Staging Strategies for What Buyers Want

By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine

A few weeks ago we featured a list of top home buyer preferences in home design on Styled, Staged & Sold, based on survey results from Avid Ratings Co. Large kitchens with an island, a home office or study, and an outdoor living room were among the items that buyers ranked high on their preference list (see the top 10 list).

The Interiority Complex is featuring a series of blog entries, “What Home Buyers Want and How You Can Make It Happen,” taking a deeper look at each of these 10 buyer preferences and practical ways you can integrate these "wants" when staging a property to sell.

The blog series, written by Ashley Whittenberger, the Chief Decorating Officer at The Interiority Complex, is more than half-way through the list (currently on No. 6: ceiling fans). Here are just three of the practical tips the blog has offered through its series so far on how you can integrate these buyer preferences into your staging.

• Large kitchens with islands. No kitchen island in the home you’re trying to sell? Bring one in. The Interiority Complex blog features some affordable solutions for movable kitchen islands.

• Create outdoor living room. Look for inexpensive bistro tables and chairs, as well as try hanging lanterns and festive lighting in nearby trees to give your outside a more welcoming feel.
• Home office or study. If the home has a fitness area or play room, you might want to transform it by staging it as a home office, since more buyers say they want a work or study area. If there’s no separate space for a home office, then look for ways to incorporate a computer armoire and chair into a room. Just be sure to hide wires and keep the clutter away!