Where To Splurge And Save When Selling Your Home

We lay out the pre-listing upgrades that actually change what buyers feel in the first few seconds, plus the common “nice to have” spends that don’t move offers. We share a simple splurge-or-save list across lighting, curb appeal, kitchens, bathrooms, flooring, paint, and soft goods so sellers stop overspending in the wrong places. 

• prioritizing foyer, dining, and kitchen light fixtures for immediate impact 
• saving with simple lighting in hallways and secondary spaces 
• boosting curb appeal with a painted front door and solid hardware 
• saving on doormats, address numbers, and conservative landscaping 
• treating the kitchen as the money room with quartz and upgraded cabinet hardware 
• avoiding a full kitchen gut by painting existing cabinets 
• focusing on the primary bathroom and cleaning grout lines with grout pens 
• saving on secondary bathrooms because the decision is often made downstairs 
• refinishing hardwoods for a clean, updated look 
• using LVP strategically while keeping flooring consistent 
• splurging on quality paint and refreshing trim and ceilings 
• keeping paint colors simple with universal neutrals 
• making windows look larger with high, wide curtain placement 
• sizing rugs correctly to make rooms feel finished 
• creating a hotel bed look with layers and a fuller duvet 

If you're ready to leave your nine to five and want to do something that's buildable and scalable, check out linden-creek.com/franchise and see if Linden Creek is the right fit for you. 

If you did, check out the next episode for more staging tips!

Transcript

Save Thousands With Smarter Staging

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I'm gonna save you and your sellers thousands of dollars in the next few minutes. Because after staging houses across the country, both in mid-market and luxury, I can tell you exactly where sellers are wasting their pre-listing budget and where the cheap version actually ends up costing them more on the offer. Some of these will surprise you. A couple of these might even make your sellers a little mad. By the end of this episode, you will have a one-page mental list to be thinking about as you walk through your seller's home. Let's get into it. Lighting

Lighting That Pays Off Fast

SPEAKER_01 0:39

is one of the most underrated opportunities where investment really does matter. There's an opportunity here to splurge because you have to be asking yourself the question of in the first eight seconds of a potential buyer walking into the home, what are they actually seeing? And one of the things that they see are light fixtures. Think your foyer light fixture, potentially your dining room light fixture, even your kitchen light fixture. Those are the moments that really truly matter in a space. And that's where you need to splurge and get something that is quality and makes sense. Now, when I say quality, it means a couple different things depending on the property in the home. You want to think about your lighting as being essentially 1% of the budget of your home. That's what we think about when we build a custom, beautiful space. And so when you think in that way, that includes your recessed lighting, that includes your bathroom lighting, but that does scale down to impacting the dollar value of the light fixtures you're gonna see when you first step foot in that property. You wanna make sure that you are truly investing in good quality light fixtures in those key spaces. But where do you save? That's where you look at hallway light fixtures, upstairs bathrooms, upstairs bedrooms, those are the spaces where you maybe don't need to spend the big bucks. You can do recessed lighting to keep it really simple and cost effective. That's where you save. Love design, but think like a business owner. If you're ready to leave your nine to five and want to do something that's buildable and scalable, check out linden-creek.com slash franchise and see if Linden Creek is the right fit for you. Next,

Curb Appeal That Sells Online

SPEAKER_01 2:13

you have front entry and curb appeal. Curb appeal matters so much because this is the billboard for your house. This is the very first image most of the time people see on MLS when they're exploring the property. And so having this look right matters. So where do we save and where do we splurge on this one? The front door is where the biggest impact is. That means you want a fresh coat of paint, use good quality paint so it's not chipping off, but it also means the first interaction that a buyer has with the home is actually touching that front door and opening the door. You want the doorknob to make sure that it's not starting to decay or rust or have some etching issues. But also you want to make sure it feels sturdy and solid and strong because that signifies that it really is a luxury product. Where do you save in this? Your front door mat. As simple as it sounds, one, make sure you get a new one so that it's fresh for the home. But two, you can get a quick, inexpensive one from Target easily or pick one up from Amazon. And it doesn't have to be big, it doesn't have to be dramatic. It just should be consistent with the size and the scale of your door. Two other easy ways to save are to think about your address numbers that you have either on your home or on your mailbox. Make sure these are fresh, but those don't have to be crazy expensive investments. You can find something cost effective. Another big one is landscaping. When you think about landscaping, it can add up to big dollars really fast. This is where we say be conservative. Go ahead and just get yourself some fresh mulch because it's amazing how that really streamlines things. And then make sure that you have fresh clippings and you have your shrubs and all of those elements well kept. That doesn't cost any money at all and it makes a really big difference. A third

Kitchen Upgrades Buyers Notice

SPEAKER_01 3:54

element to think about is the kitchen. This is the money room, if anything else is when it comes to a home and it's listing. So where do you spend your money? You want to splurge on good countertops. In today's world, quartz is the hot, sexy thing, right? We used to think that granite was really wonderful. Now it's starting to date itself to some degree. And so ideally, you're gonna want some beautiful quartz countertops in your kitchen, and that is an investment worth making. In addition to that, one more place to splurge that is this underrated opportunity to say luxury is actually in your cabinet hardware. It's not that expensive to replace the pulls and the knobs from your kitchen cabinets, and that makes a massive difference. So it gets rid of finishes that are maybe a little bit dated, it gets rid of details and elements in design that maybe feel a little flat and gives you something that's really elevated. The other piece that I love about this is not only does it give you something fresh, but as silly as it sounds, when you touch and feel and grab a knob or a pull, that immediately indicates quality or lack of quality. And so if you're using heavy-duty pieces, it signifies that there truly is luxury in the home. Within the kitchen, it also allows you to save in some other opportunities. For example, if you are working with a kitchen that's maybe a little bit dated, it doesn't mean you need to gut the entire thing and replace all of your cabinets. Oftentimes you can keep the existing cabinets and simply paint your cabinet doors and the frames, and you have a completely new kitchen to consider and look at. This isn't the time to completely gut and reno the entire layout of your kitchen either and move around plumbing and electrical work. People can envision what the opportunity can really look like, really focus on more of the finishes and the face level details of your kitchen to save budget. Next,

Bathrooms That Build Confidence

SPEAKER_01 5:42

we want to think about bathrooms. You really want to splurge in the primary bathroom. This is where, again, the biggest impact can be made. So make sure any grout lines that you have are fresh and clean. If they're getting a little dirty, grout pens work amazing to give brand new life to the tile. You don't want a potential homeowner to walk into the home and see the shower and see the dirty grout lines and think, oh shoot, this is one more thing I'm gonna have to clean and maintain. So make sure those lines are clean and a grout pen is a very inexpensive fix. The place that you do want to think about saving though is those secondary bathrooms. So maybe there is updated lighting that needs to happen in the primary to make a big impact, but those upstairs bathrooms don't necessarily need a complete remodel or refresh. You can oftentimes save those because by the time they get to that secondary bathroom, the decision's already made. Here's a fun little secret: what we find is the majority of the time a buyer walks into a home before they ever actually make it upstairs. They've made a decision about the home and whether or not they want to move forward or not. So this is just the cherry on top or the project or opportunity that might exist, but they've got a pretty good feeling before they ever made it to that bathroom if they actually want to move forward with that home.

Flooring Choices That Look Consistent

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Next, let's talk about flooring. When it comes to flooring, a big splurge opportunity is to refresh your hardwood floors and refinish them. Real life happens, hardwood floors get scratched. I am the owner of a beautiful dog, and because of it, my hardwood floors say I own a dog. These are the simple things that just happen in real life, and so we want to make sure that we are giving it fresh life and a fresh finish. If your floors are a slightly dated color or maybe they lean a little bit orange and that's not the hue you're looking for, refinishing your floors is also a great time to consider changing the actual finish color, which will completely impact your home as well. So, where do you save when it comes to flooring? This is where you want to think about potentially using LVP if you do need to make updates. It doesn't necessarily mean you need to go completely hardwood floors if you're just doing this to sell. The one thing I want to caution is most home buyers care more about consistency across the home than they actually do about the flooring material. So whatever you have in the majority of the home, you want to make sure you're carrying it through. If you have hardwoods throughout most of your main floor, carry them through into that primary bedroom. If you're going to have bedrooms, carpeting can be a great option, but you want to make sure that it's just your carpeting and just your hardwoods and you're not bringing in a lot of other elements. Next,

Paint Shortcuts That Still Win

SPEAKER_01 8:14

let's talk about paint. When it comes to paint, it is worthwhile to splurge on good quality paint. And it's also worthwhile oftentimes to hire somebody to actually do this for you. When we think about painting and refreshing, oftentimes we go, yes, let's cover the walls, let's make sure they don't have scuffs and scratches. But oftentimes what's overlooked is repainting ceilings and repainting trim. Those baseboards take a beating. The trim details across your wall, they take a beating. And giving them a fresh coat of paint brings your home back to life. And that's absolutely where money is well spent. So where do you save in this? Don't overthink color. Go ahead and pick neutrals, pick something that's going to be universal across the board. You don't need to create a new story in every single room and add the complexity to that. Just pick one simple color and carry it throughout.

Soft Goods That Add Luxury

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Finally, I want to talk about soft goods. These are the textured materials that are throughout your home. So think about curtains, think about your area rugs and your bedding. Believe it or not, these make a massive, massive impact. So here's where you need to splurge. When it comes to window treatments, you don't necessarily need to buy custom drapery for thousands of dollars. But one thing that you can do to save is still purchase pre-made window treatments that work really well. And you're gonna hang them from your ceiling or the bottom of your trim. You're gonna hang them outside your windows. And what happens when you do that is your windows actually visually look larger. So even though we can't change the size of your windows, we make them look like they're bigger simply because of how we're hanging the curtains, and instantly the home feels more elevated. Another really important place that you want to actually splurge is tied to your rug. I see all too often the common mistake of a rug being too small in a home and it just feels underwhelming and unfinished. You want to make sure that your rug is to scale with a room. So what does that mean? At a minimum, the front two pieces of every furniture piece of furniture should be on that area rug. If they're not, size up your rug. You can even have it so that all four legs of your furniture are actually on the area rug, and it really creates a beautiful conversation space, especially for an open floor plan. When it comes to bedding, this is where you want to think about a hotel and spa experience. So when it comes to thinking about splurging, I focus more on the layers and texture and height than I actually do about the quality of the sheets or the bedding. This isn't where we need to spend and drop, you know, $300 on a pretty pair of sheets that nobody's gonna see. Just get some simple white sheets. But where you should splurge in this is making sure that you have a voluptuous duvet that gives volume. And if your duvet isn't giving the volume you're looking for, here's a fun little hack. Buy a second duvet or comforter and actually set it underneath the existing one. This will make it feel larger. And this is actually what Pottery Barn does at all of their showrooms. These little hacks will actually make your bed feel more luxurious than it is. Where I

Biggest Mistakes And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_01 11:10

see sellers making the biggest mistake and spending money that they don't need to is in the kitchen. Keep it simple, focus on those countertops, paint the cabinets if you need to, but you don't need a full renovation. Where I see the biggest missed opportunity though, it's in the lighting. Update your light fixtures in your foyer and your dining room and your kitchen, and it's amazing how it ultimately transforms the picture and the experience with the home. I hope you found this helpful. If you did, check out the next video, there will be even more staging tips for you. Until next time, this is In Good Space.