Home Staging is the preparation of a home for sale by a professional who has been trained and certified in this type of design called Staging. The Art of Staging refers to positioning the home in a decor that is neutral and modernized as to appeal buyers’ senses in the targeted market.
For decades, most property owners looking to sell have usually fixed up their homes by themselves. However, with the HGTV shows running on steroid transforming “blah homes” into “dream homes”, the craze of one ‘DESIGN SHOW’ after another has significantly impacted the industry and how home Buyers have come to expect of their new homes. The impeccable jaw-dropping transformations have most home Buyers on the bandwagon to expecting a “model home” feel, that they are more than willing to offer more for a home that has that appeal.
Assume an average looking home listed for $500,000. Let’s say it has a mortgage of $2950 per month and approximately $300 per month extra to upkeep and maintain while the house is listed (electric bills, lawn, snow + minor repairs)
SCENARIO #1 – If this home is vacant and listed, if it was your home, each month you would be incurring $3250 on top of your new home mortgage and expenses. In essence, your desire to sell is even more urgent as you want to limit the number of months and get this home sold as soon as possible. If your home is occupied, at least the cost you incur is compensated by still residing there. Let’s say the house after 6 months, still has no offers or low offers, you decide to drop the price by 2% to $490,000. You just LOST $29,500. That’s almost 30K and still not sold.
SCENARIO #2 – A staged house, on the other hand, will appeal to many ready buyers and assuming if it can save you even one month less time on the market, you would have already made back your staging investment. Not to mention the other months of carrying cost and price reduction of the list price. If you list for 2 months and it sells, you would have paid to carry the cost $6500 plus the staging cost instead of 30K+.
SCENARIO #3 – Now on the flip side, what if by staging, you could not only receive more offers but WHAT IF you GET 10% MORE OF YOUR ASKING PRICE, wouldn’t that be even more worthy to you?
*** According to HSR Statistics, multiple studies published have shown nationally an Average of 10% Higher Sale Price for all types of homes ***
A big part of misconception and devaluation of home staging is that many definitions stop at the word “sell”, and one needs to understand, that a professional home stager has not only the resources but can view the home objectively as a product to highlight its assets and downplay its flaws. The home seller although many of them could stage their own home, they most likely cannot objectively view it the same way. Many successful Realtors also could offer or help their clients, but they do not have the time nor trade resources to properly stage a home. In Summary,
We have an effective solution and a system to help get everything done for you. From our first appointment, we do a walk-thru giving you an overview of what is expected. If you chose our pre-packaged prices, the steps are seamless. Total time needed range from 1-3 days depending on the number of rooms you need to stage and furnish.
The answer without a doubt is YES, and NO you cannot afford to not have your home staged when it comes for selling. The cost of the first impression for a staged home will immediately put your property in a more desirable condition than similar ones that are not staged. Your home will photograph well, and in turn will be searched and looked by more people, which leads to more showings, more offers and therefore maximizing the value of your property.
We try to use the existing furnitures you already have but sometimes, depending on the status and look we are trying to achieve, we may bring in other furnitures to complement the decor. We include 1 month of furnitures in the package and if necessary, you can rent them month to month until your house sells. If a client likes any of the furnitures, you may contact us for options to purchase them.
Even if your house sells quickly in a good market, it does not mean it sold for the amount it would have sold had it been professionally staged. In a great housing market, professionally staged properties sell at a conservative average for 10% more of its asking price.
The fact is Property Sellers are usually incapable of successfully staging their own property. Why? The reason is that our home is the way it is because we decorated it to our taste and we like it or we wouldn’t have done it that way. We are used to the way it looks which makes it difficult for us to emotionally having to alter it. It is very much like our children. Often, we don’t always see their flaws. Therefore, if you are unable to view something objectively, you are similarly unable to package and market it effectively. Apart from that, most home sellers simply do not stage homes for a living every day. In the long run, by hiring a Certified Professional Stager to help you prepare your house for sale is absolute – Best Return on your Minimal Investment in the Big Picture.
The fact that only a mere 10% of home buyers can actually visualize the potential of a home; this 10 % of buyers most likely would be “investors” or “flippers” who will definitely hammer you on your price. When we do a Consultation Walk-Thru with you, our job is to help you identify those “price eroding” factors of your home, so that with sometimes simple fixes, you can maximize for the highest return.
NO! Vacant homes are even more reasons to be professionally staged. A majority of buyers (90%) simply just are unable to visualize the size and scale of a property and that is why furnishings are needed as they provide the potential buyers the necessary frame of reference when touring a home.