Selling a small home

If you’re in the process of selling a small home, you can’t do much about its size. But there are buyers for small homes and staging your home properly can help you get the sale.

Staging a small home

Home staging is a growing industry in which professional stagers or trained real estate experts arrange a home to emphasize its positives and downplay its weaknesses. They especially look at ways to make a small home or small rooms appear larger and improve the flow from room to room.

If you’re selling a small home, it might be worth it to hire a stager to tackle your space for as little as a couple hundred dollars. Or you can try to apply the principles yourself. Here are a few guidelines that can help a small home look larger:

• A room looks larger when it has less furniture, especially if the furniture is oversized.
• Light, neutral paint and limited wall hangings also make a room look larger.
• A small home will look larger if it flows well from room to room.
• Even a small home can seem large if it is uncluttered and spotlessly clean.
• Updating dark, dated cabinets with light, fresh paint and new hardware can make a small kitchen seem larger.
• Empty rooms look small; a few pieces of well-placed furniture can make them appear larger.

Getting the word out

Marketing is also important when you’re selling a small home. Think “cozy” instead of “small” and you’re halfway there. Think about the intimacy and charm of a small home and the type of buyer likely to respond to that charm. Talk to real estate agents to see how they would market your home.

Finally, be realistic about setting the price of a small home. Base it on comparable sales of other small homes in your area. In some cases, setting a price slightly below the listing price of other small homes might help you sell more quickly, saving you time, money and hassle in the long run.