Why should you spend the the time, effort and money to be Staging Your Home To Sell?
An Introduction to Staging
The answer is simple Staging your home to sell is positioning your home to be at the top of the buyer’s wish list. Properly staged homes outshine the competition every time!
Home Staging is about creating the image of a lifestyle and living space that buyers cannot resist. Potential buyers connect with a home emotionally. Every potential buyer needs to be able to imagine wanting to live in this house.
Table of Contents
- First Impressions are Crucial
- Peak Showing Condition
- Prioritize
- Renovate
- Reorganization and Maintenance
- Further Reading
First Impressions are Crucial when Staging Your Home To Sell
Buyers begin judging your home the moment they see it.
Their impression starts at the curb, and continues through every room of your home, and into the backyard.
That’s why the improvements that you will make while Staging Your Home to Sell are all designed to anticipate the wants and needs of buyers, and why staging sells homes faster and can boost your selling price.
Below are 3 examples of good and bad / before and after first impressions of the same home! Take a look at each set of pictures and decide for yourself which gives a better first impression.
If you are preparing your home for sale, it must be in peak showing condition.
There are three kinds of improvements that will impress buyers, and help you sell for top market value:
- Repairs and Minor Upgrades
- Renovations
- Reorganization and Maintenance
The “staging” that most people think about is the Reorganization and Maintenance step. These are the finishing touches after any necessary Repairs, Upgrades and Renovations have been completed. The remainder of this Section is a discussion of each of these steps. At the bottom of this page we have provided reference materials for you.
Prioritize
Start with the most important things first. Pay for a Pre-listing Home Inspection. This will definitely give you a competitive advantage in two ways.
- When a buyer is deciding which home to buy, your pre-listing inspection signals your openness about the condition of your house. You cared enough to be sure that whoever buys this home is going to be satisfied with the home, and that you have made all of the necessary repairs. Clean up, paint up, and fix up everything – inside and outside. You will have reassured the discriminating buyer that there should be no unpleasant surprises when they buy your home. Your home has a definite edge in its marketing, and a competitive edge over other homes that potential buyers are looking at.
- The cost of the Inspection is outweighed by the financial advantage for home sellers to make important repairs either themselves, or have the time to negotiate a good price with appropriate repairmen, and not have to reduce the sales price for the buyer. If needed repairs are discovered later by the buyer, then the seller could easily be placed in the position of having to have that repair done at the last minute at a higher cost, or worse, have to negotiate the sales price downward due to a repair left un-done. Typically the buyer will decrease his price two to three dollars for every $1 of identified repairs.
Renovate
Depending on the age and condition of your home, when Staging Your Home to Sell you may need to consider the possibility of doing some renovations. You should only consider the ones that are Market-Smart. Generally, few home owners renovate their homes in order to sell them because they know they won’t recoup the full cost of the renovations in the sales price. However, in some cases minor renovations can really improve the overall impression of a property’s character and quality and, as such, will more than pay for themselves.
Don’t over-renovate, and be careful not to make renovations which please you personally, but which might turn off otherwise interested buyers!
Kitchen – New flooring, cabinets, counter tops, appliances and lighting can be costly, but buyers typically look for updated kitchens, and you’ll recover a large percentage of your expenses on resale. Even a minor facelift – for instance, new paint, floor covering, cabinet doors and hardware – can pay off in a faster sale at a better price.
Bathrooms – As with the kitchen, renovating bathrooms can pay off in terms of both value and marketability, especially in an older house. Opt for good lighting, large mirrors, attractive fixtures and materials, plenty of storage and neutral colors.
Landscaping – Remember “First Impressions.” Landscaping, patios and decks should be attractive, trimmed and maintained. Add some color and make sure it is clutter- free. Improvements to landscaping in front and back generally return 100% of their costs, and are worth every penny in the impression they leave.
Energy-Efficient Improvements – With everyone “going green” these days, energy-saving upgrades and repairs that reduce fuel bills can be a selling point. There are many options, so do some research and talk to a home products professional to find those improvements that best fit your budget.
Reorganization and Maintenance
Clean up – Paint up – Fix up. We can’t SELL it, if we can’t SEE it! If the buyer has to imagine it they won’t consider it!
This is what most sellers and buyers think of as “Staging.” This step is crucial in determining whether your home will sell quickly, or very slowly, and at a much lower price than expected.
The Investment of staging your home is LESS than your first price reduction! You can do almost everything that needs to be done, and with very little out-of-pocket expense. We can help you with things you should, and should not do.
You can find a comprehensive discussion of the things to do in our blog post:
11 Things Your MUST Do To Get Your Home Sold!
This blog concentrates on all the reorganization and maintenance items that are necessary when Staging Your Home to Sell. These are the things that will make your home stand out from the rest of your competition.
Seeing is believing. Over 80% of buyers today research the Internet to see which homes will make it to their “must-see” list!
We assist you by having internet dominance, and we provide potential buyers with professional quality photos and videos of your home. It is how you stage your home that determines how the photos look to the potential buyer, and whether your home gets shown.
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