From Dull to Dynamic ~ It’s All About Home Staging!

Home staging has always been something I have been dying to try! The thought of constantly picking out decor and co-ordinating to put the focus on the features of the home brings a smile to my face! One of our properties in Courtice is a little on the smaller side- roughly 1100 sq ft. A little over a year old and had builders paint everywhere!

We did a showing last Wednesday and the comments were, “It’s small”, “I like the area, but we were looking for something a little bigger”, “I love that there are 2 full bathrooms upstairs- but I’m not sure that our furniture would fit.

I decided to invest in a little paint and move some of our furniture we were not using up to the property.

For this particular property our goal was $1600 in monthly rent. However in the current state with scuffs on the wall and cheap white blinds on all the windows, I wasn’t sure our tenants were going to see the potential for fast appreciation in a quickly growing area vs. a little cosmetic home reno project.

The cost of our cosmetic reno totalled approximately $400.00 for paint, blinds, curtains, accessories and rugs. Home staging usually runs around $1500-2000/month… we saved a lot of money doing this ourselves.

Before I get to the before and after pics, here are 5 top things to remember when staging your home

Go neutral- sure you may have always wanted a red room- your investment property is not the place to experiment with this! Most want to see neutral colours- anything in the beige or cream tones are always the right choice.
Odd numbers are preferred- work with 1 or 3 items. Meaning if you have a night table- choose to place a lamp on the surface (1 item) or a lamp paired with 2 books (3 items).
Balance hard and soft surfaces- if you have a coffee table (hard surface), place a rug underneath (soft surface).
Artificial or real? – always add artificial lighting and real-like plants.
Clean, clean, clean- everywhere! The worse is for potential tenants to come into a home and see left over dirt from the previous owner!!! Take your time, hire a cleaning lady- but make sure it is spotless!

Here are 4 before and after pictures. This is what a few hours of painting and adding furniture to a small space can do for your investment property. I think you will agree the transformation for a few hours of work paid off! Today we had another showing. We have 3 strong tenant candidates- best thing was- none of them mentioned the size of the property!

They kept mentioning how beautiful and cozy the place looked!

Darlene Hibbert

Before and after pictures