When you decided to sell your property, it goes without saying that you do hope you will sell quickly and with the best results, that is, the best price. In a fickle property market, however, how do you ensure to achieve those objectives?
Image is everything. That saying also holds true in selling houses.
The key is in making your property stand out not only on the street where your property is located but also amongst the other properties home buyers inspect. Remember,your property is a product and once you list that product for sale, it gains competition.
So going back to setting that product apart from same products in the real estate market, how do you begin to market your property? Of course you do the standard stuff like make sure your property is clutter-free, finish some half-done jobs, fix minor flaws.
Or you could take your effort a notch higher by staging your property.
What is staging?
Home staging has become a popular practise in real estate to encourage a sale or to attract tenants. In home staging, sellers create an inviting and pleasant appeal for their property—a setup that would give the property the “oomph!” factor and evoke the I-imagine-living-here feeling from potential buyers.
Home staging often involves using pieces of furniture (hired, borrowed, or purchased) to decorate a house, highlight the property’s best assets, and create whatever mood you’d like to present—homey, elegant, stylish, spacious, child-friendly.
Some sellers even hire a professional designer to do the overall staging of the property—from the colour scheme, furniture, decorations, down to the very last detail.
Pros and Cons
Staging your property is a marketing strategy to encourage increase in sale value of the property and to decrease sale time. A property that sits on the market for a longer period of time becomes harder to sell so deciding to stage your property makes it enticing to more potential buyers.
As opposed to presenting an empty house, a staged house makes it easier for prospective buyers to imagine the many fabulous things they can do to the property. Some of us may have creative minds that one look at an empty space and they can easily come up with an idea to transform that spot but hey, that light bulb doesn’t easily get lit up for others!
By staging your home, you demonstrate to buyers the purpose of each room and the many possibilities your property presents by making it visually appealing.
In our next post we explore more advantages to staging your home, the costs involved, and some tips if you opt to go the DIY route.