When Selling Your Home, Does it Makes Sense to Stage It?
There are a myriad of things to think about when selling your home. One of these is whether to stage your home or not.
According to Stagedhomes.com, staging “sets the scene throughout the house to create immediate buyer interest in your property.” More than just creating appeal or setting a mood, staging also helps define how space in a room may be most effectively used.
For example, the Seller of my listing at 1700 Oak Avenue converted part of their garage into an over-sized bedroom. When they hired me to market and sale their home, we staged the room as if it was a second master bedroom and/or au-pair quarters. The staging allowed buyers to visualize the room as something useful and one that added value (a flexible floor plan), rather than something that detracted from the home’s value (a generic garage conversion). Remember, it is easier to show buyers rather than to tell them!
Staging professionals create vignettes within the home that help buyers visualize themselves as living in the home. Are you selling a home that doesn’t have a formal dining room? Staging can “create” a dining area. Buyers don’t know where to put their big screen, staging shows them. Buyers don’t know which room might be best used as an office, staging shows them. Buyers not sure if the backyard will work as a killer party space, staging shows them.
Preparing a home for sale requires experience as well as knowledge of the most cost-effective methods in merchandising your home. Doing this correctly will make it more salable. Not doing it could be a costly mistake. Staging a home is one of the things that in most situations will either shorten the time a home is on the market or will result in a markedly higher sales price or both.
Look below at photos taken of the same rooms. The top set of photos are the”before” home prep and staging. The second set of photos are the same rooms only after the home prep and staging was completed. Ask yourself, which house would you rather buy? This might give you an idea as to the value of proper home preparation and staging.
Before Pictures of 1700 Oak Avenue, Los Altos: [wonderplugin_carousel id=”4″]
After Pictures of 1700 Oak Avenue, Los Altos: [wonderplugin_carousel id=”5″]
Should you have any questions about using staging to increase the salability of your home, please contact me directly at 650 917-4250.
