You can have the most attractive property in the neighborhood, but unless buyers can visualize themselves living in it, they will probably not make an offer. Anytime you are selling real estate, you want to give your buyers a feel of what it would be like to live in your respective property. If they walk into a cold, dimly lit empty house, odds are they will quickly leave without giving it a real chance. That same house, with a couple of small tweaks, can completely change the way a buyer thinks. One of the tricks to generating interest is through staging the property. Staging a house can generate interest and keep your closing on track.
Home staging involves the preparation of a property so that it may be more visually appealing. This may include the addition of some furniture to an empty room or improving the layout. Some sellers prefer to show the house in an empty state, as to give buyers a blank canvas to work with. While some properties can skate by without being staged, others suffer immensely without the presence of visually appealing aesthetics. If you are on the fence, have a friend of yours who is not in the business walk in the house and give their quick first impressions. If it is negative, you may want to consider staging.
There are many companies who will offer free staging quotes without any commitment. The cost will be dependent on the size and style of the home and how elegant you want to make it appear. Whenever you stage, you have to consider who your target buyers are. It does not do you any good to stage the property to look like the Donald “Some, I assume, are good people” Trump Tower when your buyers can’t afford or don’t want it to look as such. Keep the look and layout practical and in line with the neighborhood.
After you receive your quote, you have to weigh the costs of staging with the costs of showing your property as is. Ask your realtor if they have experience selling staged properties and if it is popular in the area. If you can get 5-10% more than what you expected by staging, it is certainly worth the investment. If staging will only offer minor tweaks, you may be better served making these changes to your budget. What you don’t want to do is sit idly by and do nothing to the property when you are receiving advice that you should. This will only cause the property to collect dust on the market and not get the top dollar it demands.
If you are still unsure whether or not staging will help you sell quicker, look at other homes on the market in your area. Go to open houses and see how your property stacks up to the competition. If you walk into other houses and are wowed at what you see, you may need to do something to yours. Buyers will often see multiple houses in a day, especially on the weekend, and if yours doesn’t leave a good impression, you will quickly be forgotten and dismissed.
