Stage Your House Inexpensively

Cheap Ways to Get Your Home Ready to Sell

Nov 24, 2007

Don't be afraid to experiment with color!, stockxpert

Trying to sell your house with no luck? Tips to improve your home's appeal and bring in contracts. Also, dispel those myths about what attracts buyers to a house.

Before the for-sale sign was even in the ground, your realtor probably told you to get rid of clutter, paint the walls a neutral color and lose those family photos. Good advice, but it doesn’t work for every house.

First of all, not everyone likes neutral. A buyer might take one look at the egg-shell wall color and walk back the same way she came in. Off-white is great for making a small room look larger, but it does nothing to make a stark room appear cozier. Getting rid of useless stuff will make a cluttered room appear neater and bigger. But if you get rid of too much, the room will seem cold and uncomfortable.

These tips will help make potential buyers think your home is warm and inviting:

Don’t be afraid to experiment with color. If you want to go with neutral walls, fine. But pick an earthy beige or an off-white that has a hint of yellow. Yellow is soothing and instantly brightens a room. Unique colors will make the house stand out to potential buyers who won’t remember one egg-shell wall from another.
Don’t get rid of the photos on the wall! Instead jazz them up. The idea that buyers can’t picture themselves living in a house with pictures of another family on the wall is just not true. Family photos give the house a sense of familiarity and homeyness. But if your photos are framed in cheap discount store frames, get some inexpensive bright colored mounts and hang the pictures in a unique pattern. This will immediately modernize the house and draw attention to the walls that you have just painted!
Turn the lights on in every room, even in the middle of the day (only when you're showing the house.) And invest in dimmer switches. Soft lighting makes even worn-out furnishings look refreshed. Especially if you don’t have a lot of windows in your home, those lights will brighten each room.
Open all the blinds in the house and clean the windows inside and out. You’ll see, this will make a huge difference, especially in the middle of the day.
Don’t bake cookies before you leave! Another suggestion from some realtors that just doesn’t make sense. Sure, potential buyers may love the aroma of freshly baked cookies, but they might also wonder what smells you are trying to hide. Most people prefer the normal scent of a home on a typical day. Instead, put out fresh flowers and let that aroma waft through the house.
Buy some bean bags for a corner. An empty corner could use some softening. Bean bags are inexpensive and come in a rainbow of colors. They look especially good in a rec room, a kid's room or a finished basement.
Invest in some tall plants, either real or artificial. Plants do wonders to soften rooms. Even if you have a brown thumb, fake plants are so realistic-looking these days, no one will be able to tell.

And when your realtor tells you to clean out the garage and leave your home during an open house, listen!