Staging & Selling Home

Whether you're putting your house on the market or just taking an Instagram photo, these professional-recommended finds will help give your space some oomph—without making your wallet go kaput.

It's pretty incredible what a hands-on day in the yard can do to improve the whole look and feel of your home's exterior.

Professional home stagers have an arsenal of cleaning tricks that will leave your home looking sparkling. The best part? You'll only spend minutes—not hours—cleaning.

Many elements needed for an effective home staging can be found on the cheap (if you know what you're looking for). In fact, many professional stagers frequent Dollar Tree for items to spruce up spaces.

Whether you’re looking to stage your home to sell or simply want kitchen counters worthy of an Instagram post, professionals have some easy styling moves that will help make your counters become the focal point of your kitchen.

Whether you’re looking for cost-effective ways to get your house in shape to sell or are just after a refreshed look, these simple additions offer a great return on your investment.

These tips will, yes, sell potential buyers on your kitchen. But, even if your home isn’t on the market, embracing some of these kitchen styling rules will help you create a lovely space for entertaining or providing an Instagram backdrop for those great food photos you’ve been taking.

Follow these tips, and the master bedroom may just rise to the most coveted staged space on buyers wish list (or, if you have no plans on moving, become your favorite room of the house!)

Whether you're looking to sell your home or just want an impressive entrance, these front entryway ideas will help give off that good “welcome home” vibe.

Kirsten Dunst is saying goodbye to her waterfront estate.

If your house has been lingering on the market, the reason it hasn't sold may have nothing to do with price or location.

It might seem like those House Hunters are being willfully obtuse for refusing to see beyond paint color. But in the real world, paint color does have an effect on homebuyers, albeit a more subtle one.

You may think refreshing your home will cost a fortune, but you can elevate your space affordably—just head to IKEA. That's what professional home stagers do, after all.

Planning on selling soon? I’m sure you know that kitchens and bathrooms are a great target for your makeover dollars, but they also are the most expensive places to renovate. If you have just a little cash but want to make a major impact, step outside and check out the view from the curb. A fresh coat of paint will go a long way. If you want your property to pop out on the block, go for a bright, eye-catching color that’s a little out of the norm.

If you plan on selling within five months, or even five years, a renovation is usually planned with extra consideration for resale value. Though there are certain updates that will always be a worthy investment with wide appeal (read: hardwood floors), some projects aren’t worth the trouble if your goal is to maximize your home’s value. One of the most common pitfalls for value-focused renovators is going overboard on the extras.

These "investments" are anything but.

While you might be aghast that someone couldn't love your dog, here's what a potential buyer might be thinking when they see him in your listing.

When it comes to curb appeal, doesn’t it seem like everyone talks only about painting your door a bright color and manicuring your front yard? My thoughts exactly. Happily, there are lots of other things you can do that will make a big difference when it comes to freshening your house’s exterior, making it the cutest one on the block and, hopefully, prompting it to linger less on the market. Here, some of the best tips, from real estate professionals.

So you’ve decided to rent out your pad to earn some extra cash. Depending on where you live, you can stand to make a hefty profit by making your home available for rental through services like Airbnb and VRBO. Before you dive in, though, it’s crucial that you come prepared. There’s more to being a successful host on these popular vacation rental sites than meets the eye, and if you want your property to stand out, presentation is key.

​Turns out, first impressions are worth a whole lot. Or at least to real estate agents stepping into a home for the first time.

Design enthusiasts in Palm Beach County, Florida, let out a collective hurrah last year when the venerable Kips Bay Designer Show House in New York debuted a sister event in Palm Beach. The show house has now returned for a second year, gracing a 10,000-square-foot waterfront property in West Palm Beach (it’s open now through February 20!) Twenty-two design firms from throughout the country transformed the space in just under four months.

Oprah Winfrey’s estimated net worth is $3 billion, but one of the properties in her real estate portfolio is surprisingly modest. The media mogul is currently selling a house in Chicago’s nearby Elmwood Park suburb—for under $400,000. The 2,250 square foot brick colonial has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an attached garage. Originally built in 1941, Oprah purchased the property in 2001 for $298,000, but has never lived in it.

In case you're wondering, they aren't super snobby when it comes to sourcing decor items—they often shop in the same places with an eye on price—just like you!

Unless you’re planning on staying in your house forever, chances are good that, when planning home improvements, you have at least one eye on resale value. Today we’re tackling a tricky subject: can new appliances increase the value of your home? As most appliances don’t come cheap, is it worth the expensive upgrade? Turns out, the answer is: it depends. For the most part, expecting a significant return on appliances is a risky proposition.

Your home is on the market, and you’re gunning to sell, but you still haven’t gotten any offers. Staging your home, or preparing it for resale, can make all the difference. According to realtor.com, staged homes sell 88% faster and for 20% more than non-staged ones. But for the average person, dropping thousands of dollars (and there’s no doubt — it will cost you that much) to stage a home is a bit unrealistic.

We all know plants work wonders to purify the air and make your space feel happier, but there’s more to know about these green goodies: They can actually help sell your house. Here’s how. Houseplants make our homes happier, healthier places. They also convey just that when you’re putting your house up for sale, says Justin Hancock, a horticulturist at Costa Farms in Miami, Florida.

If you’re a frequent Zillow user, you’ve probably heard of the Zestimate: the free online estimate of your home’s value generated by the real estate company. Sounds convenient, right? You can get your house appraised online without even leaving your chair. You may be tempted to just skip the hassle of hiring an appraiser to get an accurate estimate for your home and use the Zestimate instead. But Emily Heffter, a spokeswoman for Zillow, says that might not be the best strategy.

If you’re selling a house, one of the first things you may want to do is hold an open house. While opening up your doors to potential buyers might seem like an effective way to sell your humble abode, it might not be worth the hassle. Joe Cleary, owner of The Cleary Group in Florida, says that open houses are slowly becoming a thing of the past, largely due to advances in virtual listings and home tours.

Just as you might primp before a first date, it makes sense to glam up your home before introducing it to potential buyers.

Fixer Upper stars Chip and Joanna Gaines are constantly growing their Magnolia empire, and that means a hefty dose of high-end real estate. But their latest property to hit the market isn’t a single-family home: Instead, the couple’s Magnolia Realty just listed a historic boutique hotel in the small town of Hico for $2.35 million.

The sound of lawn mowers purring. The smell of lilac bushes starting to bloom. May is a magical time period for a variety of reasons, particularly for those of us who have eagerly awaited the warmer temps and sunshine. But it turns out that the first half of May is a real dynamo for the real estate market, too. According to research conducted by Zillow, homes listed from May 1 to 15 sell about 2 weeks faster, and for a $2,400 premium over properties listed at other times during the year.

As if selling your home wasn’t stressful enough already — from the emotional freefall of saying goodbye to the place you live, to the logistical nightmare of packing up and moving all of your worldly belongings — it costs a hell of a lot of money to do it, too. The costs associated with selling a median-priced U.S. home total about $13,357, according to a report by Zillow and Thumbtack.

Despite having just renovated the place, Emily Blunt and John Krasinski are selling off their Park Slope townhouse that they bought in 2016—for a cool $8 million. The Wall Street Journal reported today that the couple is selling the Park Slope pad because they’re constantly traveling for work. “We’ve been nomads for a while now, but that’s the nature of the business,” Krasinski told WSJ.

Prepping your home for sale can feel completely overwhelming. It’s like magnifying the stress of tidying up and making your house “guest ready,” tenfold. Because you’ve got to make it look good, really, really good, for guests you don’t even know. They’re not your family or your friends. They are prospective buyers, and they are coming to examine your most intimate quarters and decide if they can see themselves living there, too.

Hi, Erin. I’m the buyer who saw and bid on your apartment earlier this month. So began an email I received last spring from a guy I’ll call Chris. My little condo was on the market, listed with a nice agent at a regular real estate firm. Brokers and apartment hunters had been tramping through the place daily, kicking me out to peer in the fridge and disparage my spiral staircase. After some weeks, two buyers were interested. A bidding war (or at least a scuffle) was afoot.

Yep, these things will require you to spend some cash up front but won’t it be worth it when your house sells faster and for more money? Try these three tiered ideas that let you invest a little or a lot. This is the minimum you can do to make sure both the inside and outside of your home are sparkling clean and pretty. It’s your first, best way to tell your potential buyer that this is somewhere they want to be.