Pro tips for staging your house to ensure a quick sale

Plan on moving any time soon? These are the things that you should keep in mind when staging your home. And who better to give the best tips than stagers Bianca Zorzi and Zina and Nick Gewarges? We bet you that your house will be sold in no time. 

De-personalize

Remove photos, family trees, graduation degrees, medals and anything else that's personal to you. Buyers want to envision themselves in the house, they don't want to be distracted by seeing your personal life.

Remove any religious items throughout the house. This may also include items that may offend certain religions. For example you may want to remove excessive alcohol if you live in a Muslim dominated community of potential buyers. 

Neutralize

Staging isn't based on personal tastes, it’s meant to be as broad and as wide reaching as possible. Bold or unique items in particular are distracting and will often take the buyer’s attention away from the property attributes and selling features like the size of the rooms, stlye etc. Don't showcase the art you bought on your exotic vacation, focus on accentuating the large feature wall in the room instead. 

Stick to symmetry

Having furniture and accents that work with the layout and size of the room is extremely important. A large bulky sectional in a small room doesn't feel right, and if it is paired with a small, low wooden table the scale of the room is all of. Alternatively, a small rug that's fits with the room feels dwarfed and can actually make the room feel smaller. Go for a small sized rug will help ground and define the space.

Seasonal items/decor

Remove any Halloween, Christmas, Easter décor. This will give away the property listing and if the sale takes a long time the professional photos will be a giveaway for potential buyers that its been on the market a long time. A listing in February with Christmas décor in the photos tells buyers its an older listing and they will try to lowball an offer.

Overpowdering odours

This is really important for showings! Staging also requires an appeal to other senses (not just sight, but sound, smell, etc). Don't cook strong foods right before a showing, don't use overpowering air fresheners, remove cat litter boxes and leave on a radio or tv at a suitable station.