Here at Staging 2 Sell It our motto is every project big or small, at any stage, or in any neighborhood deserves to be beautiful and functional. Which is why we encourage every home occupied or vacant be staged.
We are often asked what kind of homes we stage. The expectation is that only homes in a certain price point or homes that have proven difficult to sell should be staged. The truth is we have staged a wide range of listings in a variety of price ranges from million dollar to under $100,000 and all of them have benefited from it.
Staging is Marketing, Not Designing
When we stage a home we are thinking of a specific demographic. How do we come up with this potential buyer pool? By asking the realtor/home owner questions like what is the price point, what schools are nearby, what drove you to buy it, what do you like about the home, along with many others. Then we take a look around at the neighborhood it sits in and take note of factors like what the homes around it look like, who lives in the neighborhood, and what is close to the home-schools, shopping, restaurants, or parks.
All of these factors create a picture of who our potential buyers are and we stage the home based on how they would mostly likely live in it and what compliments the style of the home. Furniture, decor, and artwork are carefully chosen and placed within the home to move the potential buyers around and have them focus on specific features in it. Buying a home is a very emotional process and staging is a marketing tool that helps create the right emotions for a buyer to connect to the home enough to make an offer.
Home Staging is for Occupied Homes Too
Think about this, on average a potential buyer is about 10 years younger than the seller. Which means the seller is now probably marketing their home to someone who is the same age they were when they originally bought the home. This means the way the home is currently styled is more than likely that many years out of date and you'll need to make some changes or updated to appeal to the current buyer market.
How you live in your home and how a home is staged are two completely different things. When you live in a home it is decorated for how you and your family lives. When a home is staged to sell it is decorated for the potential buyers to see themselves living in it. As a seller it is hard to understand this sometimes because you like how your home looks and assume a potential buyer will too. However, this is not usually the case. It is important to remember that you are not selling the items in the home but the house itself, To do this you need to make sure it is going to appeal to potential buyers and that might mean editing down your own personal style.
This is where hiring a professional stager can benefit you. We walk through your home with fresh eyes and make a list of items that need to be moved, decluttered, updated or replaced and the psychology of why so you understand the marketing behind it all. We then give you the option to make those changes yourself or hire Staging 2 Sell It to take care of it for you. Whether it is interior painting, landscaping, or decluttering and organizing we can handle it all and take the stress away from you.
Don't Risk A Bad First Impression
Recent studies show that staged homes are sold 6% above the asking price compared to unstaged homes. They also spend less time on the market. A 1-3% investment in home staging leads to an 8-10% return. That is a great deal. As a seller, who wouldn't be happy with a little extra cash in their pocket? But just like in all business you have to spend money to make money and that is where the hiccup lies for a lot of sellers because it seems a bit counter-intuitive, especially when there is no guarantee. Which is often why we hear, "We think we are going to go ahead and list it without staging and if it doesn't sell then we'll think about staging." This is a huge missed opportunity.
If you list your home before you stage the first impression a potential buyer gets is usually not the best. Then if you decide to stage later after it has sat on market for a while potential buyers will be less likely to view your home because they already saw your home previously and passed on it. Depending on how long your home has been on market you might also have done a price reduction to entice buyers or to create a broader buyer pool. This price reduction is more than the investment of staging your home. Not to mention the amount of money you spent on the mortgage, utilities and other expences for this home that could have been saved or spent on your new home.
You want to put your best foot forward from the start. Staging, whether it is vacant or occupied, gives you the greatest return on your investment when you do it prior to putting your house on the market.
Interested in seeing how staging can benefit your home or listing? Contact Staging 2 Sell It today to set up a consultation or a Free staging quote.
Other posts you might enjoy: