The Benefits of Home Staging

There are many benefits to staging a home that is up for sale.  Here, we’ll take a look at the benefits, and why staging can help increase the speed at which you sell your home by a whopping 73 percent!

What is Home Staging?

Home staging is basically taking a home that’s on the market, and decorating it with furniture, artwork and other home décor to give a polished and finished appearance.

Staging is not a new concept, but one that has certainly ramped up with the abundance of homes available in today’s market.

Why Stage Your Home?

The purpose of staging is to help potential buyers envision their new home in a way that fits their lifestyle.  Simply being able to visualize the property as a future home can make all the difference!

For example, if the home is a traditional style home, including traditional furnishings and homey touches will allow buyers to feel the sense of warmth and coziness they’ll experience living there.  If the home is more of a modern structure, adding in contemporary or modern furnishings will help to really play up the clean lines and spaces within the home. 

In other words, give your viewers the opportunity to picture themselves in the home with friends or family, perhaps having a dinner party, or a child’s birthday.  These images will remain in the buyer’s memory even after they have left the property.

Benefits

Emotional Connection

The benefits of staging are obvious.  Buying a home is a very big commitment, and in many cases, the biggest purchase of a person’s life.  Staging helps a potential buyer develop an emotional connection with the home, so that even after they have left the property, they’ll remember the home.

Maximize Available Space

Staging does not just help the home to seem livable – it can also help show the potential buyer how the space within can be maximized, even if the home is on the smaller size.  Professional stagers can help get the most from every room in the house, focusing on furnishings that ‘open’ the space vs. calling attention to lower square footage. 

Features vs. Flaws

Professional staging isn’t just about furnishings and décor – it’s also a highly effective means of showcasing the best features of the home, while subtly downplaying flaws.

Increased Listing Price

Studies show that a home that has been professionally staged can earn almost 1,000% percent of the staging fees in return on investment.  For example, if you spend $5,000 dollars on staging, you could earn an additional $50,000 on the sale of the home. It makes that much of a difference!

Shorter Listing Time

A staged home is a fast selling home!  According to Real Estate Staging, a staged home will likely sell 73% faster than a non-staged home.

Beats the Competition

With so many homes available in today’s market, every extra step you take to make the home look comfortable and livable is a step up from the competition.  Buyers want to view a home that resonates with them, something they will remember after a long day of viewings.  By staging your home, you’ll make it stand out from all the other homes out there.

Attracts More Buyers

Let’s face it, in today’s world of technology, many people will start their search for a new home online.  Looking at pictures of empty homes can be monotonous and not particularly interesting for first time buyers. 

By staging a home, even people in the very earliest stages of searching for a new home will still be able to make that ‘connection’ with your listing, thanks to your beautifully photographed shots of the furnished interior. 

How to Stage Your Home

There are different ways to stage a home for showings. 

If you have the budget, consider hiring professional stagers to give the home the perfect finishing touches that will attract buyers.  Professional stagers can provide an unbiased view of the home while seeing it through the eyes of potential buyers.  Experience in interior decorating combined with expertise in what home buyers really want in today’s market can make all the difference in both price and speed of sale.

If you would prefer to keep expenses in the lower range, there are still affordable things you can do yourself to help update the home’s appearance.  Consider fresh paint and new carpet to brighten up the interior.  Also ensure that all fixtures are working, fresh bulbs are installed in all lights and lamps, and face plates (i.e. cable outlet, power outlet, phone outlet) are replaced.  And finally, a fresh bouquet of flowers on a table near the entrance adds a pretty touch.

If you’re showing the home with your own furnishings, consider decluttering rooms, shelving and closets to create the illusion of more space in the home.  The idea is to give potential buyers an idea of how much personal property they can have in their new home yet still not feel cramped or short on space.

And don’t forget – curb appeal is just as important as the home and its interior.  Simple things like painting a fence, trimming trees and other shrubbery, perhaps laying new sod, and ensuring the house paint and trim are in good shape will also attract buyers. You can also install a nice new mailbox, and update the house numbers on the outside of the house.  These extra little touches really add up, because they’re things your buyer won’t have to do themselves if they choose to purchase your home.

Summary

If you’re interested in more information about staging and how we can put together a great marketing plan to get your listing on the fast track to being sold, give us a call.  And remember – vacant homes tend to sit longer on the market while staged homes sell quickly.