Never underestimate the power of staging, even in a chaotic sellers’ market!
Staging a home for sale may seem like a waste of time or an unnecessary expense, but when done properly, it can help boost that list price and find a buyer for your home faster! The whole point of staging your home when you put it on the market is to make it extra appealing to buyers and show off its move-in readiness.
The goal is to make it easy for buyers to picture themselves living in the home, which instantly begins building and strengthening that connection they feel 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 your personal items. Anything that can be considered clutter acts almost like 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 and it’s much more difficult for them to see their family living in the home with pictures of yours all over the walls.
Professional Staging Benefits
Working with a professional stager and experienced realtor to prepare your home before you list it takes the power of staging to the next level. They will be able to look at your home from a fresh perspective and determine exactly what amount and kind of staging will best fit 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 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! They make that critical great first impression online with beautiful, magazine-worthy staging and these are the homes buyers want to tour in-person first.
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 parts. 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 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 smaller.
On the flip side of that, completely bare rooms are even more difficult for buyers to picture themselves. Many believe that an empty room will naturally look bigger, but that is 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, and there is 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 that 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!
