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How to Stage a Home for Sale

Posted on: April 4, 2013

Getting ready for the big move? Your first step is going to be selling your current home in the Virginia, Maryland, or Washington, DC area, and as your real estate agent has probably already told you, staging your home can significantly speed up the selling process—and maybe even increase the selling price!

“Staging” means showcasing your home in the best light possible—like a model home. This means opening up your home, cleaning even nook and cranny, and removing the clutter so it appears bigger, better, and more desirable to potential buyers. It’s often beneficial to remove personal items, such as family photos, to allow buyers to envision their family in your home.

SMARTBOX of Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington, DC has a lot of experiencing helping people both move to a new home and provide on-site or off-site storage to keep belongings during the selling process. Contact us today at 301-683-6111 to learn more about using portable storage to sell your home!

The Importance of De-Cluttering

The most important step of staging your home is to remove the clutter and personal trinkets. This is a good time to clear out junk by selling, donating, or tossing what you no longer need. Then you can utilize portable storage in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC to store what you want to keep, but don’t need right now, such as:

  • Extra furniture
  • Collectibles
  • Mementos
  • Tools for hobbies you won’t return to until after the move
  • Out-of-season clothes
  • Extra cookware
  • And more

Be ruthless! Sparseness is the key if you want your house to look like a model home.

The Benefits of Using Portable Storage When Selling Your Home

There are many advantages of using on-site storage when you’re trying to sell your home— it’s the most convenient option available as you prepare to stage your home. For starters, it allows you to store those extra possessions and personal items around the house, rather than piling your boxes in the basement or spare room while buyers are touring your home.

We’ll bring our large portable storage containers straight to your driveway (or anywhere else you want us to put them). Then you can take all the time you need storing your belongings as you see fit. Once the containers are loaded, we can move them either to an out-of-sight place on your property or to our secure, temperature-controlled storage facility until the date of your move. When your new home is ready to go, we can deliver all your containers right to your new home!

How You Can Brighten and Freshen Your Home

With the clutter gone and your possessions safely out of the way with portable storage, it’s time to put the finishing touches on your staged home:

  • Wash the walls
  • Apply a fresh coat of paint if necessary
  • Have the carpets professionally cleaned
  • Replace burned out light bulbs and buy an extra lamp or two to brighten up dark corners
  • Replace worn out bedding, area rugs, and throw pillows for a more professional appearance
  • Bring in fresh-cut flowers from the garden
  • Repaint kitchen cabinets and replace hardware to affordably update the kitchen
  • Clean every surface before a buyer arrives to make the home look unlived in

You can ask your real estate agent for tips about what you should do to brighten and improve your home so you don’t end up overspending on areas that aren’t worth the investment.

Call SMARTBOX for Portable Storage When You’re Moving

Your staging efforts are sure to pay off if you de-clutter, utilize portable storage, and brighten up your home before showing it to prospective buyers. To learn more about convenient, safe and inexpensive portable storage in Virginia, contact SMARTBOX today!

Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Calvert, Caroline, Carroll, Cecil, Charles, Dorchester, Frederick, Harford, Howard, Kent, Montgomery, Prince George, Queen Anne, Saint Mary, Somerset, Annapolis, Baltimore, Bethesda, Columbia, Frederick, Gaithersburg, Hyattsville, Rockville, Silver Spring, Wheaton.

Testimonials
"Hello Chantel, I am writing to express my pleasure in being a customer of SMARTBOX. You have a wonderful and efficient product but I have been most impressed with the quality of the employees. Everyone I have spoken with or come into contact with at.
-Nick M
"Nick, I wanted to again say thank you for working with us for a discount on the Smartbox. I also wanted to tell you that both of the ladies I have spoken with in the office and the driver who dropped off the box were.
-Angela C.
"Selling Real Estate in a competitive market requires much more than installing a sign in the yard and putting an ad in the paper. Today’s sellers must show their homes in their very best light … and what that means is CLEARING OUT THE CLUTTER..
-Carrie Mock,
"I arrived home last night from an extended Thanksgiving trip to be welcomed by your beautiful gift package of goodies from Harry & David – what a delightful surprise! In fact, as I told Gretchen in an e-mail late last night, I couldn’t resist immediately.
-Linda
"We cannot speak more highly of the incredible level of customer service that we have received from SMARTBOX Maryland - beginning with Natasha advising us to the best value from among promotions you were offering at the time, to your kind assistance and advice during.
-T. & M. Kitch
"Nick Sage of SMARTBOX Portable Storage, performed a miracle for me and one of my clients at the very end of June, when all movers were having their busiest week. My client had arranged for U-Haul to deliver storage boxes to her house the day.
-Emily M.
"You should advertise more! I am so glad I came across your service when I did. I saved so much money by doing it myself. I will never rent a truck again. This is so much easier!"
-J. Pollard
"We are new to being parents of a college student. We had no idea how much time and energy it takes just to get her set up in the dorm room! When we moved our daughter out of the dorm last year, we had to.
-D. Raines
"Thank you for your donation of six SMARTBOXES for the residents that were displaced by the fire on December 12, 2006. The residents had so many donations of furniture and clothing and had no place to store it. This was the perfect solution for everyone!.
-Karen Brown
"SMARTBOX's sponsorship is a wonderful example of the cooperative partnership that is so important to help us meet the challenges of saving the Bay."
-Pamela Wilson
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