Home Staging Tips for House for Sale Photo Shoot

Are you preparing to list your home and get real estate photography done? It can be overwhelming preparing a home for sale. One of the best things you can do to help with the perceived value of your property is staging your home before the photo shoot happens. When staging your home you appeal to buyers who look at your real estate listing photos. Then when they take a tour in person. In fact, your home could sell faster when it's staged.

What are the benefits of staging your home?

It sets the mood for a great first impression of a home that feels maintained.
Your chances of the sale of your home increases.
It backs up the asking price you’re seeking.
The buyer’s agent will feel excited to show your home helping you out even more.
Gain more buyers interests when going through real estate listing photos.
The staged rooms will let buyers know what the room’s purpose is.
You get to start packing a few things early and tackling minor repairs.

Where do you start? While it is nice to stage the whole house it may not be necessary to do so. There are a few rooms you can focus on that we will discuss here.

The most important room to stage will be your Living Room

The statistics don’t lie. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has a 2019 Profile of Home Staging. Ninety-three percent of seller agents agree that the living room is the most important room to stage for a photo shoot. It is the room that everyone gathers. Buyers can see themselves entertaining and relaxing with friends and family.

You will want to focus on your walls and floor in the living room. Either get professional carpet cleaning or consider replacing. Throw a new color of neutral paint color especially if you haven’t painted the walls that are years old. Make sure the room is de-cluttered. Clear corners, personal items and any unwanted items like small furnishings. The things you can get or update with new throw pillows, fresh flowers, a new rug, and at least three light sources. If you have outdated furniture you can consider updating since you’ll be moving anyways. If you’re getting rid of the furniture an option to rent to stage the house. Be careful and balance everything as you still want to show there is plenty of room in the space.

The Kitchen and Master Bedroom

Buyer agents will want to see the focus on the master bedroom. Seller agents say that the kitchen is the next important. This is all according to the 2019 NAR report. Either way, these are the next two rooms to stage well.

Staging the Master Bedroom

First, let’s talk about the master bedroom. The room is where buyers will sleep, relax and have personal time. The master bedroom should feel like a nice resort room. You know spa-like. No clutter & no personal items. Imagine if you were a home buyer and went into a master bedroom that didn’t have that feeling and visual?

Take on any repairs first like having closet doors closing well. The ceiling fan should be in good working condition. Clean the carpets or consider replacing.

Consider painting the walls next. Keep it a neutral color again, and you’ll realize this will be throughout the entire home.

Declutter the room free of anything on the floor. Clear any furniture that might be taking up valuable square footage.

The most important part of the room to give that stage feeling will be the bed. It is the focal point when coming into the room. Use soft or buy new bedding. If you don’t have throw pillows and blankets add them. Nightstands should have table lamps. While you don’t want to have too much space taken up. If it permits to add a seating area near the bed.

When real estate photographs are taking they highlight an important room and raise interests.

The Kitchen Stage

Buyers will want to come into the home knowing that the kitchen has plenty of room for cooking and storage. The feeling of open space works best with kitchens.

You may not be willing to update the kitchen as that can get costly especially when you need to move. But you can consider these things:

Adding new hardware to cabinets
Painting the cabinets
Painting the walls
Get new appliances
Switch out your countertops for new ones like quartz or granite
Change the flooring

If you’re not in the mood or have the ability to spend some cash. Either way, you still want to do these cost-efficient things:

Declutter your storage. Showing off room in your cabinets, drawers and the pantry gives a great perception.
Clean and clear the counters. Keep the number of small appliances to a maximum of three.
Add a bowl of fresh fruit and/or a vase of flowers.
Clean. Everything wiped and spotless of any grime, streaks, and crumbs.

Your kitchen will pop in your real estate photos if you following these tips.

The Bathroom

Buyers will have a better feeling when they can walk or peek into a bathroom that feels like a spa or a nice hotel. Don’t skip out on this area. Pay close attention to your master bathroom. If it doesn’t have that same feeling when you stage your master bedroom then you might get mixed reactions.

When doing a walk-thru of your bathroom one easy thing to do right away is re-caulk. If the color of your walls is not neutral then painting can be the next option.

A spotless bathroom is one way to give that spa-like feeling. Clear any personal products and toiletries. Have a toddler? Put away their toilets too.

You can do a little dressing up. Do not use cheap towels. If you have some luxury looking towels use those. Match those up with a neutral shower curtain and a plant. Make sure lighting is ideal as well.

Get Those Photos Taken

Now you have staged your most important rooms. Make a decision now. You can get a real estate photographer for a photo shoot. Or you can continue staging other areas like the dining room and backyard patio. Either way, you’re one step closer in getting your home sold!