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Photo: Dan Kalleres
After kitchens, bathrooms are the number one selling feature in homes today. Your bathrooms can easily make or break a sale with today’s buyers. Having a bathroom with just the right look and feel is critical to selling in a competitive market (or any other market, for that matter!). Whether it’s a full or a half bath in question, there are changes that can typically be made for any budget.
Remember that you will use a 1-2% rule of thumb to determine your overall staging budget for your home (1-2% of the value of your home should be dedicated to staging and preparing your home for sale in order to maximize the selling price and the speed of sale). When creating your budget for individual rooms, target the larger projects and/or the projects with higher returns on investment first. That usually means the kitchen would be at the top of the list, followed by bathrooms.
Once you have an idea about your budget, start looking over the bathroom(s) in question and look at the following characteristics for potential red flags from buyers:
De-cluttering: Mentioned time and time again, this is the first real step to staging any room in your home and the bathroom is no exception! Counter space is essential, so make sure all your toiletries are filed away in drawers or behind medicine cabinet doors. Only a few decorative accessories should be visible on surfaces in a bathroom (towels, flowers, soap dispenser, etc.). If you have added an étagère, take it down. It will just give buyers the impression that there isn’t enough storage space in the bathroom without adding furniture.
Flooring: Is the type of flooring current? Is it a good choice for the price range of your home or the homes you are competing against? Is the floor in good condition? If you have carpet in your bathroom, regardless of condition, you should remove it and put something else in – carpet in a bathroom is a big red flag, besides being really unsanitary. If you are worried about cold feet, throw rugs are an easy solution. If you plan to stay in your home and are just thinking about remodeling, consider a heated tile floor instead!
Walls: If there’s wallpaper, take it down. Small spaces such as bathrooms can easily appear even smaller with wallpaper. Many wallpaper patterns in confined spaces are visually disruptive, so do yourself a favor and remove it! Paint colors can vary in bathrooms, relative to the style of the room and/or house, the size of the bathroom (darker colors in small spaces make the room feel smaller, for example) and the furnishings/fixtures. Determine the focal point of the bathroom (the tub, the shower, the vanity, etc.) and make sure the paint helps to point out the best features, not detract from them.
Lighting: In a full bathroom, in particular, the lighting is an all-important feature. The right lighting is essential for anyone that needs to apply make-up or shave. The wattage of the bulbs, type of lights and even the shape of the bulbs can have an impact on the overall feel of the bathroom. More natural light is always good, so if window treatments are covering up the natural light, try to expose more of it. The style of the light fixture should be in sync with the faucet and accessories. Brass is definitely out. Chrome is a good choice as is brushed nickel for most bathrooms. Other high-end finishes may apply as well. Avoid the Hollywood bulb fixtures at all costs – they are the cheapest style fixture available and buyers know it! For more general information about lighting, see this previous article.
Counters: Make sure your countertop choice is appropriate for your home and price range. Most home price ranges would not include granite counters in a bathroom and putting them in just to sell your house will likely mean that you won’t get a good return on your investment, even thought it may make your home easier to sell. A clean counter that fits the style of the room should be your only real concern.
Fixtures: This category can easily encompass most of the items in your bath, from the sinks and faucets to the cabinets or the tub, shower or shower doors. As mentioned above, make sure your faucets, towel bars, light fixtures, etc. match or complement each other. Cabinets that are old and tired can often be spruced up with a fresh coat of paint and new door hardware. Odd colors for sinks, like pink, blue, brown or black may throw off buyers, so consider whether part of your budget should go towards a sink replacement. The same goes for tubs and toilets. Brown may have been the chic choice in the 70’s but that isn’t the case today! Don’t forget about the mirrors – see this article for more advice about dealing with mirrors.
Accessories: Like the icing on a cake, the accessories will work in your favor to help elicit the right emotional response from buyers. They can help create the spa oasis feel you may be going for with your bathroom. Crisp, clean towels, appropriate window treatments and even the colors and patterns for your shower curtain can help create (or ruin) the right mood.
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Photo: Dan Kalleres - changing tile colors is easy!
If you have a home staging question or would like to share a staging tip, please let me know. Send me a photo of your home staging dilemma and I’ll be happy to help!
Home staging tip: If your bathroom looks like something out of a 1950’s time warp, with crazy, outdated tile colors, but the tile is in pristine shape, consider tile glazing. For a fraction of the cost of replacing the tile (floor tile, wall tile, and even sinks and bathtubs), you can get your existing tile re-glazed in a variety of colors. White is my usual recommendation, since you can use color in your paint choices and accessories to help warm up the space but still remain neutral. (See the picture above left: start by professionally glazing over the old tile to give the room a fresh look. Then you can paint the walls a warm, neutral color, change out lighting or any fixtures that might be outdated and you're done - all at a fraction of the cost of gutting and remodeling!)
For more info: Check out your local kitchen and bath showrooms or stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot to see what the current trends are for your area with regards to bathrooms. There are usually experts on-hand that can give you guidance and suggestions appropriate to your home and budget.
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