How to Stage Your Home for a Virtual Showing
ShareZooming has become a verb. If you're selling your home, it means to do a virtual home showing. Homebuyers are enjoying the convenience of doing virtual home tours, before deciding if they want a real-life walk-around. If you're doing a virtual tour, ask yourself how you can sell your home by making it more appealing.
1. Create Space With Mirrors
Mirrors can open up your space and make it look more expansive. Yet at the same time, you do not want to use trick mirrors — that is, use mirrors to over exaggerate the size of, and misrepresent a space to sell your house. Some ways to emphasize these features with a mirror include:
- reflecting a part of the room or architectural detail that may not be easy to capture on camera
- showing relationships among spaces, such as the gazebo off the kitchen
Note that if the space is cluttered, though, the mirror could backfire on you.
2. Declutter the Rooms
Rooms cluttered with furniture detract from the architectural design and features of a house. The buyer may notice your French provincial chairs, but not the fine architectural molding around the ceiling. Another drawback is clutter can make a spacious room look small and cramped. If you want to show off your home's fine features instead of your interior design skills, tuck some furniture away in the attic or basement.
3. Portray a Lifestyle
Every film has a theme. So, which theme will help you sell your house? The answer depends on what lifestyle you're selling with your home. Stage your virtual home tour like a movie set. For example, if your house is on a lake, a sale boat placed in front of the large bay window will attract the sailing set. Conversely, if your backyard backs onto a park, a park view through the windows could be appealing to the family with children.
4. Redesign Your Landscape
A professionally landscaped home can add 15–20 percent to a home's resale value. Once again, consider the lifestyle that you want to sell. If you're selling a luxury property, grand gates, a waterfall, and terraced gardens will complement the home. Organic vegetable gardens, rainwater harvesters, and compost heaps will appeal to the environmentally-conscious millennials in your neighborhood.
Take the time to meet with the videographer before the virtual tour is filmed. Discuss which areas and details of your home you feel will sell your home, and therefore should have a starring role.