Is staging your home worth it?
In our experience staging your home is a very powerful and valuable marketing tool. In some markets it may not matter too much. For example, in a fast paced market where homes are selling quickly, you may not need to bother with staging. The home will likely sell fundamentally due to low inventory and active buyers. You may however, see more money if you do stage. In a slow market, like the one we find ourselves now, staging becomes much more beneficial. Not only will staging get you more money for your home sale, but it will help to sell your home much quicker.
A few months ago we listed a beautiful, almost new vacant home for sale. My partner and I marketed the home like crazy and to our credit we did get an offer after a month and a half. Unfortunately, that deal fell apart...which is a reality in this market. Then due to exceptionally high inventory levels and slow-to-act buyers, the home sat on the market for nearly three months. After brain storming with the seller, we came up with two main actions we could take to sell the home:
- Lower the price.
- Stage the home.
The seller was of the opinion that lowering the price was the way to go. Our thought was that staging the home would be more advantageous. The seller is the boss so we lowered the price and sat on the market a little longer. After a while we broached the subject of staging again. The seller stated “Well, now that the price is lower I cannot afford to stage the home.” We felt so strongly that the home would benefit from staging, we suggested the seller raise the price by $5,000 to cover the staging. The staging cost was under $2,500 and that included some painting, set up and tear down, and furniture rental. We raised the price by $5,000 and staged the home.
Less than eleven days later, the home had two competing offers and sold for only $1,000 under asking price. This means that the staging not only paid for itself, it also put more money in our seller’s pocket! Needless to say the seller was extremely happy. When we asked the buyer’s agent what attracted her buyers to the home she stated, “If the home was not staged, we would not have put an offer on it. There are so many homes for sale in the area and some of them were even better deals but my buyers fell in love with the warm comfortable feeling in the home. That is why they ultimately offered on it.”
So does staging work? Yes...Yes it does!
We are very impressed and very pleased with the results of staging. To that end, we have adopted staging as part of our marketing program. If you list your home with us, we will cover a home staging/decorating consultation by Center Stage Decorating. After the consultation, we will sit down and address the designers suggestions and decide if staging is something that your home would benefit from...we may even cover the cost!
If you or someone you know is thinking of buying or selling a home or property please call me today:
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