Investment in home staging will sell your property quickly and for more money
I get this question a lot as people wonder why they should be spending money staging a home when selling a home. Home staging is an investment. It is about preparing and presenting one of the most significant financial assets that you own and turning it into an extremely marketable asset that people will pay top price for.
When you sell your car, which is a decreasing asset unless it's a classic car, you will spend time and money valeting and polishing to enhance the appearance. Unless you want to lose money, you will not sell a vehicle full of marks and scratches with dirty upholstery. For a good reason, people buy using emotion, and they will pay more for something that looks good and will often pay over market value if they want it badly enough.
In a survey of property professionals in the UK by the Home Staging Association,
- 94% agreed that staging increased viewings
- 75% agreed that home buyers spend more time viewing staged homes
- 86% agreed that staged homes sell three times faster than homes that are not staged
- 84% of properties removed from the market would have benefited from home staging
Although extremely popular in the USA, Australia, and several European countries, home staging is still relatively new in the UK property market. Here in the UK, it is mainly the forward-thinking and progressive estate agents that have realised its many benefits not just to their clients but also to themselves.
Being able to sell a clients property quickly enables a lower cost of sale. Selling for the full market value means fees will not reduce. The client is happy because they have a quicker sale and more money to spend on the next house purchase. It is a win-win situation. Let us not forget the home stager wins too!
If you have an agent who does not recommend home staging to you when you have an empty or part-furnished property, they are doing you a disservice. It is rare for a vacant property to sell quickly unless it is below market value. Empty properties usually sit on the market for weeks or months. At this point, the agent will advise a price reduction, and any subsequent buyers will also make lower offers on the presumption the sale is in distress. Combine this with the ongoing cost of your mortgage and bills while the house is up for sale, and you will find yourself losing quite a lot of money.
It is not uncommon to see price reductions of between £5,000 and £25,000 depending on its value.
Staging helps buyers to visualise your property as their home
The majority of buyers cannot visualise furnishings in an empty room, and they will find it hard to imagine themselves living there. People buy with emotion; Homebuyers are not looking for a property; they seek a new home to settle in. Make it easy for the buyer, show them how they can live in the space and make them want to make it their home. This is what a professional home staging company will do for you. When a property is vacant, all the buyer has to look at are the walls and floors, and when there is nothing else to focus their attention on, they will notice every flaw.
It is unwise to be tempted to put the house on the market and see 'how it goes.' If you do this, then you will lose all the early buyers. All the buyers in the market for your type of property and on the agents books will view it early and dismiss it if they cannot visualise living in the property. They will not return later because you have staged it. More likely, they have put an offer on another property. Do not lose time and momentum. Stage your property before it goes on the market and capture the early buyer fast. Fast sale = full market value.
So what is the cost of home staging? Another popular question. The answer is that it depends on the size of the property being staged and the number of rooms you stage to sell. As a rough guide, consider spending between 1% and 1.5% of the property value for a three-month home staging rental for a vacant property.
Investing in home staging will always be cheaper than the first price reduction.
Kharis & Kale Interiors help make properties extremely marketable. We offer rental packages with terms starting at 6 weeks, with professional property presentation that will make your property stand out and sell quickly. Don't lose money with a poorly presented property.
Please don't risk it. Stage it and sell it fast. We will help you contact us now.
