With a surplus of houses for sale, clogging up the real estate market, it is essential that every step is made to make your house appear better to potential buyers.  Home staging is the strategic process of “decluttering” your home, creating a more spacious and accommodating setting to attract positive attention from buyers and their agents.  SMARTBOX understands the importance of home staging, helping provide the ultimate solution for those looking to clear out bulky or cluttered areas in order to help sell their homes.  With the SMARTBOX Portable Storage system, users can either keep their belongings on site for hassle free, easy access, or they can choose to have the belongings stored at one of SMARTBOX’s secure storage facilities.  Here are several tips for staging your home:

1.   Eliminate all clutter.  Homes look bigger and more stylish without any clutter.  Many stagers have the clients move out entirely, and the stagers bring in their own items.  Take all of the pictures off of the refrigerator, remove any stacks of paper on your desk, etc.  Also, having a professional house cleaning service come in and do a thorough once-over is almost always well worth the cost.
2.  Fresh paint can make a real difference.  It is the frosting on the cake.  Use colors that will appeal to the greatest number of people.  You may prefer something bolder or outrageous for yourself, but when selling a house, neutral-colored interior paints work best.  Also, replace any worn carpets or other flooring.  If you have hardwood floors that are in rough shape, having them refinished can often return many times the cost of the refinishing, and sell the home much faster.
3.  In many parts of the country homes are shown with no window coverings at all.  This creates an open and airy feeling.
4. Make sure there are no unpleasant pet or cooking odors.  Some sellers now bake cookies for the open house, creating a warm feeling in they buyer’s mind.
5. Use size-appropriate furniture.  If you have a small bedroom, don’t put a king-sized bed in there. Conversely, if you have a huge master suite, putting a single bed in there would look unbalanced
6. Leave the lights on even during the day to make the home as bright as possible.