You’re about to put your home on the market, and you’re wondering if all that home staging stuff is really worth it – or just a fancy word for “tidy your house and light a candle.” Honestly ? It’s a bit more than that. And the results can be pretty surprising.
Let me be straight with you : home staging isn’t about pretending your home is something it’s not. It’s about helping buyers see the potential, not the clutter. There’s a real difference. If you’re thinking about selling in a competitive area – and if you want to dig into local market specifics, a resource like www.immobilier-haute-garonne.net can give you a solid sense of what buyers actually expect in your region – then presentation is not optional. It’s strategy.
First Impression : You Have About 7 Seconds
No, that’s not an exaggeration. Studies on buyer behaviour consistently show that people make an emotional decision within seconds of walking through a door – or even just looking at the listing photos. Seven seconds. That’s less time than it takes to make a coffee.
So what do they see first ? The entrance. And the entrance in most homes is… a mess. Shoes everywhere, coats piled up, a random chair that somehow became a shelf. Sound familiar ?
Fix the entrance first. A clean mat, one coat hook, maybe a small plant. That’s it. You don’t need to spend a fortune – just stop the visual chaos right at the front door.
Depersonalise – And Yes, That Means the Family Photos
I know. You love that huge canvas of your kids at the beach. But here’s the thing : buyers need to mentally “move in.” When the walls are covered in your memories, they can’t picture theirs.
This isn’t about making the home cold. It’s about making it neutral enough to be anyone’s. Take down the personal photos. Pack away the collection of ceramic owls. Hide the dog bed if you can.
The goal is : clean, warm, but not lived-in to the point where buyers feel like guests in your life.
Light Is Everything – Literally
Dark rooms feel small. Small rooms feel unwanted. It’s almost brutally simple, but bad lighting kills more sales than bad kitchens.
Open every curtain. Replace any dead bulbs. If a room faces north and gets almost no natural light, go for warm-toned bulbs around 2700K – they make the space feel cosy rather than gloomy. Floor lamps in corners can completely transform a room that feels flat.
And for photos ? Always shoot in daylight. Always. Photos taken at night with overhead lighting look like a crime scene reconstruction. That sounds harsh, but it’s true.
The Kitchen and Bathroom Are Non-Negotiable
Buyers forgive a lot. They forgive small bedrooms, they forgive dated wallpaper, they might even forgive a weird floor plan. But they rarely forgive a dirty kitchen or a tired bathroom.
You don’t need to renovate. You need to deep clean and refresh.
In the kitchen : clear the worktops entirely. Put away the toaster, the olive oil, the random pile of takeaway menus. Put a single bowl of fruit or a small plant. That’s your whole kitchen staging budget right there.
In the bathroom : white towels. Honestly, just buy two white towels from IKEA. They photograph like a hotel. Hide everything else – the razors, the shampoo collection, the five different moisturisers. One soap dispenser, one candle, done.
Space Sells – Even When There Isn’t Much of It
Here’s something that surprised me when I first looked into this properly : buyers overestimate the size of rooms they like, and underestimate the size of rooms they don’t. It’s almost psychological.
Remove furniture that’s too big for the room. I know it sounds counterintuitive – won’t an empty room feel smaller ? – but actually, oversized furniture makes a room feel cramped and difficult to navigate. A room with fewer, better-placed pieces feels airy. Airy feels spacious. Spacious means buyers will write bigger offers.
If you have a spare bedroom that became a storage room, at minimum clear a path through it and put a bed back in there – even a borrowed one. “Storage room” in the listing means one less bedroom in the buyer’s mind.
The Numbers Behind It
Is home staging actually worth spending money on ? The data is pretty consistent here. According to various real estate studies across Europe and North America, staged homes sell on average 30 to 50% faster than non-staged ones. Some agents report price differences of 5 to 10% in favour of staged properties.
Even a modest investment – say, a few hundred pounds on fresh paint in neutral tones, some new cushions, a couple of plants – can return multiples of that in a faster sale or a stronger offer.
The most expensive shade of paint in the world won’t save a cluttered house. But the right neutral – something like a warm greige or soft white – on freshly painted walls, in a clean, well-lit space ? That’s a different kind of offer.
A Few Concrete Things You Can Do This Weekend
You don’t need to hire a professional stager (though they exist and can be worth it for higher-end properties). Here’s what you can actually do yourself, in a weekend :
1. Declutter every visible surface. Every. Single. One. When in doubt, box it up and put it in the garage.
2. Deep clean – especially the kitchen, bathroom, and windows. Clean windows make rooms look 20% brighter. Not a scientific figure, but it genuinely feels that way.
3. Repaint anything scuffed or strongly coloured. Neutral walls are not boring – they’re smart. Buyers can project their own style onto them.
4. Add a few plants. Not loads. Two or three. They add life without personality.
5. Fix the small stuff. That squeaky door handle. The lightbulb that’s been out for six months. Buyers notice these things and they start doing maths – “how much work does this place need ?”
One Last Thing
Home staging won’t fix a badly priced property. And it won’t transform a fundamentally flawed layout. But for most normal homes, the gap between “how it looks when you live in it” and “how it should look to sell it” is actually not that hard to close.
You’ve lived there. You’re used to it. Try to see it through a stranger’s eyes for a weekend – that slight discomfort of “what would someone walking in here think ?” – and let that guide your decisions.
That instinct ? That’s basically what home staging is. Formalised, practical, and yes, genuinely worth your time.
