Sell For Top Dollar By Staging Your Home

Posted by Andrew St. Hilaire

To sell quickly and for top dollar, staging is probably the easiest and best way to succeed. Home staging allows buyers to see your home in the best light possible. A positive first impression and seeing the potential for each space makes a buyer more likely to write an offer and offer a higher purchase price in their offer. Seeing an empty room or a room with mismatched or outdated furniture, clutter, or lots of personal items makes it difficult to see the true potential of the property in photographs and in person which will result in fewer buyers scheduling viewing appointments, fewer buyers interested in writing an offer, and buyers offering a lower purchase price. Read on for home staging statistics, tips, and benefits that make it clear how you gain by staging your home for sale.

Statistics

According to the National Association of REALTORS® 2021 Survey:

82% of buyers' agents said staging a home made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home.
47% of buyers' agents cited that home staging had an effect on most buyers' view of the home.
Staging the living room was found to be very important for buyers (46%), followed by staging the primary bedroom (43%), and staging the kitchen (35%).
23% of buyers' agents said that staging a home increased the dollar value offered between 1% to 5%, compared to other similar homes on the market that were not staged.
The median dollar value spent when using a staging service was $1,800 (adjusted from USD to CAD).

Buyers Are Informed

With so much information easily available online, buyers know what they want in their ideal home. Staging a home helps buyers to determine if a house meets their requirements and expectations, but with no staging may prevent a buyer from seeing the potential. According to the NAR Survey, 40% of buyers' agents said home staging had an effect on buyers' views of a home while only 6% said it made no difference.

Broad Appeal

Everyone has their own personal style and taste for the design and feel for their home, but remember that it's the buyer, not the seller, to which the home should appeal the most when selling. Getting buyers through the door to visit your home is key and staging will improve your efforts dramatically if you intentionally stage a home so it has a broad appeal in order to be attractive to the most potential buyers.

Top Dollar

Remember, 23% of buyers' agents said that staging a home increased the dollar value offered between 1% to 5% compared to other similar homes on the market that weren't staged. Among seller's agents, 22% agreed, and 17% say it actually increased the offered price by 6% to 10%. That's a notable increase to the selling price. Also, 0% of sellers' agents and only 1% of buyers' agents said that staging had a negative impact on offering price. It's easy to see the value in the cost to stage compared to the return in the offered price.

Time On Market

Homes that sit on the market tend to become harder and harder to sell since buyers can begin to think there's something wrong with the property. Staged homes tend to sell faster and for a higher price.

Home Staging Tips

A professional home stager might charge between $1,000 to $1,500 for an average staging. They will visit a home for a consultation at which they will discuss staging options, prepare a list and plan for the staging, and make suggestions for de-cluttering, de-personalizing, and what pieces of furniture, artwork, or decor should be left or removed. Professional stagers also typically have an inventory of furniture and decor to choose from so filling a vacant house or making an occupied house look its best can be easier and much less expensive with their services. Working together can produce the best results and here are some tips to consider doing or which a pro might suggest at a consultation.

De-clutter

Entering a room and feeling like it is open and uncluttered makes it look bigger and more appealing. It's a good idea to box up everything you don't need for day-to-day living and store it out of the way until the property sells or you've moved into your next home. It's not uncommon to have a storage container dropped off on the driveway to store boxes and furniture items and have it hauled away for storage until the property sells or even just leave it on the driveway if the costs of moving and storing the container are prohibitive. It's ok to have the container in the driveway so long as the house can show it's best, but even better if it can be stored somewhere else.

De-personalize

Try to create a blank canvas for buyers to be able to picture themselves in a home. Seeing personal photos of the current owners can make it harder for buyers to imagine the house as their own home. Store family photos and any other overtly personal items like toothbrushes, clothes, etc. out of sight.

Clean

First impressions are important to get right, to leave buyers feeling positive about making an offer. Clean as deeply as you would if you were just moving into your home after unpacking. If you don't have the time to do the job well, hire a professional cleaning service instead. Don't forget to tidy up outside too by keeping the grass trim, the patio or deck clean, and the yard and garage tidy.

Minor Repairs

Make time to do any needed paint touch ups, caulking, fix plumbing leaks, replace missing electrical covers on light switches or outlets, replace burnt light bulbs, and anything else you may have been putting off. Buyers may not notice every little thing but they may be keeping a mental list of all these little things and they will add up to a bad impression.

Stay neutral

Remember that your taste may not be everyone's taste in style or colour choices. If you have brightly painted walls, or dated colour choices, it might be a good idea to paint with colours that will appeal to the most buyers. A professional stager might be able to help with some ideas at their consultation, or take some photos and ask for advice on social media or from a few experienced people you might know. Paint is relatively inexpensive and painting a few walls will help buyers to see the possibilities for the space instead of being distracted.