Have you ever gone to a model home? You know, the house at the beginning of a new construction neighborhood that the on-site agent sets up an office and holds the house open every day that she is selling the homes being built.
The house is decorated to the nines! It shows exactly how you could live in the house (if you had really cool stuff) and how each room can be used.
Have you ever looked at a $1 million plus home on a website or app and dreamed about how your lifestyle would be different in that house vs. your own?
That, my friends, is the power of staging. You may know when a home looks gorgeous, but what is staging exactly?
Home staging is the process of adding decor, rearranging furniture, and expertly dressing up the home to make it look stunning for listing photos and walkthroughs. Home staging is a marketing tactic that can make even the most dark, drab space feel bright, energetic, and homey.
Staging can entail different things, depending on the house. If the property is vacant, a stager can bring in furniture and accessories to show the function and purpose of the key living spaces.
If you plan to live in your home during the selling process, your existing furniture and home decor to show off the homes top features helps to keep costs low.
Staging techniques can include:
Moving around furniture to create a better layout that gives the illusion of more space
Using existing home decor items like throw pillows, candles, vases, serve-ware, etc. to add homey touches that pull together the entire room
Clean, clean, clean until you can’t clean anymore
Reducing personal items to ⅓ or less of what you had in each room before you decided to list the home to eliminate clutter
IS IT WORTH IT TO STAGE?
We can all understand that a nice-looking home is easier to sell. But is it really worth it to spend the time and money to stage? Let’s look what the National Association of Realtors has to say. As of March 2019:
Forty percent of buyers’ agents cited that home staging had an effect on most buyers’ view of the home.
Eighty-three percent of buyers’ agents said staging a home made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home.
Twenty-eight percent of sellers’ agents said they staged all sellers’ homes prior to listing them for sale. Thirteen percent noted that they only staged homes that are difficult to sell.
But that isn’t all! According to the Real Estate Staging Association, homes which are staged before going on the market sell 73% faster, on average, than their non-staged counterparts. That means that if it would have taken 100 days to sell your home without staging, with staging it would sell in just 27 days. That means you pay 2 fewer mortgage payments and 2 fewer months of utilities, not to mention all of the frustration and pain of sitting on the market, doing showing after showing and living with the fear that you need to have your home “show ready” at the drop of a hat.
WHAT ABOUT THE MONEY?
Staging can help sell your home faster, but can it really increase the amount of money you will get for your home? Yes! The good news is that staged homes, according to a 2019 study done by The National Association of Realtors, buyers were willing to offer 1-5% more than a non-staged home. And that number could be low. Different sources say that staging can help a home sell for up to 25% more!
Let’s look at what it would mean to get 5% more for your home. If you sold your home, un-staged for $350,000 with staging you could get $36,7500. Would $17,500 more in your pocket be worth it?
To Read this entire series go Here 0r click the image below to get your free e-book: Hoberg Home's Guide to Hard to Sell Properties
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