Staging

An important part of displaying your house is staging, to create balance and harmony. You can do this yourself or you can use professionals.

Go to builders’ display homes and see how they are staged. See that they use minimal furniture to create space and purpose.

Place or remove furniture to maximise the feelings of space and allow light in your home with an eye to how rooms flow into each other.

If your furniture isn’t suitable you can move it into storage and rent furniture and artwork from a home staging service on a monthly basis.

• Rent a storage unit
• Most homes display better with less furniture. Remove pieces of furniture that block walkways through the home and put them in storage.
• Remove any non-essential bookcases or cabinets and store them.
• Remove extra leaves from your dining room table to make the room appear larger.
• Leave just enough furniture in each room to show the room’s purpose and have space to move around. You don’t want buyers unsure of the purpose of each room.
• When you have finished renovations and repairs move all tool, ladders and any bulky items like spare furniture or fridges inside.

Presentation

Make the house shine

Clean both sides of windows and clean fly wires.

Remove cobwebs

Hire a pressure cleaner and wash down paths and exterior walls.

Fill gaps around baths, showers, sinks and bench tops with matching silicone.

Polish chrome taps and mirrors.

Clean out the refrigerator.

Vacuum daily.

Seal and wax floors as required.

Dust furniture, ceiling fan blades and light fixtures.

Clean grout.

Replace worn rugs and floor coverings.

Hang fresh matching decorator bathroom towels.

Air out all musty and smelly areas.

Remove all odours like pets and smoke residue.

Final Analysis

Go outside and open your front door. Stand there. Do you want to go inside? Does the house welcome you?

Stand in the doorway of every room and imagine how it will look to a buyer.

Arrange furniture and move pieces around until it all makes sense.

Make sure window coverings look good and drawn back.

Does the house have impact and pizzazz?

Does it look like someone could move in?

Ask a friend or family member to give the home an inspection to see if anything has been missed.