How to Highlight Home Features Through Staging

Why Should Sellers Stage Their Homes?

When you invest in home staging, you boost its potential to sell at a competitive market value — according to the 2023 survey by the National Association of Realtors, staging amounts to a 1%-5% increase in sales prices compared to unstaged homes. The same study reported that 58% of agents said staging impacted the buyers’ view of the home. 

Other reasons sellers should stage their home include the following:

• Staged homes usually spend less time on the market.
• There tend to be fewer price reductions when a home is well-staged.
• A staged home is more appealing in listing photos. 
• It helps shine a lot on important home features you want buyers to know about. 

Staging a home is a worthwhile investment to fast-track the process. Indeed, you can do it yourself, but a professional stager knows how to maximize each room’s functionality to appeal to buyers best. 

6 Ways to Highlight Home Features for Buyers

A well-staged house fosters the buyers’ connection to a home — an effective way to boost its best features and hide or downplay its worst. When buyers walk through the door, they’ll see a house waiting for them to move in. Here are six important strategies for staging a home effectively.

Point Out Unique Characteristics

Are you selling an older house with a unique character? Potential buyers may want a place with a rich history and one-of-a-kind features. 

Place wall art near a curved archway to highlight architectural quirks or stage an old fireplace with a brass screen, a few logs and a decorated mantle.

Buyers searching for a home’s character will especially take notice of original flooring and antique wood features. Antique wood derives from 100-300-year-old lumber, marked by beautiful grains and greater density, making it a great home feature.

Feature Smart Technology and Eco-Friendly Features

Today’s buyers have sustainability, savings and convenience on their minds, leading many to look for homes with innovative technology, automation and eco-friendly features. 

For example, smart thermostats save homeowners 8% on heating and cooling bills, while energy-efficient appliances, lighting and solar power may also attract buyers. Perhaps the sellers invested in smart showers or radiant heating to create a luxurious primary bathroom. Additionally, if the house receives ample natural sunlight, it’s best to open the blinds and let it in.

Showcase these technologies’ enhanced safety and comfort, allowing homebuyers to experience the smart devices firsthand or offering to demonstrate how they work. 

Demonstrate Multifunctional Spaces

Nowadays, homeowners require additional space for hosting guests and working from home. In smaller homes, you may need to display multifunctionality wherever you can.

Ideas include combining a guest room with a home office space, fitness area, playroom or reading nook. You might also transform a finished basement into a home theater and game room combo or add a stylish bar area to the dining room. Once buyers see a space’s potential, they can reimagine it to suit their needs.

Showcase Outdoor Living

It’s crucial to pay attention to outdoor living space when staging a home to sell. According to the Outdoor Living Trends Report 2023 by Fixr.com, 60% of homeowners say outdoor living is very important, while 36% say it’s important.

Add a comfortable outdoor seating area with a portable fire pit if space allows so buyers can picture themselves sitting outside around the fire on cool autumn nights. Installing a pretty screen also highlights the potential for privacy. 

Find subtle ways to draw attention to an outdoor kitchen or grilling area, and utilize potted plants and lighting for enhanced aesthetics. Remember to include rocking chairs and a small table if there’s a front porch area. 

Create Interactive Spaces

Potential buyers want to walk into a house and feel like they’re home, meaning they should be able to visualize themselves living in every space. 

For instance, strategically placing board games on the living room coffee table will create a picture of them playing together as a family. You might also leave a cookbook open to a homey recipe in the kitchen, situated neatly in a cookbook stand.

Additionally, strategic living room furniture placements highlight ways they might set up their own pieces for quality time with friends and family. Buyers may even test the staged seating arrangement to see how they feel about the space.

Use Creative Lighting

Utilizing lighting to stage a home requires thinking outside the box. What features do you want to highlight most to prospective buyers? 

Overhead lighting, floor lamps and table lamps are great places to start. Likewise, playing with different lighting temperatures, bulb colors or gels in each room is beneficial to capture the ideal ambiance. 

Twinkle lights also work. For instance, you may add them to plants or place them in mason jars as kitchen decor. While you want to avoid adding too many lights — opt for maximizing natural lighting instead — you should experiment to find the perfect lighting technique. 

Home Staging Is Your Ticket to Sell

Staging takes your home from attractive to captivating for buyers. It’s your best chance at receiving a solid offer as you start over elsewhere. Consider investing in professional staging to enhance your home’s potential to sell.