You have most likely heard about the importance of making your home stand out this way, but does home staging work? Here are some things to consider:

What is Home Staging?
 

Staging is the act of arranging decor and furnishings with the intent to showcase a home for sale. Depending on the current state of your home, staging could be as simple as adding a few decorative pieces or as complex as repainting, decluttering, and/or bringing in a truck-load of furniture. Staging can help to set your property apart and make it easier for potential buyers to envision themselves in your space.
 

How Home Staging Works
 

It is hard to know what someone is going to think when they walk through your home. Staging is a tool that can help you influence how your home is perceived. For example, if you had a small, oddly-shaped room, someone could think ‘what use is this to me?’. With a bit of staging the room can suddenly be given a purpose. The oddly-shaped room can now be seen as a relaxation spot, small office, walk-in closet – whatever you choose to set it up as. Staging allows you to set a tone, showcase a particular type of lifestyle, or simply show potential buyers how they could utilize the space.

 

A Vacant Home Vs. Staged Home

Does home staging work for vacant properties? Actually, it is especially important for a vacant home. When you are selling a home you live in, you already have most of the furniture and decor in place and staging can be quite a quick process. In a vacant home, you will start with nothing but an empty property. It is important to consider staging a vacant home for the following reasons:

• It creates an emotional connection. An empty property can feel lifeless.

• It gives buyers something to look at. In an empty home, flaws are magnified. If you are not selling a new build or a completely renovated home, with only floors, walls, and a ceiling to look at, buyers will be forced to focus on the flaws.

• It gives rooms a defined purpose. Buyers looking at an empty house have a harder time envisioning themselves living in the space and performing their daily functions. They might have a hard time picturing where their king-sized bed would go, where they would put their TV or where they would set up the dining area.

So, Does Home Staging Work?
 

Can Staging Really Increase the Selling Price of Your Home?

Staging can help increase a sale price – but price is mostly defined by comparable listings. Staging can be used as a tool to help sellers hit their target. For example, if similar homes in your neighbourhood are selling for $900,000, but they all have updated kitchens and you do not, you would have to find a way to bring your home to that price point.
 
One U.S. study surveyed 820 homebuyers and walked them through a series of virtual tours of homes. Each tour had either an un-staged, properly-staged, or terribly-staged home. Although the study found that neither wall colour nor furnishings made much of an impact on potential sale price, proper staging did give buyers a more favourable impression of a home’s livability and buyers stated that they thought other buyers would pay more for the well-staged homes.
Staging a home greatly improves showability, therefore making it more likely to sell. It is difficult to translate this into a higher price, but the more interest you have in your home from the get-go, the more likely you are to get a price you are happy with. If you have any questions about staging or would like to know more about the homes for sale in your neighbourhood, feel free to give me a call – I would be happy to help.

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