Setting The Stage

The importance of staging your home for sale

Selling or buying a property is possibly one of the biggest investments anyone could make. How the property is presented and perceived should be given as much importance and consideration as any consumer product on the market. No matter what is happening to the real estate market, when you want to sell your home, there are two simple rules to follow to assure a quick sale: price it well & make it look amazing.

6 must-haves to set the stage for a quick sale

Is your home ready to welcome potential buyers? To create the best appeal (and fetch the best price), it is helpful to stage your home. Home staging refers to preparing your space to make it appealing to the highest number of buyers, with the goal of selling the home quickly and profitably.

While each house offers unique appeal, a few staging tips are helpful for nearly any home. To roll out the red carpet for your potential buyers, include the following must-have items.

• PLANTS – Greenery makes a room feel warm and inviting. Use floor plants, tabletop plants or shelf plants to bring life to the corners of the room.
• CANDLES – These provide a nice touch, but be sure to choose unscented or lightly scented. You don’t want to overwhelm visitors with an aroma or risk choosing a scent they don’t like.
• FLOWERS – Add colour and cheer to your yard and interior with in-season blooms
• THROW PILLOWS – Adding these to your beds, chairs and/or couches can provide a nice finishing touch to your decor that makes the space more appealing.
• TOWELS – Coordinated linens in the bathroom create a clean, crisp, and luxurious atmosphere. Make sure towels are hung neatly and are in good condition. A brand-new hand towel can provide a nice touch.
• ARTWORK – Neutral artwork on the walls is preferable to lots of family portraits. Remember, the goal is to make your space appealing to as many buyers as possible. This means depersonalizing so they can envision themselves in your space instead of you.

Impact of a buyer viewing a staged home

Eighty-three percent of buyers’ agents said staging a home made it easier for a buyer to visualize a property as a future home. Buyers were more willing to walk through a home they saw online, and buyers’ agents identified that staging would positively impact the home value if the home was decorated to a buyer’s taste.

Benefits of staging:

• Staging helps your home stand out : Many home buyers start their searches online, which means the first impression they get of your home is the posted pictures of it. They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, but in this case a picture can be worth thousands of dollars if it entices people to come tour your home and put in an offer. If people don’t like what they see online, there’s a good chance they’ll pass on seeing it in person. If there’s more than one home for your sale in your neighbourhood, staging can also help your home stand out from your neighbours. This can be especially important if your home is older and going up against new construction.
• Staging maximizes the space: If your home is on the smaller side, staging can help potential buyers see the openness of your home instead of focusing on the small square footage. Staging can give every room a clear purpose and flow, taking the guesswork out of things for buyers. When buyers can see how the space is used, they’re less likely to get hung up on a strange layout or a small floor plan, which increases their chances of buying.
• Staging can lead to higher offers: The goal of staging your home is to get people interested in it, and if multiple people are interested a bidding war can begin. If a buyer falls in love with your home they’ll likely be more willing to offer over asking price to make sure they get it. The correlation between staging and final selling price isn’t entirely clear, but staged homes do create more buyer interest, which is more likely to result in higher offers than little interest is.
• Staging helps homes sell faster: While there’s some debate on whether or not staging actually ensures higher offers, numerous studies have shown that staging does sell homes faster. And the faster your home sells the sooner you get the money and the less money you’re spending on mortgage and/or utility payments for the home. One study found that homes staged prior to listing sold 79% faster than those staged sometime after being listed. A well-staged home allows buyers to better visualize themselves in the space, and also makes them more likely to overlook small issues because they’re already picturing themselves living there.

source:medium.com/Frank&Sonblog