6 Great Reasons to Stage Your Home
Sellers often wonder whether staging their home is really necessary. Is it easier to sell a house empty or furnished? The reality is that home staging can help expedite the sales process and even increase the perceived value of your home. As a seller, your goal is to get the best price for your property and sell it as quickly as possible. Both of these objectives are more easily accomplished with the help of staging. Here are 7 reasons why you should stage your home:
1) Expedite the Sales Process
Most sellers want to get a good offer as soon as possible. Some are even urgent to get the sale done immediately. Staging your home is a big step towards achieving your objective. When prospective buyers tour your home they are going to be visualizing what it is like to live there. It is much harder to do that without furniture and decor, and therefore much harder to sell them.
2) Increase Perceived Home Value
There are lots of characteristics that define a home’s perceived value. For example, a pool can add value to a residential home, and so can a quiet backyard space away from traffic noise. But one of the most underrated characteristics of perceived value is a well-kept home. Staging presents the image of a well-maintained house and can really boost its perceived value.
3) Create More “Space”
Space can be measured in square footage, but many times space is very much an aesthetic and subjective concept. When a home is empty, it appears smaller to many who tour it. In contrast, when a home is staged, it appears bigger than its square footage might indicate. Increasing the space inside your home is one of the many reasons why staging can help close the deal.
4) Facilitate Comfort and Imagination
When prospective buyers tour a home, they are oftentimes visualizing what it would be like to live there. This is very difficult to do with an empty space. When buyers see that rooms are full of life, they can see their own life transitioning to that space. Obviously, they are going to make the style to their liking, but staging provides a canvas that makes the possibility seem more real.
5) Generate Home Sale Buzz
Homes on the market often come with reputations, good or bad. Properties that fail to sell quickly are often flagged with suspicions about why that it is. On the flip side, homes that attract lots of tours and open houses at the jump can generate positive buzz that may even prompt a bidding war. Staged homes are far more likely to provide that positive buzz that sellers covet.
6) Enhance Transition Period
As the seller, living in your staged home can be a superior experience. As you transition from homeowner to former homeowner, you will find that making your house look as good as possible, will also enhance your transition period as you embrace your move to another property. The motivation to sell can actually help give you the juice you need to maximize your home’s potential.