What is Home Staging?
Home staging is the act of preparing a home prior to listing it in the real estate marketplace. The goal of staging is to sell a home quickly for the highest value by making it look appealing and desirable. Staging is about highlighting a home’s strengths and positive features. It accomplishes this by upgrading certain features and in so doing reducing the home's flaws. For vacant homes, furniture is used to create a living space the buyer could visualize themselves in. Properly executed staging leads the eye to attractive features.
For some time Real estate professionals have used staging as a marketing tool but since 1990s staging has become a distinct enterprise adopted by professional designers, decorators, stagers and home-based career workers. More recently, the trend of do-it-yourself home staging has become widely popular, and many staging books have been published on the subject.
Staging is now viewed by some as an essential step in selling a home, and many Real Estate professionals and home sellers alike hire a professional home stager or home staging company to stage their homes prior to sale. Today more and more sellers are expecting their agents to lead them through the process. Statistics show that it makes a dramatic difference on the number of days a property is on the market and how much it sells for.
Research has shown that a home stager can reduce a listing's time on the market by as much as 50% and result in an increase of 10 -15% in the selling price compared to a vacant house.
Many techniques are used to stage a property. De-cluttering, de-personalizing, updating old or unattractive fixtures, painting, furniture rearrangement, rental furniture and accessorizing are just some of the changes used to make a home more inviting to potential buyers.
Typical home buyers decide if they are attracted to a home within the first few minutes of seeing it, Therefore, curb appeal, the practice of improving a home’s exterior appearance, is key to enticing the buyer to want to see more.
It is now recognized that houses staged with furniture and accessories sell more quickly than vacant ones, because they give the buyer an opportunity to imagine the potential of what they can create to make the house their home. It helps the buyer realize the real potential of what can be done with imaginative ideas to make this a beautiful home to live in.
Spaciousness and light often determine the success of a staged home. Typically, the larger and brighter a room appears, the better it will seem to homebuyers. Dark, tight spaces create a poor impression and may prevent the home from selling. Furniture layouts should create an impression of openness, comfort and style. Non-essential items should be removed to minimize crowding and clutter. Opening curtains and blinds to let in natural light and turning on interior and exterior lights at nighttime are also common staging techniques.
