Benefits of Home Staging
June 27, 2010
The Facts about Home Staging
“Do you know that the way we live in our home and the way we sell and market our home,
are two different things?”
Once a home is placed on the market, it now becomes a product. Just like any other product on a shelf, what can you do to make your product stand out? Staging gives you the edge you need to get your home sold quickly and for more money.
What is Home Staging?
Staging is the process of preparing a home for sale, using proven techniques, to enhance the best selling features of the home, while down playing the least favorable features.
When we live in our home, we surround ourselves with the things that we like. Personalizing our home is decorating. Yet the things that we enjoy about our home décor could be the very thing that can be distracting to the potential buyer.
Staging is de-personalizing, so that the buyer can visualize themselves living there. In order for a buyer to desire and purchase a home, they need to emotionally connect to that home. If family photos are displayed, this is a distraction, along with collections of dolls, for example. Buyer’s start looking at “ things” instead of space. We want them to look at the structure of the home because that is what they are buying.
How is Home Staging Done?
Through strategic placement of furniture, removing clutter, and “highlighting” the focal points, a staged home becomes the buyer’s desire.
If a home is being lived-in at the time of the sale, there are two types of staging services:
- A “Detailed Written Report”, can give a seller all the recommendations on the condition of the home, along with ways to create a warm and welcoming look in every room. The seller will be advised on what to remove, replace, or move around, in every room of the house. This service allows the sellers to do the staging.
- Another service is called, “Hands on Staging”. With this service the stager re-invents and redesigns the home. Furniture will be removed and or added with inventory from the staging company’s inventory, or a rental company. Everything that is not being used will be packed, and the organizing for the move begins.
In a vacant home, furniture and accessories are added, to give purpose to a room and to allow space to be shown.
Since 85% of the buyers look on the internet first, staging will provide the viewers with gorgeous photos, which leads to showings. In most cases, appraisers will give a higher appraisal for a staged home. Also realtors can recommend a higher asking price, when a home is staged. Why? Because staging increases the value of a home by 6.9% up to 10 or 20%.
The NAR, National Association of Realtors, also recommends investing 1% to 3% in staging, for a minimum return of 6%.
The first three weeks on the market, is the most important time for your sale. If your home is not sold within 6 weeks, you can be guaranteed almost 6% less for your asking price. So be sure to have your home “showcase” ready before you list your home. And keep in mind, “The investment of staging in your home is less than a price reduction on your home, and the market time is cut in half”.
Ask your local New Lenox Realtor about how you can reap the benefits of home staging when selling your home!
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