While most people recognize they want to stage their home to look its best when having potential buyers over for showings or open houses, it’s also important to stage the outside areas if you’ve got a porch, patio, deck, or yard. Using these spaces to your advantage can help your potential buyer factor the outside elements of the home as a positive toward making an offer, rather than as a neutral or negative factor in the purchase.
Add Shades to Porches and Make Them a Haven
Front porches have become a popular feature on a home, so if you have a covered porch of any kind, really make it feel like a place your potential buyers want to spend time. This can include furniture and storage, but particularly consider finding a coordinating sun shade that keeps the space from getting too hot in the summer or getting rained on during a big storm. Aim for furnishing that are cozy but not too personal, since the goal is still for buyers to see themselves in it.
Add a Few Low Maintenance Plants to Any Sparse Beds
While not everyone will be focused on the landscaping, most buyers are going to view bright, thriving flower beds positively. If you can plant some new perennials or other low-maintenance plants in the beds right before you are going to list, you can take advantage of having your home look even more well-kept and impressive while those plants bloom and show off their bright colors.
Remove Quirky or Personal Items
Whether you’ve got a collection of yard art or a lot of funny signs on your porch walls, this is the time to pack them up for the next home where you’ll live in the future. Personal items may appeal to and delight some of your buyers, but when you’re selling you want to cast a wide net and let them envision your space as their own, giving them a blank canvas to imagine with their own yard art or decorative signs. By taking the time to put away those items, you get the chance to appeal to a wider array of buyers.
Create Separate “Rooms” To Showcase Potential
If you have plenty of outdoor space, consider staging separate areas, such as a dining area with a table and chairs as well as a seating area with a couch and a fire pit as a living room. When you use an outdoor rug and a full conversation set, you can showcase that people won’t just be able to go outside but really enjoy the weather in lots of contexts. For buyers who want to entertain, this visualization of how they could use the space really sets their imaginations going.
Store Toys, Games, and Other Family Items
Like personal items, games and toys should be stored before listing. This is part of staging not because everyone else doesn’t have these items – most families have some things in their yards. However, any slides and bikes left out are going to draw valuable attention away from the home and yard itself, where you want your buyers focused.