23 Nov Is it worth staging your home in a hot market?

It doesn’t matter if it is a slow market or a busy market.  In a slow market it helps move the property. In a busy market it makes a big difference when it’s styled and staged. It changes the perceived value of the property.

It’s a truism in real estate that most buyers make up their mind whether a house is for them within seconds of walking through the front door. In a fast-moving market, it’s even more likely that the decision to buy will be based on emotion. After all, there’s no time to think or request a second visit when there are multiple offers on the table. That makes it all the more important that the home feels like, well, home.

The key is to sell a lifestyle to prospective buyers, he said. Staging in a hot market isn’t just prettying up a property. It paints a picture about what life could be like in a home, and how the buyer could use the space.

“When you’re staging a property, it’s always about function. It’s like an instruction manual on how to use the house,” Barrinuevo said.

Since the pandemic hit, more buyers are looking for homes where they have space for multiple workstations — both home offices and school desks — as well as comfy spaces to spend time at home, and backyards or home gyms to keep active and fit. Trends like these should change how a stager approaches their work, he said.

Many sellers are reluctant to invest money into a property before they sell, but there are some relatively inexpensive improvements that can make a big difference.

Sellers can also reorganize the furniture they have to tell a story: set up a mini workstation in an empty nook, or set up a vignette on the patio or deck to suggest how these spaces could be used for entertaining guests outside.

Most buyers don’t have an idea of how to set up furniture or how it should be laid out, especially in big spaces. It’s hard to for them to visualize where things are going to go.  By staging it and showcasing it and showing them how it could work for them, giving function to every space, it makes a big difference.

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Source: Montreal Gazette – Briana Doyle – November 19, 2020