Professional Home Staging – The Most Powerful Selling Tool

Thinking of listing your home on the market? As part of your marketing package, a listing arsenal typically includes: photography, real estate website advertising, signboards, indicative floorplans, etc. During sign up, your real estate agent may discuss with you the idea of ‘professional home staging’. As one of the most powerful selling tools, having your home professionally staged, can be quickly dismissed by sellers due to the investment required. However, if you take a closer look, the math is just too compelling to ignore.

“The goal of a good stager is to bring out the potential of a home while staying as neutral as possible—so that each prospective buyer can imagine the home as they would decorate it.”
~ Christine Rae, Home Staging 101: Make Sure You’re Staging, Not Decorating!

staging family room open plan living — *“Can I see myself/our family living here?” is the overarching question a buyer will ask themselves from the moment they enter your house to the time they leave it.*

First Impressions and The Buyer

Selling your most valuable possession, your own home, and receiving a top price for it, is about putting your best foot forward and presenting it in the best possible light. In an ideal world, potential buyers should enter your property, feel at ease and move freely from room to room, absorbing the surroundings, envisaging how their own possessions and lifestyle would complement the space. This may not be so easy to achieve when you or your tenants have moved out of the house, leaving it empty, or if there’s minimal furniture remaining, or if your home is visibly in need of some TLC.

Staging takes advantage of different nooks and corners of a home, opening a buyer’s eyes to possibilities

Not everyone is right-brained, with imaginations switched to full power. Regardless, even if you ARE blessed with imagination, there’s nothing like seeing an end product represented beautifully rather than trapsing through an empty home, with every minor crack on the wall leaping out at you.

A key question a Buyer will ask themselves from the moment they enter your house to the time they leave it, is “Can I see myself/our family living in this house?” How positively that vision is formed in their minds will depend on how your property is presented. How it is presented will also determine their decision to make you an offer and the amount of their offer.

Professional Home Staging – Why Do It?

Invest in Furniture Staging — *Experience has shown us at Thrive, that in almost all cases, Sellers achieve an average*
*of 300% – 700% return on investment for the money spent on staging a home*

Why stage your property? This is a very important question we are asked at Thrive. “Is there something about staging that far outweighs any concerted efforts we may do on our end?” For our clients, we’ve seen a flow on effect of many advantages when it comes to professional staging:

$$$ Return on Investment. Sellers have sometimes expressed initial shock and resistance at spending any money on staging. In Perth, you are generally looking at spending somewhere in the vicinity of $3,000 – $6,000 for staging a four bedroom home. If seen purely as a cost, the resistance is understandable. However, many Thrive clients have looked upon it as a savvy investment. Experience has shown us, that in almost all cases, Sellers achieve an average of 300% – 700% return on investment for the money spent on staging a home. Who wouldn’t want that in their back pocket?
Quicker turnaround and sale. When a property is staged, the furniture choice is customised to the space. Every item and its positioning, whether it be a table, artwork or floor lamp has its purpose to draw attention to space and its practicalities. Not only this, but a home can be photographed beautifully for listings on real estate portals when it is staged. This in turn, attracts a larger audience for the first home open, more competition and ultimately faster generated offers.
It creates a ready-made visual and eliminates the need for people to wonder such things as: “what kind of functional spaces can be created within this open plan room?”, “Can my double bed fit here?” All these questions can be answered without the need for a tape measure at the ready or a great deal of imagination.
It leaves potential buyers with an enchanting feeling of “home” a blank canvas home that they can imagine their own possessions in, rather than someone else’s. Ultimately, as a seller, you want someone to fall in love with your property and think of all the possibilities – this is something that universal staging inspires!

Formal Living Staging Jandakot
Professional Home Staging
Powerful Selling Tool — *Staging is a more universal style targeted to profile who is coming through the house, all recommendations are to secure an offer.*

Professional Home Staging is NOT Decorating

One of the biggest misconceptions about staging a home is that it is akin to decorating. We’ve all seen how cute indoor plants can look, creating a bit of visual eye candy when placed in the right spot in a bathroom or study area. Why not have a go at it yourself (“yes! If THEY can do it, so can I!”), go to town and buy a truckload of pot plants to spruce up a house full of old furniture? The problem is that everything works in unison. The ensemble that a professional stager puts together from their carefully crafted warehouse of furnishings, creates a much more effective styled visual and story for the buyer. Especially with regards to showcasing particular selling points of the house.

Furniture Staging 101 — *Beautifully staged with modern furniture to showcase a small meals area*

To put it into better context as to what the difference is between decorating and staging, we’ve taken these points from Marilyn Brophy, a certified staging professional:

Decorating is a luxury.
Staging is a necessity.
Decorating is the homeowners’ enjoyment.
Staging is for the future buyer.
Decorating is personal style.
Staging is a more universal style targeted to profile who is coming through the house, all recommendations are to secure an offer.
Decorating generally involves a larger budget.
Staging includes budget, sensitivity and time.
Decorating means you have a longer timeline.
Staging you work with tighter deadlines.
Decorating is optional.
Staging is mandatory if you want to secure the most money for the property in the shortest time.

When Should You Consider Staging?

It is important that you disconnect yourself emotionally from your belongings and try to view your home from a business stand point. Perhaps ask for someone’s honest opinion. Do you think your furnishings and decor showcase most rooms to their utmost potential? The decision is purely yours.

Reasons to choose professional staging:

Your home is partly furnished and looks odd this way
Your property is completely empty
There is a lack of flow and consistent style to your furnishings and decor throughout the house eg. modern mixed with eclectic, large furniture impedes the flow, etc.
To revitalise an older looking property
When you’re looking at getting top $$ for your property

Staging may not be for everyone. You may be selling for financial reasons and not have any extra funds to draw on for example. But before you rush out to Kmart for those plants, give it some thought. If you ARE in a position to round up some money, it is well worth the while.