Home staging Mistakes That Will Keep the House on the Market
Home staging Mistake 1| Curb Appeal
What will the unconscious sign on your front door read? If your house lacks curb appeal, then you might as well hang a sign on your front door that says “No Trespassing”.
You never have a second chance to make a first impression when home staging. If a potential home buyers first impression is that the house is not a home because the yard is a mess, there is no plant life, there is trash all over the place, the garage door has tennis ball marks all over, and the front door hasn’t been painted since this century, then you will have a very tough time selling this person the house. It doesn’t matter how nice the inside of the house is, once that bad first impression is there, it never goes away. If the first impression of the house due to a pleasant curb appeal is positive, then the buyers are more likely to forgive any imperfections inside the house. However, if the curb appeal is unpleasant, dirty, and messy, then you will have an uphill battle selling the upside of an even immaculate property. Therefore, when selling a house, always invest your money on home staging by improving the curb appeal.
Home staging Mistake 2 | Cleanliness is Next to Godliness
I had to recently point out to a seller that adding brand new hardwood floors to her house did not mean that she should continue with her 7-year-not-cleaning-the-bathroom-streak she in which she seemed to have as much pride in this streak as Pete Rose did in his hitting streak! Her attitude, as with other sellers’ I’ve met, was that if they like the house, they can clean it when they buy it. Not surprisingly, her house didn’t sell. It’s really common sense, no one wants to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next 30 years for your filth. So clean up the house. Let people imagine themselves serving holiday feasts to family members in the kitchen instead of worrying about sticking to something.
Home Staging Mistake 3| It’s Nothing Personal
Home sellers are selling a house, not their home. So keep the designs neutral to anyone who walks them. Psychologically speaking, when potential buyers walk into a house, you want them to imagine themselves as the owners of the house. You want them to fantasize about cooking in the kitchen, snuggling around the fireplace, and taking a relaxing bubble bath in the (clean) tub. That’s hard to do when you have pictures of every family member in every room of the house. The potential buyer feels like an intruder and doesn’t allow themselves to fantasize about ownership. Anything you can do as a home seller to get the potential home buyer to imagine themselves as the owner is a plus, so take down any personal items that will stand in the way of personal ownership!
Home Staging Mistake 4| The Bold and Unbeautiful
If you are planning to continue to live in a house, then paint it a unique color that fits your personality. But if you’re going to sell a house, keep it a universally accepted color. While you may love the color pink in the living room, the buyer pool who wants a pink living room is very small. And going with that dark purple bedroom paint is a poor decision as well. Most people won’t like the color and it’s hard to paint over. Therefore, if prepping your house paint to help sell the property, keep your colors light, as most potential buyers won’t be turned off by it and it’s easy to paint over to taste.
In conclusion, home staging is important in selling a house. An empty house is a cold, unappealing house that no one wants to be in, much less buy. But focusing on the home staging basics, such as curb appeal, cleanliness, and generic colors while putting away personal belongings will go a long way to helping you sell the house!

If you liked ‘Home Staging Mistakes’, then you may also enjoy other articles by Tom Bukacek at www.REMillionaireBlueprint.com