You have most likely heard of staging a thousand times by realtors whenever you had to put a property on the market. Realtors noticed towards the end of the last century that homes sell much better if they are staged. An empty property is just that: empty. It has no soul without any decoration or furniture. And that’s why it’s difficult for most buyers to imagine themselves living in your property. To make this step a little easier, realtors started to stage empty houses. However, that has always involved high costs to start with plus recurring monthly payments until it was sold. And thus not everyone took advantage of it while their homes sat on the market for ages. With digital staging though, all of these problems are solved. Take a look on the web to see what an empty home could be turned into a digital staging guide.
Maybe you’ve tried staging your home already yourself. In order to truly get the best out of digital staging, make sure to keep the following important points in mind. Even though you can achieve a lot with digital staging, it’s not a tool with completely unlimited options. At the same time, there are some essentials to consider to make your property more sellable.
Do the uncluttering
It is probably the most important for any pictures you take of your property to advertise it online. Any clutter puts potential buyers off immediately. We all know that you don’t live in a museum and some clutter is part of daily life. But it should simply not exist if you want to sell your home as fast as possible. Although you can remove clutter also via the editing of the digital staging, you’re probably going to need more time to do it virtually. Hence, it’s best to mercilessly unclutter your home before you take any pictures for digital staging. Should your property already be empty, just remove the last tools that might be lying around. Once you’ve moved out, there’s always some odd water bottle left, maybe a jacket or a tool. Make sure to remove all those pieces. It only takes you a second.
Use neutral colors
The huge advantage of digital staging is that you can renovate your property before you’ve actually done it in real life. It saves you a lot of time and stress. With digital staging, you can theoretically go crazy and try out different styles for your property. But the ones you use may not appeal to each potential buyer. Therefore it’s best to stick to neutral colors such as white or creamy white for your walls.
Don’t be afraid to get creative
You may still use a very light creamy yellow that’s not too bright. The point is, to use them that would practically be suitable for any style the property might be furnished. Creamy white tones are usually the best to stick to for digital staging. Bold colors are pretty much always a no-go. You don’t want to scare potential buyers away with screaming bright green walls that could remind them of toxic substances. Neither are dark colors recommended since they’re not as neutral either. Some may want to use some grey tones. But think about it, what the color grey reminds you of. Indeed, the image of a cloudy grey sky is more likely to jump into your mind. It’d give your home a rather austere appearance.
Take care of those repairs
With digital staging you basically have two options: take care of repairs before you even take photos or take care of them afterward. Cracked walls or tiles, as well as water damage, are not appealing to any buyer. Doing those repairs might become an issue for your schedule if you want to sell your home fast. Hence, you can deal with the repairs like you’d deal with renovations for digital staging. Do them in real life as soon as the property has gone onto the market. You can edit out any cracks with digital staging and conveniently take care of them in your own time. However, you should really do those repairs before you sell your home. Damages could result in a lower selling price, but with digital staging most actually get a higher price. You surely don’t want to miss out on that extra money.
Keep your buyers in mind
You should make sure to stage your home according to the area your property is located in. If you were to sell your penthouse apartment you’re probably not targeting a family of five. A professional single would be more likely to buy your property. If your property is located in a suburb with lots of families living in the area, you have to stage the home accordingly as well. A family home would obviously have to be staged for a family of five and not for a single. Studio apartments are a lot more attractive to young singles, who would probably not mind a kitchen island either if it’s there.
Stage from the inside out
The first thing your potential buyers are going to see is the outside of your property. Fortunately, it doesn’t matter if you took a picture from the outside on a rainy day. You can edit the sky in the background and turn it into a lovely sundown. Don’t forget about the entrance either. Give it a homely feel with a doormat and one or two plants at the entrance. You don’t actually have to put them there, it’s sufficient to edit such parts in with digital staging. It’ll be helpful if you cleaned the porch, as that is only going to take a few minutes, too. This tiny task may ultimately take you longer than the digital staging task.
Show some love to the whole propriety
If you haven’t done so yet, trim the bushes out front while you’re at it. If you haven’t had the time, do it with digital staging. Furthermore, it’d be a great idea to create two different outside appearances: a sunny one throughout the day and one for the early evening hours. For the digital staged early evening hours, you can edit your image and switch on the lights inside – without actually doing it. It will add to a cozy homely feel people will want to buy.
