As home stagers we are often asked by skeptical clients whether home staging is worth the investment. With one foot out the door already, and having spent money on earlier renovations, these owners are not happy at the prospect of spending more. Plus, most homeowners love their space and think everyone else will immediately feel the same. It’s left to us to tell them the unvarnished truth: Most people who see their home are not going to immediately feel as attached to it as they do, think it’s perfect or beautiful.
Appeal to a wide (yet specific!) audience
That’s where we come in. We know exactly what to do to make a home as appealing as possible to the home’s target audience to maximize the chance of selling it. And to increase the price when it is sold.
Frankly, we understand clients’ reluctance to pay for something they perceive as “extra.” But staging is not an “extra” expense. Today staging is the norm, almost an expectation. And we know it works. (Read the first testimonial here.) Our task as realtors and stagers is to help home sellers understand that a 50K drop is more than 5K spend. Let us tell you what and how sellers gain from staging their homes…
Make a home look bigger, brighter, better
Staging is about more than preparing a house for sale by cleaning and decluttering a space, although those are crucially important. Staging is about the effective use of furnishings, color, artwork, and accessories to make the home look larger, brighter, cleaner, and more welcoming. And bigger, brighter, cleaner, and more welcoming means a higher price and a faster sale.
Staging is also about creating a convincing story that encourages buyers to imagine what it would be like to live in that home. Many people simply cannot visualize how the house would work for them, so we create a narrative for them. And research has shown that staging is very effective in that respect. According to the 2019 Profile on Home Staging published by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 83% percent of buyers’ agents said staging a home made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home.
Showcase how people can live their best lives ASAP
Today approximately 95% of home buyers search online, according to the NAR report Real Estate in a Digital Age, and a listing’s photos are likely the first thing they see. There’s no question that photos of staged homes photograph better than unstaged homes. The same goes double for videos. According to Redfin’s blog, “Photos are your home’s currency online, and the more appealing they are, the more views your listing will receive. A new listing gets three times more views in its first week on the market than at any time after that, so first impressions really matter.”
Conversely, if the photos aren’t immediately pleasing, searchers click away to other homes that look better. This is the reality today. You have a few seconds to grab the buyer’s interest. And of course, during this time of pandemic and restricted open houses, many potential buyers use the photos to decide whether or not they even want to even see the home. So if the home doesn’t look good in the photo it translates into fewer in-person visits.
Just like on HGTV
Twenty years ago, staging a home listing was rare. At that time, you could get away with scrubbing your floor and hiding the kitty litter before listing the home for sale. Now, thanks to the internet and the popularity of HGTV shows, people are used to images of impeccably designed homes. They expect homes they see in real life to have the same sort of high-level polish they see on TV. If other sellers are aiming to meet those standards (they are), you must meet them too. Home buyers swipe through listings like they’re potential Tinder dates: if nothing stands out, makes the listing desirable, then they’ll just swipe left onto the next. Outstanding staging makes people pause and then imagine themselves living in that space.
How do these benefits translate into dollars and cents?
Simple: Staging makes a home look/show better; a better looking home makes a better visual image; the visual image drives the number of views and visits; the more visits, the higher likelihood of a quick sale at a higher price.
Can we prove it? Although there are no definitive statistics, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that staging pays off in both a higher price and a shorter time on the market. Real estate agents certainly believe it does. According to the NAR report on staging, “22 percent of sellers’ agents reported an increase of one to five percent of the dollar value offered by buyers, in comparison to similar homes. Seventeen percent of respondents stated that staging a home increased the dollar value of the home between six and 10 percent.” That means on a $500,000 sale, you could potentially reap an additional $5,000 to $50,000 if it is staged.
Do you have more questions about staging? Click the button below to contact us!