Selling a home is tough right now, I don't need to tell you that. The value of houses is low and there is a lot of competition on the market. However, it is possible to make your home appealing enough to find a buyer. Paying attention to your home’s lighting is crucial for setting your house apart from the rest of the crowd and increasing the likelihood of a sale.

Why Lighting Matters

Does changing the lighting of a home really make a difference to buyers? Yes. Light has the power to flatter a space or make it unattractive. The right lighting can have a major impact on the aesthetic appeal of the home. A dark home looks dingy and unappealing. A home with glaring lights feels harsh. A space with the right amount of task lighting and ambient lighting is warm and inviting, something that buyers are definitely looking for. The right light fixtures can also enhance the design of the home, making it more elegant or more contemporary.

Tips for Improving Existing Lighting

The first thing that you should do is to look at the lights in the home that you want to keep. There are things that you can do to improve existing lights in the home to make the house more interesting for buyers. Top tips include:

• Make sure the paint is right for your lighting. You may have great ambient lighting but if your walls are painted a dark color then the light will get absorbed and the room will seem dark. Re-paint with bright and light colors to enhance the value of your existing lighting.
• Open the curtains. Although your existing lighting is important, there’s nothing better than natural sunlight. Make sure that you let as much of it in as possible when showing off the home to potential buyers.
• Clean all of your light fixtures. This allows the brightness of the lights to shine through and also makes the fixtures themselves more appealing. What a great cheap way to make it more likely that your home will sell quickly.
• Check that all of the lights are working properly. A big mistake that homeowners’ make is that they forget the little details. A buyer who walks into a room and turns on a switch only to find that it doesn’t work is immediately turned off.
• Listen to your lights. If any of them are making a slight humming noise then they are too old and need to be replaced to increase the likelihood of a sale.

Tips for Adding New Lighting

There will be some areas where you want to add new lighting to enhance the value of the home. Here are some tips for adding that important lighting:

• Start with the exterior. Curb appeal is the most important part of getting a home to sell. Make sure that your home’s exterior is well lit with attractive outdoor light fixtures.
• Replace outdated main light fixtures. If you walk into a room and the first thing that you see is an out-of-date light fixture then you’re going to look at the rest of the space with a bad taste in your mouth. Invest in upgrading the main light fixtures that get attention in the home.
• Replace lamps with better all-room lighting. Task lighting is terrific when you’re actually living in a space. However, when you’re looking at whole room to see if you want to live there, you need great ambient lighting. Lamps look like clutter to potential homebuyers and the wrong style of lamp can turn off buyers who would otherwise be interested in the home. Invest in better ambient lighting to avoid this problem.
• Update the light fixtures in the bathroom. This is one area where the task lighting rule doesn’t apply. You should make sure that there’s great lighting around the bathroom mirror. The fixtures should be in keeping with the style of the home. An impressive bathroom can clinch the sale of a home and lighting helps with that.
• Add LED lights in kitchen cabinets. This is a great little touch that appeals greatly to buyers, making it noticeable that you’ve really put some effort into making the house convenient and comfortable for them.

Have your real estate agent or a good friend walk through your home once you’ve completed your lighting updates. They can provide you with an outside perspective as to whether any additional lighting changes should be made to make the home more appealing to buyers.