Tips for staging house

Sapindus

kipsterno1 said:

Make sure at least one of the rooms has a guitar in it. If you can get a drum kit in even better.

For the bathroom get one of those 'relax' cutouts and a 'love' one for the bedroom.






Well that seems to be what one of our local agents uses. Sadly its the same guitar 😂

I can't bear those decorations, is their only use as dressing for EA photos?  Does anyone seriously buy them otherwise? I recently saw a photo of an ensuite in student accommodation that had a "WASH" cut out balanced on the sink.  It may have been a parental reminder though.  I've seen "COOK" in the kitchen and "FAMILY" in the living room. I am still holding out for one in the bathroom that says "CR4P".

mi-key

They are the new trendy version of a 'Live, Laugh, Love' wall decal, and a kitchen sign saying 'Prosecco time'

I really dont get the whole 'staging' thing? Do people really have that little imagination they can't imagine how a room would look with their furniture in it?  Just tidy and declutter a bit is fine, there is no need to fill the house with flowers or cook fresh bread for any viewings

in_my_wellies

I'm a house sitter due to leave this summer/autumn. The owner has arranged for a 'home dresser' to visit next week to arrange the house for ready for marketing. It will be interesting to see what she says. Fortunately I'm not easily offended!

BikingBud

youth_leader said:

I think kerb appeal is mentioned a lot - shine your door knocker, pots of flowers, cut the grass regularly for drive pasts, clean doormat etc.

For the bathroom definitely toilet seat down, people feel awkward about it. All toiletries in the bathroom out of sight,and scrub everything in there until it sparkles, matching towels, clean bin etc.  

Kitchen should also be scrubbed and clean, hide away recycling etc.

For the bedroom people recommended plain bedding to me, I bought a couple of plain eiderdowns. 

For the lounge remove personal photos etc.

One thing that let me down was having plug in electric radiators on view.   A viewer commented that 'obviously the boiler isn't good enough'.  My house had single glazed sash windows and stripped floorboards with a six foot cellar underneath, we did need the additional heat when it was 0 degrees.

I know its an old post but was it would seem that the assessment was correct, the boiler couldn't keep the house warm. That would be much more of a negative indicator than a lot of the stuff that has been mentioned on here.

• House cluttered - maybe the current owners have loads of junk! Only a problem really if we have more.
• Toiletries out - Yep they live there.
• Clothes or tea towels out - Yep they live there.
• Net curtains drawn - Their choice but they will be coming down.
• Keep window sills clear - Where do the plants and flowers go, if you decluttered and took all the furniture out?
• Cabin beds in a kids room - c'mon!
• Shine your door knocker - 
• Get rid of fridge magnets - It's their fridge, they can do whatever they want to it

Good to see that someone recognised the obligation for a guitar but surprised there's no comment about must have a large clock or a picture of a hairy cow.

Important but seem to be missed in the desire to present a lifestyle rather than an accurate portrayal of the house.

• A good series of outside pictures with visibility of walls and roof and roof line, windows and doors, especially to see any possible movement. 
• A good floor plan as the flow of the building is absolutely key and so many are poorly laid out in order to get the 4 beds, including master with ensuite, etc.
• An accurate set of measurements, in so many modern houses rooms steal space from other rooms and are not quadrilaterals but bizarrely EAs give you the max dimensions. 
• An accurate location on the map and street view not 1/2 mile away so people have to try and locate where it actually is.
• Consider what people may see on street view it might be outside your control but you may get questions about what's there, parking, bins, bus stops, petrol station, pizza take out, pylons etc.

I would consider trying to conceal real issues by concentrating on putting the shower gel back in the airing cupboard, frivolous and rather insulting when there may be so many real problems with the house.

Noneforit999

Gavin83 said:

Noneforit999 said:

TripleH said:

When tidying away for photos and viewings, tidy away things, don't cram items in cupboards.

You want doors to shut properly (as people will assume the doors are broken if they don't).

People will look in cupboards and if mess will assume you are hiding something.

Actually have a proper declutter before you list the property.

I don't have a problem with family photos on the walls (as it helps portray it as a home) but take excessive ones down and clean off the dust marks from the frames.

Fix any small jobs you have put off (ie if you have a broken window fix it).

A few plants in locations throughout the house is useful but make sure they suit the light available where you put them.

Thats the benefit of having a garage/shed, you can just stick everything in there. Our EA said the viewers would not need to see in the garage and none of them asked to. 

I've always looked inside the garage when viewing a property. I'm actually surprised you say it's not common to do so as I'd say it's an important part of what you're buying. I'll also view the loft space if at all possible.

I draw the line at looking inside cupboards though. I know someone mentioned it earlier but I'd consider it extremely rude to start rooting through peoples cupboards/drawers.

As would I, the vendors clutter wouldn't bother me but I would like to see what it looked like inside and if the roof etc all looked ok visually. Ours had a little damp on the back single skin wall when we sold the house but nobody asked to look inside the garage. 

Silvertabby

We have 4 good sized, first floor, double bedrooms, used as master suite, guest bedroom, study and hobby room.

A friend, who works as a receptionist for an estate agent, is adamant that if we wanted to sell (we don't!) the EA would insist that we clear out the hobby room and study and put beds/bedroom furniture in there.  Otherwise viewers would think they are only looking at a 2 bed house. Really?  

UnderOffer

NornIronRose said:

Thanks for all the tips of things I hadn't thought of! 
Today is day 1 of my mission to get the house looking great to get it ready to go on the market. 
Planning to get an EA round to value. Do I need to do all of the decluttering, painting wee bits etc BEFORE the valuation? Or can I go ahead at least with that? 

Yes, I personally would do as much as this before the valuation. Mainly as I don’t think you will have the time or inclination to do it after, stop putting it off and get decluttering 😀
Our home was valued on Thursday, photographed Monday, listed Wednesday so less than a week between valuation and listing. I treated the visits from EA as potential buyers, so needed the home to look it’s best for them so it would give the best first impressions. 

SadieO

BikingBud said:

youth_leader said:

I think kerb appeal is mentioned a lot - shine your door knocker, pots of flowers, cut the grass regularly for drive pasts, clean doormat etc.

For the bathroom definitely toilet seat down, people feel awkward about it. All toiletries in the bathroom out of sight,and scrub everything in there until it sparkles, matching towels, clean bin etc.  

Kitchen should also be scrubbed and clean, hide away recycling etc.

For the bedroom people recommended plain bedding to me, I bought a couple of plain eiderdowns. 

For the lounge remove personal photos etc.

One thing that let me down was having plug in electric radiators on view.   A viewer commented that 'obviously the boiler isn't good enough'.  My house had single glazed sash windows and stripped floorboards with a six foot cellar underneath, we did need the additional heat when it was 0 degrees.

Good to see that someone recognised the obligation for a guitar but surprised there's no comment about must have a large clock or a picture of a hairy cow.

A Union Jack cushion seemed quite obligatory too, when we were house hunting last year! 

NornIronRose

Thanks Underoffer. That's helpful. Just painting the water stains etc today. And have already started decluttering. Olio, the charity shops and our local freebies group ate all going to be happy. 

Murphybear

If you have a large white fridge or freezer which are used a lot it’s amazing how grubby they can get on the outside.  Quick job cleaning them. 

 I don’t know what the issue is about fridge magnets, the buyers aren’t going to buy them or, in most cases, the fridge  I have 3 kitchen timers on my fridge, when I’m doing a lot of baking I use all 3 and if I put them away I’d spend ages looking for them.  

The last property I sold was empty.  I was living 200 miles away so handed the keys to a local EA and told him to get on with it.  It was sold to the first person who viewed it.