Selling your house is a stressful process, especially since home buying isn’t strong at the moment. You have to consider the season, the relocation process, and your flexibility for moving into a new property when putting your house back on the market. But more importantly, you need to look at the salability of your home. Do you think your house is attractive enough for buyers?
When you want to sell your house fast in a slow market, you can give it a little boost through home staging.
What is Home Staging?
Home staging is prepping and dressing your house before it goes on the real estate market. The goal is to make your house look more appealing through the fundamentals of interior design to attract as many potential buyers as possible. Home staging can help a property sell more quickly and for a better price.
It is a form of visual merchandising. So it‘s more than just tidying up the house; home staging is redesigning the property in the most flattering way. It highlights the property’s features and strengths while strategically masking its weaknesses. Good staging can turn the awkward areas of the house into usable spaces. For example, a professional stager can turn an under-the-stairs nook into a small workspace, and an unused alcove into an open shelf.
Is it Worth It?
Realtors will frequently tell sellers to fix up their homes and do several repairs before putting it up for sale. Take the advice if your agent says something similar. Staging sets the mood of the property, which helps buyers imagine themselves in that house. Professional stagers believe that this builds an almost intimate connection between the buyer and the house, a technique they call “emotional staging.”
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said in their 2019 Profile of Home Staging that 40 percent of estate agents confirm this technique had an impact on most buyers’ perception of the house.
Additionally, the NRA revealed in its Real Estate in a Digital Age report that 44 percent of home shoppers looked for properties through the internet. This means that buyers look at the photos of your house first before they visit the property. Home staging can make your house look significantly better in photos compared to one that went on the market in its original condition. In a separate study, the NAR said that 38 percent of buyers say they’re more willing to visit a property if it appealed to them online.
A quarter of estate agents also confirmed that home staging upped buyers’ value offer by 1 to 5 percent, compared to properties on the market that aren’t staged. Clearly, home staging is a worthwhile investment.
The high points of the house that buyers expect to see in top condition are the living room, master bedroom, and the kitchen. If you’re pressed for time and money, you can focus your home staging efforts on these three areas and keep the design for the other rooms at a minimum.
Don’t be afraid to ask your agent for a referral to a skilled home stager. But if you’re worried about your budget, you can always do it yourself and find guidance from DIY interior design tips from the internet or your friends. You can also ask your agent what buyers are looking for in a house in terms of design so that you can align your home staging efforts with the latest trends.
