“Home staging” can make a huge difference to how buyers perceive your property, and whether you make that all-important sale. We covered the basics in a separate blog post here, but there’s a key physical resource which helps you to learn from the very best which everybody can access – show homes themselves.
Show homes are professionally designed to market and sell a property. They demonstrate that lighting, colour and furniture selection all play a massive part in making a home feel and look more desirable. So anyone selling a property can learn a lot from visiting show homes.
Here are five quick tips that we’ve put together to help you to create your very own show home:
1. Define each room. Your buyers need to know how they would use each room, so bedrooms need to be bedrooms, not offices or hobby rooms. Similarly, a dining room needs a table, and junk rooms won’t do you any favours.
2. Add the right lighting. Lighting creates mood, so keep it light and bright in practical areas like your kitchen. Table lamps help to add atmosphere and ambience to living rooms and bedrooms.
3. Make your rooms feel spacious. Mirrors and shiny surfaces help to bounce light around spaces, making them feel bigger. Try adding oversized mirrors to dim corners to open them up.
4. Invest in new bedding. Cheap or old bedding can devalue bedrooms and make them feel dated. You can easily transform your bedrooms with new bed sets in neutral colours.
5. Finally, swap personal photos and knickknacks for style. Nice pictures for your walls don’t have to be expensive; there are plenty of high street shops selling affordable wall art that will give your walls a real lift. You should also pack old ornaments away and use flowers, vases, candles and other items to improve a lacklustre room.
If you’re still stuck for show home inspiration, try browsing the new home sections of the property portals or – better still – go and visit some show homes yourself.
And don’t worry, you don’t need to lose the personality from your house – we'll explain more about that in our next post.
Good luck with your sale!
