You already know the drill: the door opens and you walk past the ‘open house’ sign to expect a completely empty, spotless home. Except, the one that you’re currently viewing isn’t completely empty. Intriguingly enough, it keeps just the right amount of minimal furniture to give you the impression of how liveable it could be as your future family home. Just a coffee table set-up in the living room, and a dresser to provide a sense of spaciousness in the hallways. What real estate sorcery is in fact, at work here? If you think that staging a home for sale is just a matter of preference, then wait till you hear about how much it can help you raise your selling price.
There’s no age-old real estate secret at work when it comes to staging a home for sale. The fact is that most people find it difficult to relate or see themselves within a completely empty space. While this might be the norm for most properties during a viewing, empty homes only do so much to help the imaginations of potential buyers. Think about it in simple terms — empty properties can come off as cold, impersonal, and vacant. However, a bit of staging through tasteful furniture and decor choices can much more easily help your potential buyers to envision their happily-ever-afters.
1. Buyers Walk Into Viewings With Their Own Unique Lifestyle Expectations
Apart from helping potential buyers visualise their future home, staging is an investment towards a better asking price on your property. If you expect your buyers to be able to see themselves living their family lives within your property for sale, then it is definitely worth your while to help them see that potential. A study desk in one of the bedrooms will certainly show them how their kids might enjoy keeping their own space. A couple of deck chairs placed on the patio can be a persuasive reason to see beautiful summers spent together with loved ones.
These are just some of the natural considerations a buyer might have of a property inspection, especially if they’re looking to buy and live in a family home. Putting effort into the staging is an investment that you can make, to convince your would-be buyers that yours is the property they’ve been dreaming of. Apart from helping with in-person viewings, staging your property will also make for much better photos, when you market for sale online. After all, good photos will only attract more enquiries and requests to attend viewings to the property.
2. Furnished Presentations Are More Personable than Empty Spaces
Did you know that 90% of all buyers find it difficult to visualise their future living spaces, in an empty home? Going back to the thought of helping your buyers with their imaginations, it’s important to understand that they are all looking for reasons to see their futures within your space for sale. Price will always be a deciding factor when a person is shopping around for their next home. But it is hardly the only consideration at work when viewers experience your property during a first walk-through.
There are plenty of ways to effectively stage your property for a better sale. Among these include low-cost considerations, which easily help buyers relate better to a new space. You don’t have to overdo it to show your viewers how much space there is in the living room. Likewise, it only takes a bit of tasteful decor to a stairway, or hallway to show the potential your space has to provide a happy environment for its would-be future owners. Instead of leaving everything spotless and bare, you shouldn’t underestimate how spending just $1,000 on a bit of staging can amount to raising your asking price by $10,000. Little touches like these naturally encourage a higher price point and maximise the market potential of your property for sale.
3. You Can Stage Your Sale Accordingly to Each Potential Buyer
You should never rule out the appeal of good style when it comes to transforming an empty home into a more presentable one. Studies have shown that staging a property can add as much as 12% to your original sale value. That’s close to $80,000 on a home worth $650,000. Considering the added value, why wouldn’t you consider investing under $5,000 to get your property professionally staged?
The benefit of staging also comes in the fact that it provides you with a degree of options. For those prioritising cost-effectiveness, soft-staging is a lightweight option that can cost around $1,000. Even on a small budget, soft staging allows you to add a sense of scale to an otherwise empty home. An inexpensive piece of furniture in the corner of a room will easily help give your buyers an idea of how they could fill the space on their own. You don’t have to do the whole house either! There are many cost-effective options available from great local staging businesses such as Amity Grace Design.
4. Staging a Home For Sale Provides Another Way to Maximise your Return on Investment (ROI)
If it makes sense to renovate a property before you market it for sale, you’ll find it just as sensible to have it staged as well. Ideas like renovating before a sale are valued for their ability to maximise one’s ROI on a property. When you consider this as a contribution towards a higher asking price, it really minimises the effort of time and money you would be spending on professional staging. If you are thinking about renovating, check out my other article; Can You Renovate Your Way Up from an Entry Level Property?
Staging your space for sale helps buyers to minimise factors for consideration, so they can more easily come to a decision while viewing your property. You can expect to invest up to $5,000 for a full staging of a 4 bedroom home. Consider how worthwhile the investment is, especially if it can bring even 10% more out of a home worth $800,000 to a million dollars.
Ask Away if You Need Assistance in Professionally Staging a Home for Sale
In my experience with real estate, staging is often a recommendation I provide to clients who want to maximise a potential sale. If you’re ready to explore what more you can do before marketing your property for sale, be sure to call me at 0407 090 087 to see what a bit of staging can do to set up that dream sale.
If you’re wondering what your home is worth in the current market, what not get an SMS appraisal?
