Showing homes in their best light is your job, as an agent. And, although you always point out the property’s best features, you can only do so much. But a little home staging goes a long way in marketing a home.
Staging neutralizes an abode so visitors can envision themselves moving in and putting their personal stamp on the place.
On top of that, staging gives potential buyers a better perspective on the size of the rooms and whether or not their furniture would fit.
If your clients are a little unsure of the value of home staging, you can remind your clients that they’ll get a return on their staging investment. According to the National Association of Realtor’s 2019 Profile of Home Staging, 22 percent of seller’s agents reported an increase of 1 percent to 5 percent of the dollar value being offered, and 17 percent of sellers agents stated that staging a home increased the dollar value between 6 percent and 10 percent.
Although furniture layouts and paint colors get a lot of attention in the staging process, one essential element is a home’s lighting.
To ensure your clients have everything lit to perfection, here are six glow-related tips for any home stager.
1. Analyze each room
Not all lighting schemes are created equal. Start your light-centric staging by going to each room in the house, turning on every light and opening every blind and curtain.
With that, you’ll see the spaces at their brightest. You can see which corners end up in the shadow so you can add light accordingly as well.
Make sure you or the homeowners do the same at night time because not all showings happen when it’s light out — you might need more bulbs when it’s dark outside.
2. Update the fixtures
Perhaps the lighting looks less than ideal because it’s coming from an outdated light fixture. You might suggest to your clients that they update some particularly old-school pieces with a more modern version — read up on the type of fixtures that people want in 2019, such as pendant lights, brass hardware and LED bulbs.
To that end, you might also suggest to your homeowners that they replace old lightbulbs for modern LED versions. They save money and energy, and buyers will like to see such eco-friendly swaps made.
3. Harness Color Rendering Index
You’ve certainly bought lightbulbs for a client’s home or your own, so you know they don’t cast an identical glow. Instead, some appear warm, some wash everything out, and the rest fall somewhere in between.
The Color Rendering Index (CRI) can help you pick the best bulb without having to test a slew of them. CRI is a numerical scale that enables you to figure out what the light output of a particular bulb will be.
In most cases, on the CRI scale of 0 to 100, 90-or-higher bulbs are considered the highest quality options. In other words, if you choose a 90-plus CRI bulb, colors will look their best, thus basking your staged rooms in the best possible light.
4. Add lights where needed
Now that you know where you need light and what type of bulbs to buy, it’s time to add the fixtures, floor lamps and table lamps to brighten the place up and show off its best side.
Much of this task will be trial-and-error as you bring in a handful of different lighting options and see which ones illuminate each space the best.
Of course, some styles always fit the bill. For one thing, under-the-cabinet lighting strips can illuminate the countertops and backsplash, highlighting the house’s design features. You should also make sure that each bathroom has a bright vanity light — keep the level of lighting consistent in each bathroom.
As stagers, you and your clients will sometimes have to get creative. You can use table lamps as a chance to add a pop of color or interest to an otherwise simply staged room.
Without an available tabletop, you can still light any area with a floor lamp. And you can use your lights to showcase architectural highlights in a room — we already mentioned cabinet lights, but you can use small lamps to highlight an ornate mantle or a custom built-in shelving unit.
5. Lighten up the color scheme
No matter how many lamps you bring into a room, you won’t light it up if the walls and decor come in a dark hue. So, part of your lighting staging might have to incorporate a lighter, neutral, stager-friendly paint job. Typically, a monochromatic color scheme does the trick.
To that end, you can add some decorative accents that usher in more light once you paint the walls. Mirrors, for one, will reflect any glow that the room already has and amplify its effects. Some people also believe that adding green plants adds a similar vibrancy.
6. Don’t forget the outside
Finally, you can’t stage a home without considering its curb appeal. The outside of each of your client’s homes should, therefore, have the proper lighting on it, too.
For one thing, bright outdoor lighting makes a home seem safer because such a glow tends to discourage burglars. On top of that, path and tread lighting make the house look welcoming — the way to the front door will be lit up for potential buyers to follow right into their new home.
As you can see, light is a vital element, as far as home staging is concerned. So, put the above six tips to practice and see how much of a difference it can make — we promise, it’s a bright idea.
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Kayla Matthews covers smart technology and future trends for websites like VentureBeat, Curbed and Motherboard. You can read more posts by Kayla on her personal tech blog: Productivity Bytes.
