Your home is lovely. The landscaping is nice and neat. The property is priced appropriately for the neighborhood, and there are great schools nearby. So why isn’t your home selling as quickly as you expected? It could simply be that you have plenty of competition since the Houston housing market has been hot this past year. So what can you do to put your property head and shoulders above the rest? Home staging is a proven tactic for making your house so appealing, it’ll be off the market in no time.
You might think staging your home is an unnecessary expense, but according to a survey by Coldwell Banker, staged homes spent half the time on the market than non-staged homes and sold for more than six percent above the asking price. That’s because staging is about more than just decorating and organizing; it plays upon the psychology of selecting a home.
When someone walks into your house, they want to be able to imagine themselves living there. Not only do they need to see your home as their own, but they also want to feel like the place they’re moving to is an upgrade from where they currently live. If the décor of your home appears to be on the same level as where the buyer currently lives, they may not get the impression that moving to your property is a step up for them. This is where great furniture, art, lighting and the like come into play.
When a potential buyer comes to your home for the first time, you’ve got mere seconds to make a lasting impression. Thanks to the rise in popularity of home decorating television shows, social media sites like Pinterest and countless magazines, buyers have gotten a bit more savvy and a lot more specific when it comes to finding what they want, and if your home doesn’t invoke the “wow” factor right away, chances are, you’re missing out on many potential offers.
Not familiar with the staging process? Keep in mind that it’s different from interior design. An interior designer’s job is to decorate the home according to your taste. The main focus of a stager, on the other hand, is to show off the home’s assets. Often times, professional stagers will conduct demographic research to determine the market trends and the décor of recently sold homes in your neighborhood.
Some real estate professionals say the money you send on staging comes back to you tenfold, so hiring a professional to stage your home could very well be a worthy investment. If you’re on a tight budget, experts suggest you focus on staging high impact areas. The goal is to have a “wow” factor when prospective buyers first walk into the house. Also, if you have a lot of furniture, consider putting some pieces in storage so the space doesn’t appear cluttered. And if your home is vacant, you’ll want to invest in renting furniture and decorations instead of leaving it completely empty.
We are confident that if you use these home staging strategies, you will be on track to receive attractive offers in no time.