Will Home Staging Help You Sell A Home Faster?
There is an unwritten rule in the real estate market that, ‘the longer a home stays on the market, the lower its value.’ This means that if you have plans to sell your home, you should do everything within your power to ensure that it sells within a reasonable time frame. If you are wondering how realtors are able to sell houses without risking the property’s value, the answer may not be too far fetched – Home Staging!
What is Home Staging?
Home staging is a technique used by sellers to make their properties more appealing to prospective buyers. The primary objective of staging is to flatter your property by enhancing certain areas, such as the living room, kitchen, bedroom, dining, and bathrooms. Doing this improves the general aesthetics of the house, as well as the mood of the buyer, thus making them likely to make you an offer.
Top 3 Reasons Why You Should Stage Your Home before Selling
Before now, not many sellers paid attention to home staging. However, according to a 2015 research by the National Association of Realtors, this marketing technique has a positive effect on about 96% of buyers, thereby making it a very effective tool. If you are about to put your home on the market, these are some of the reasons why you should consider staging it first.
- The major reason why you should home stage before selling is that it allows prospective buyers to visualize the living space. A home with furniture, houseplants and other fixtures make it easy for 81% of prospects to mentally picture how their own properties will fit into the space, if at all.
- Secondly, a house bereft of any staging whatsoever gives the assumption that the previous owners have since moved on. And, when a house is left uninhabited for too long, there will surely be a couple of mechanical defects, as a result of non-maintenance, which can discourage the buyer.
- The last reason why you should stage your home before selling is to eliminate the idea that you are willing to settle for any deal. Most times when prospects are interested in a property, the price they offer for an empty home is usually a lot less than what they for a staged home.
How To Go About Staging A Home For Your Client
As a real estate agent or realtor, your first point of action, after your clients are properly packed out of their homes, is to stage the property before listing it. 62% of realtors offer home staging services, and you too can offer it as part of your package deal. However, if you don’t have the design skills to stage a home beautifully, you may want to hire a professional to get the property staged.
Professional home stagers possess the time, energy and design skills, to stage a home perfectly. They can stage any home to not only make it aesthetically pleasing, but also give prospects the impression that it is currently habited, even if it is not. During the process, they make use of the property’s furniture or rent props, if they consider the furniture to be dated.
Depending on the set budget, home stagers may go a step further to repaint walls, change doorknobs, fix lighting, and so on. Most clients are usually skeptical about staging because of the perceived cost. However, you can allay their fears by offering to pay for the home staging service – 3% of agents’ firms do this, or by asking them to pay for the staging after the home is sold – 10% of realtors do this.
A prospect’s perception of a property is crucial when trying to secure a deal. Therefore, as a realtor, you should ensure your clients’ home is professionally staged to enhance this perception, which will not only lead to faster sales, but also ensure they get the best offer!