How to Streamline a Property When Selling

When it comes time to sell a property, it’s important to plan ahead and take the time you need to make smart decisions that will leave you feeling less stressed on the market. A major part of that decision making is “what items will stay and what items will go in the home” to create a streamlined look throughout the property. Here at Chicagoland Home Staging, our home stagers are trained to highlight the positive features of a space and pay close attention to details to help connect homebuyer’s emotionally in order to make a sale.

In order to create a look homebuyers fall in love with, our team selects furniture and accessories that feature a design style that will maximize square footage. We opt for effective pieces that are efficient for the targeted lifestyle — highlighting smooth transitions and clean lines. Here are a few tips to consider when streamlining your property for sale.

Simplify Surfaces to Highlight Your Property

Homebuyers are hesitant about the cleanliness of a property when surfaces are littered with various items. So, it’s important before a showing to clear countertops and table surfaces by finding a permanent home for the items to be stored while on the market. Take a look at this Hinsdale kitchen we staged above, the surfaces are cleared, except for a few strategically placed accessories to soften the building materials used in the room.

Cut Clutter Build Up in Your Home

Begin by going through each area of your house and getting rid of anything that you won’t need while on the market. This includes removing or packing up items from drawers, closets and shelving units. Pre-packing allows you to start the moving process early and gives the homebuyer an opportunity to see your home’s true potential beyond “your stuff.”

Out of Sight Storage

The living or family room is the place where most people congregate inside a property – which means clutter can accumulate easily. An easy way to keep toys, electronics, and magazines out of sight for showings is to have multi-functional furniture, like sofas and ottomans that have compartments or hidden storage to remove the items quickly. Another trick is to use shelving and accent tables that have storage with doors you can shut the clutter on.

Play With Textures for a Sophisticated Look

One way to subliminally streamline a property is to work with different shaped objects and textures. Take a look at the image above. There’s a mixture of circles, squares, and rectangles playing off one another. The circle art is balanced with the circle table lamp, while the circle bar cart sits on the adjacent side. This helps the eye look at the entire space verse focus on just one area.

Color Can Make a Connection Inside a Room

Focus on a few accent colors to play up throughout the property. Whether a neutral or bold hue, you want to sprinkle the color throughout the room using the 60-30-10 rule. This means 60% should be your main color, preferably neutral. 30% is a secondary color that can be lighter or darker. 10% is the accent color that should play on an emotion. There are times when one accent color is not enough, so go ahead and choose two.

Symmetrical Seating That Streamlines

In many cases, our team will use symmetry to create a streamlined look in a space. In this image above, pretend there is a vertical line straight down the middle. Do you notice how everything is balanced out on either side, mostly with identical pieces. For example, two pieces of art, two trees, two tables, two table lamps, two couches, etc. all match one another. Where the items are not identical they still look similar because of the color or height of the object.

A Space to Rest Those Eyes

One of the most important tips to remember when streamlining a house is to provide a place in each room for the eye to rest. You can achieve this by purposefully leaving something empty. You can use the empty space around an object to draw attention to certain features. Whitespace makes information easier for the eye to digest, and it lets the eye zero-in on important pieces of information.

If you need help to streamline a property for sale contact us today for a quote and to learn more about our services.