21 Feb The Importance of Staging When Selling Your Home
The Importance of Staging When Selling Your Home
When buyers are looking at prospective properties, one of the first things they do is view pictures and videos of the available homes online. To show off your home you need excellent pictures to promote top activity. This is accomplished by having good staging, photography and video production.
Making rooms attractive is more than removing clutter and rearranging furniture. Staging involves setting up the furniture, art and accessories of each room so that potential purchasers can imagine themselves and their furniture and possessions in the home. Showing the size and space of each room as well as how it functions are key. Each of us has memories of our present home and how things work and don’t work, i.e. small entry from garage, nowhere to put coats and backpacks, a dining room too small to host family and friends and cut off from the kitchen area, a back deck with room for chairs and a table.
The key is to sell a lifestyle to prospective buyers. Staging 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. It is hard for buyers to visualize where things would go and how they could work, i.e. can a bedroom have a double, queen or king bed with night stands and bureau for clothes. By staging the home and showcasing how it could work for them, it makes it easy for them to picture themselves living in the home. Existing furniture can also be reorganized to tell a story: i.e. 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.
Exterior curb appeal/staging is also very important. When potential buyers do a drive by or are standing at the front door waiting to go in, they are looking at the front door, porch, condition of walkway, steps and gardens, etc.
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, i.e. painting. Ask us about others or see our blog on preparing your home for market.
In the many homes we have staged and sold, we have found that sometimes people feel their furniture, artwork and collectibles aren’t the newest trend, best condition, right size, etc. That’s where we assist, we walk through each home, making recommendations for furniture placement, lighting, carpets, accessories, etc. and then help our clients make a plan and execute it. Staging could be expensive, so we decided to provide staging as part of our services and also invested in accessories, artwork, small furniture items, etc., to have available if required and that stay in the home until it is sold. This is included in our listing package at no extra cost.
As experienced realtors® in Ottawa, we would love to have a discussion with you to determine the best options to increase the value of your property! We have the expertise to help you sell your home for top dollar!