comes to home staging, decluttering should be the number one thing you should focus on. One of the most common complaints we’ve heard from our viewers is “Why is the house so messy?”

When you declutter, not only do you make the unit seem bigger and more attractive, but it also give your viewers confidence that the unit is well-maintained.

Think about it – imagine how much your living room would look, if you just moved away the piled up newspapers, non-functioning massage chair and even your children’s toys on the floor.

And don’t forget to clean your unit beforehand! There’s nothing more off-putting when home viewers spot dead cockroaches or feel grimy floors during their first visit.

2. Avoid putting your life on show

Now, we know that you really love your wedding photos or pictures of your beloved child, but it might not be wisest to showcase them during property viewings. The same goes for religious fixtures or decorations that you’ve put up against the walls.

Remember: the goal is to get viewers to fall in love with your unit and visualise it as their home, something that is hard to do if you’ve personalised your home to your own liking.

So, consider putting your pictures and other obvious personal objects away temporarily to make sure your home appears as neutral as possible to the potential buyer.

3. Ensure good lighting and ventilation

The next thing you want to do is to upgrade your existing light bulbs in your unit.
When shopping for new light bulbs, you can always ignore the names given by manufacturers (e.g. bright white/cool white) and look at the Kelvin number instead.

We always choose those with a colour temperature that ranges from 3000 Kelvin (K) to 3500 K for our clients as they are bright, slightly warm and make your property look more consistent in the listing.

The next thing you need to look at is how bright the light bulbs are – which is the lumens rating.
Ideally, you should always get the brightest bulbs you can safely get but anything above 800 lumens is good enough for an average home here in Singapore.

(But do take note that for safety reasons, you should check out your light fixture’s recommended wattage to make sure you do not get a light bulb that exceeds the recommended wattage.)

For ventilation, you can just open up all the windows to avoid your property smelling stale or even bad.

4. Transform your unit with inexpensive furniture

When it comes to staging, you don’t need to buy designer furniture or other high-end items. In fact, some of our favourite items to use for the staging of a living room are cushions (preferably bright and colourful ones), candles, fragrances, and plants.

Another visual trick we like to use is – carpets. Sometimes a space might look too empty, and adding a printed rug can help to add more visual identity to it.

As for the dining area, a simple, straightforward set-up with plates, a wine bottle and wine glasses will do the trick. And for the other spaces in your home like the kitchen and bathroom, you don’t really need a lot to spruce it up – as long you keep the place neat and pleasant to the eye.

5. Make sure you highlight available storage

Storage is a luxury that can only be found in a number of homes in Singapore.

Sometimes the storage spaces are a bit too cleverly hidden, like inside feature walls, or behind sliding panels. So, you may want to partially open these, so viewers notice they’re there.

As always, clean and declutter them. And if you plan to leave things in them, make sure to choose some items that can show off the available space such as a few sets of clothes.

6. Don’t forget to clean up your outdoor space

If you’re staying in a condo or an HDB flat, you probably don’t have much outdoor space to speak of. However, you should still make sure that whatever space that leads from the lift landing to your main gate/door is spick and span.

Dispose of any trash or old newspapers that you’ve left lying around, make sure there aren’t any stray pamphlets at your gate, and trim and neaten any plants you might have. If there’s a faulty light in the corridor, get the management or town council to get it fixed. It’s all about nailing that first impression!

Conclusion

Staging your home is a small investment of time and effort, for the potential returns it brings.

Want help to stage your home and sell at record prices? Click here for a free consultation.