Home Staging: A Smart Strategy for Selling Your Home | Picket Fence Preview Real Estate | Buy Sell
What is Home Staging?
The concept of 'Home Staging' is relatively new in Vermont real estate markets but has been popular in parts of the country since the 1980s. For those of you who watch HGTV, Home Staging may be a familiar term, but what exactly does it mean? It is the act of depersonalizing and strategically furnishing a home for the real estate market so that buyers can imagine living in your house. This process is not just for luxury homes; every home can benefit.
Services Commonly Offered by Home Stagers include:
• Occupied Home Staging
• Vacant Home Staging
• Staging Consultation (for DIY)
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Benefits of Home Staging
Competitive presentation:
Many potential buyers see a property for the first time while looking at real estate listings on- line, so your property must photograph well. An unfurnished vacant home can look cold and buyers may have a hard time understanding how they would use the empty space. An occupied home can look cluttered and taste specific. Professional Home Staging is about peaking a buyer's interest and getting them physically inside the house. Home Staging can help buyers establish the critical emotional connection that will lead them to place an offer on your home.
A shorter listing time:
The NAR Consumers Guide to Real Estate Staging reports that one can expect differences from state to state, but ³homes that had not been staged before listing sat on the market an average 143 days. Once these homes were staged, they sold in 40 days. Homes that were staged pre-listing averaged 23 days on the market.² Less time on the market means fewer selling-related costs, such as mortgage and utility payments.
A higher sales price:
Home stagers are trained to pick up on issues homeowners may no longer notice. These may include sprucing up the front stoop, replacing a cracked window pane, or painting the interior. Buyers notice anything that requires them to spend extra money and often imagine the associated expense to be three times the actual cost.
A well-cared for home conveys a higher value that buyers will be willing to pay. Figures vary, but according to Margaret Heidenry's 10/20/2016 article on Realtors.com, an average home staging investment of .03% to 1% could yield a return on investment (ROI) of as much as 8% to 10%. For an entry-level home of $250,000 this translates into a possible ROI of $20,000 for a home-staging investment of $7,500. Keep in mind that it is harder to recover from a price cut of 5, 10, or 20 percent than it is to avoid a price cut from the beginning by making your home as appealing as possible to buyers.
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How Does Home Staging Work?
According to Fixit.com, the physical changes of Staging your home may involve:
• Rearranging furniture;
• Redecorating windows with new dressings, or using pre-existing dressings in a different way;
• Displaying accessories and collectibles in pleasing"vignettes";
• Adding elements that draw the attention to appealing areas such as fireplaces, patios, and porches; and
• Bringing in [furnishings] that enhance the overall "tone" of any space. This could mean adding plants, pillows, furniture, baskets, artwork, lighting fixtures and similar items.
Executing the physical changes described above usually takes about a day, and the same amount of time to remove whatever props are used to Stage your home. Home Stagers usually charge an hourly or flat fee to complete this process.
The first step is to schedule a Home Staging consult. Your Home Stager will visit your home and talk with you about your goals and budget. The Staging report will describe any cleaning or repairs they feel should be done prior to Staging, which room or rooms are most important to stage, and projected costs within the framework of what you can afford. This may be as simple as organizing closets, slipcovering a sofa, or some new towels. Your Home Staging consult is a valuable guide for making a winning first impression.
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