Never underestimate the power of staging, even in a chaotic sellers’ market!
Staging a home for sale is a key step in the home-selling process. When done strategically, home staging can boost the list price and find the right buyer faster! Through staging, you can make your home stand out in a busy market, making it more appealing to buyers and showing off its move-in readiness.
The goal of home staging is to make it easier for potential buyers to picture themselves living in the home. This instantly begins building and strengthening their connection to the home. You want them to be planning their next family Thanksgiving around the dining room table and visualizing where they will be hanging up their flat screen. When buyers can see themselves living in a home, their determination to purchase rises exponentially.
The easiest form of staging that you can do for your home is to simply clear out all the clutter and remove personal items. Anything that can be considered clutter will act as a barrier or an obstacle, blocking buyers from seeing the true potential of the home. Sure, they’ll have their own clutter in the home when they move in, but you want to help sell the idea that life in your house will be clean and simple!
Personal items, as lovely and special as they are, have to go, too. Buyers tend to feel less comfortable touring a home that still clearly has someone else living in it. With your family photos hanging on every wall, it is more difficult for buyers to picture their own family living in the home.
Professional Staging Benefits
A professional stager and experienced realtor will be crucial in preparing your home for the market.
They will be able to look at your home from a fresh perspective and determine exactly what amount and kind of staging will best benefit your home. Furthermore, they will bring in their own collection of furniture and décor to use in your home. These are usually trendy and modern, yet unobtrusive pieces that will help create elevated and refined spaces without drawing buyers’ attention away from the best features of the home.
Also, keep in mind that you probably won’t come across a buyer today who hasn’t already been scouring the internet, looking at home after home online. Which homes get the most views? The ones that have been professionally staged! Professionally staged and photographed listings are critical for making a great first impression online that encourages buyers to take the next step and tour the home in person.
Proper staging brings together furniture, lighting, and décor to skillfully emphasize all the good parts of your home, which in turn helps minimize the less appealing aspects of the home. Professionals know all the tricks to gauge how much furniture it will take a room to look spacious and exactly how to place it to give the space a comfortable and inviting flow. When buyers are touring your home, you want them to naturally move between all the rooms with little effort or confusion. Cramped, overfilled rooms are not appealing to buyers, and the excess furniture will make the room look considerably smaller.
On the flip side of that, completely bare rooms are also difficult for buyers to picture themselves in. Many believe that an empty room will naturally look bigger, but that is often false. With no point of reference, there’s nothing to compare the size of the room to. If your home does have some needed repairs, like a crack in the drywall or damaged flooring, with nothing else in the home to distract the buyers’ eyes, they will be more focused on those negatives.
Emotional Connection is Key!
Remember, when you’re selling, most buyers are looking to buy a home, not just a house. When it comes to purchases this big, buyers will only want to move forward with a home they feel an emotional connection to. Staging makes it that much easier for them to start picturing their new life in the home, and if you have made it appealing enough to them with proper staging that they don’t want to lose that perceived life, then you have got a winner.
Don’t Go It Alone – Ellen is Here to Help!
Ellen knows the ins and outs of proper home staging, as well as professional stagers here in Kansas City for any budget! Her years of experience successfully selling all kinds of homes, from new builds to historical charmers, have made her an expert when it comes to making homes attractive to buyers. Ellen can help with the process of listing your home from the very beginning stages – including your “To Do” list to get your house on the market! Call up Ellen or send her a message online and get started on prepping your home for KC’s real estate market!
