Why Staging is Important

Staging a house is the process of strategically arranging furnishings and decor to make a house look its best while selling. This may involve paring down and refreshing your own belongings, or moving all of your own stuff out and renting furniture and decor.

Staging a house prior to selling it is one of the best investments you can make to ensure it gets a quick offer and achieves the highest sale value. Research has shown that a staged homes sells three times faster than a non-staged home – and 70% of real estate agents stated that home staging increased the offer value on a house by up to 10%.

Picture this: you walk into a brightly lit home with clean furniture laid out in a way that maximizes the space. You imagine yourself waking up to natural light, brewing a pot of coffee in a pristine kitchen, and relaxing on the porch in plush patio furniture.

Now, imagine that you walk into the same home, but it’s crowded with furniture, dusty knickknacks, and grimy carpet. What scenario would you rather your potential buyers experience? Staging your home means the difference between the two.

 Staging techniques focus on improving a property's appeal by insuring it is a welcoming, attractive product that any buyer can see themself living in and, thus, desire to purchase. If you're looking to sell your home — and get top-dollar for it — staging the property can help you, do it.

Put simply, staging means preparing the home for a potential buyer — or "setting the stage," if you will. It involves redecorating, rearranging furniture, cleaning and other aesthetic strategies to present the home in the best possible light. The goal is to make the home as appealing as possible to the most potential buyers.

Take note that a few quick and budget-friendly changes can go a long way, according to staging professionals, including a fresh coat of paint, general decluttering, changing rugs, and plugging in an oil diffuser to ensure a pleasant smell.

Benefits of Home Staging

Home staging comes with many benefits. For one, it can make it easier for potential buyers to envision themselves in the home. It provides a clean palette of sorts — one without clutter, personal photographs and other items that might turn off a buyer or make it hard to imagine themselves living on the property.

Staging also makes a home look more "move-in ready" — meaning that it doesn't seem to need a lot of work or repair before a new buyer could move in. Seventy-one percent of buyers are looking for a move-in ready home. Staging could help give that impression, which could be a nice advantage for you in successfully selling your home. Staging a home ensures that buyers see it in its very best light, and can help illustrate what a property can offer without requiring a complete makeover.

And in an industry were making a great first impression can make all the difference, it’s easy to see how staging has become such an integral part of the selling process.

The Lifestyle - 83% of buyers’ agents said staging a home made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home. When a professional stages your home, they do so in a way that will appeal to the desired lifestyle of buyers.

They arrange the furniture and add intimate touches that will enable the visitor to imagine hosting dinner parties with family and friends. Home staging is a successful strategy of getting inside the buyer’s head and showcasing their ideal lifestyle to them within the property they are viewing. In practice, it has proved to be very successful.

Flaws are leveled out - With proficiency in interior design, an experienced home stager knows how to highlight the best features of a house and how to level out flaws.

Home stagers can make a small room look bigger and a dark room look brighter by choosing the right rental furniture, positioning it the right way. Check these tips on Tricks that make a Small Living Room Look Bigger!

It's Appeal - Home staging is usually done in a certain way, in which people with all tastes, lifestyles and preferences are able to imagine themselves living in those exact surroundings. Many types of living situations are taken into consideration by professional home stagers. In the long run, this makes the property incredibly attractive to a wide range of people. The goal of staging is to make a home appealing to the highest number of potential buyers, thereby selling a property more swiftly and for more money.

The Sale Speed - Because home staging tends to be such a rewarding practice, it usually ensures the quick sale of your property. The process is great at achieving positive first impressions among potential buyers. And, when it comes to selling your house, you will know all too well that good first impressions really do count. Staging a house isn't just about adding new pieces to your home – you may also need to get rid of some well-loved furnishings, too.

Competition is greatly reduced - Properties that are staged when up for sale tend to be bought quicker than those that are not staged. Having a professional make your home look the best it possibly can lessen any competition with other houses in the area. Selling your home is an important life moment. If your home and yard look neat and inviting, potential buyers will walk in with a strong positive feeling in place. Power washes the exterior of your home and driveway, touch up paint, mow and weed, and plant cheerful flowers to make your home a favorite before they even walk in the door.

Attracts more viewers - Home staging doesn’t only help you during the showings. It’s also beneficial when marketing your property online.

When attracting prospective buyers to come and look around a property, it’s first essential to market it to the public. This includes putting the pictures of your well-staged home on special real estate sites and social media. Take note that staging an older home is the same as staging a modern one except that any home will look best if the interior complements the home's age, architecture and style. Having a cohesive look that runs throughout an entire home can make it look bigger, too.

WHO PAYS FOR THE STAGING OF A HOUSE?

Homeowners pay for the staging of a house since it is in their interest to gain a quicker offer, sale and, hopefully, a higher price. 

HOW DO I STAGE MY HOME MYSELF?

To stage your home yourself, follow these simple steps:

• Declutter rooms – put items in storage if necessary. Unless you are a minimalist, you probably have cluttered areas in your home, whether that is the kitchen counter where everyone dumps their stuff or the treasured collection of beloved knickknacks. Visual clutter makes a home seem small and crowded, preventing potential owners from visualizing their own life there. Reduce clutter by purging items ahead of your move, or just packing them away to treasure in your next home.

• Invest in good storage – this will make rooms feel well organized and neat.

• Don't forget the floors - A dirty floor can ruin the impact of an otherwise visually stunning room. Stained or discolored carpet, in particular, can hold odors and allergens and make the whole house seem dirty. Whether you hire professional carpet cleaners or do it yourself, make sure you give all carpets a deep clean. Once you’ve deep cleaned your home to a brilliant shine, it’s important to keep it that way until your home sells. While it can be daunting to keep your home in pristine condition, particularly if you have small children, it will be much easier than cleaning in a panic when you get notified of a showing request. Create a daily cleaning regimen that you can manage to keep the upkeep to a minimum.

• Repaint bright or bold schemes in more neutral, light-enhancing colors.

• Rethink room layouts to make them look bigger.

• Dispose of – or put in storage – old, worn or very personal items. Depersonalizing a space includes taking down personal photos, artwork that isn’t necessarily appealing to most, and anything that announces your own personal, political, or religious taste.

• Make it Bright and Open -Bright natural light will make even the smallest spaces seem more open and inviting. Open curtains and blinds and clean all of your windows to a sparkling shine to create an airy atmosphere. For evening showings, make sure the bulbs in all your light fixtures work and add lamps or other accent lighting to darker rooms to brighten them up. Don’t forget to check the lights in hallways and closets as well.

• Ensure curb appeal is attended to. If the living room is crowded, consider removing some of the furniture to open it up and make it appear larger. Reduce clutter but leave one or two groupings of decorative items. A few bright throw pillows and a lamp will also add warmth and personality back into the room.

• Make it smell welcoming - No matter how much work you put into cleaning and arranging your home, it can all be undone by unwelcome odors. Pet smells, cooking odors, and general musty smells from fabrics can create an immediate bad impression with potential buyers.

Clearly, staging your home is a good idea to take into consideration if your house is currently on the market. If it’s been on sale for a few months and you’re not having much luck, perhaps this is because the interior of your property just doesn’t quite fit the bill in terms of what some prospective new homeowners are looking for. When all is said and done, staging is an extremely beneficial tool when selling your home. From increasing the buying price of a home and decreasing time on market, to helping fuel potential buyers’ emotional response to a home; staging matters a great deal and shouldn’t be overlooked.