Home staging includes an assessment of your home's appeal and recommended changes to prepare your home for sale. A home stager brings a fresh perspective to your home, identifying the best features to hilight plus a list of changes to attract the greatest number of home buyers. Advice ranges from color choices, furniture placement, removing clutter, de-personalizing, accessories, etc. Many home stagers offer services like shopping, painting and rent accessories to save busy homeowners time.
Home staging is also a great idea to give your your home a fresh look, and so much more affordable than moving. Maybe you've already moved and need to rent your home? Home staging is a great way to showcase homes, condos and apartments for rent.
For homeowners who have to move but can't sell their home right now, here's a great story about home staging to rent your home quickly.
Home Staging to Rent Your Home
… by Beth Frede, Beth Frede Interiors
Here's a story about a new customer, a homeowner who called to see if I could help him get his condo rented quickly. He told me “… I'm tired of all white walls. I need colors that will ‘wow' potential renters.”. We visited his condo and I chose colors for this rental property, colors that will help attract the right renters for a great property.
The condo is full of great features — a bright sun room, gas fireplace, direct entry into the kitchen from the garage. One challenge I noticed right away were the gray tile floors that run throughout the first level, leaving the space feeling a little cold. Even with fresh paint, the condo would need accessories to give it some warmth and make it feel inviting to prospective renters.
While staging rental properties isn't common, at least not in New Hampshire, I felt that there could be a really big impact from a small investment in just a few key items. Here's what I suggested:
A green plant for the kitchen
This home's kitchen is small and valuable counter space doesn't need to be hidden beneath canisters and appliances. One green plant, a really good-looking faux fern, would bring lightness and life to an otherwise sterile kitchen. Cost: $20-25p
Window panels
In this case, the sun room is a special space in a condo, and should be played up to the max. Long window panels add a softness and sophisticated appeal to an otherwise bare room. 86″ sheers from Target cost a mere $5 or $6 a panel.
Basket with pillows
A large basket with a couple of decorative accent pillows makes an excellent accent for the sun room too. In this condo the special room to feature is the sun room while it might be the living room or a bedroom in another home. There are all styles and colors of baskets, but any container made of natural woven materials will bring texture and nature into the space. Both of these things offset the emptiness of a vacant room.
The pillows offer an easy, inexpensive hint of color that coordinates with the walls/floors and pattern to break up all the solid colored surfaces. Additionally, this basket/pillow combo takes the place of furniture. In some cases, actual furnishings are preferable but for a “mini staging”, the basket/pillows add big impact at a minimal price. Cost: $50 and up.
Artwork for the fireplace
One attractive piece of art sitting on the fireplace mantel is a welcome source of color, pattern or interest in a bare room.The piece may even be leaned against the wall rather than hung to keep nail holes to a minimum. Places like HomeGoods and TJ Maxx have a variety of attractive options.
A sizable piece may run you $60 or under. Just remember to keep the subject matter neutral.
Three new hand towels
For this property, three fluffy white hand towels would look lovely rolled up on the counter in the full bathroom. Just this little bit of softness continues the welcoming theme. Cost: $18 or less
For well under $200, this condo owner can add color and warmth to their vacant home which will make prospective renters feel welcome. Too often a really great property that fits a buyers requirements doesn't create the excitement needed to make a decision. This is why home staging is such an important tool for sellers and landlords too.
Since it's winter and the whole first level is tiled, an area rug for the living room. Even without one, for well under $200, the above items give potential renters a feeling of warmth, welcome and home that competing vacant properties will not.
Good luck to sellers and renters alike! Share your ideas and/or questions below …
Beth Frede, Beth Frede Interiors, is a full service decorating professional. She works with homeowners who want to update a room or their entire home, and helps sellers prepare their homes for sale. Whether you need help with paint colors, window treatments or shopping for just the right accessory, Beth is the person to call in southern NH.
Renovating your house, condo, or apartment will take up your time. Renovating is good when you want to raise its value. Just a tip: When painting the place, use bright colors because it helps brightening people’s moods. Look for areas that will cause future problems and fix them especially when a potential buyer decides to check the place.
Shane, Bright colors can be very personal so it’s best to stick with neutral colors for things that are semi-permanent like cabinets, furniture and flooring. It’s easy and relatively inexpensive to add your favorite accent colors with pillows, wall hangings and even rugs. Prospective buyers know they can change these easily versus needed to re-paint a room that is royal blue or replace bright red carpeting.