When real estate agents discuss the concept of home staging, they refer to a strategy to prepare a property for sale in the real estate market. The primary goal of staging is to highlight the most appealing features of a home, make a lasting impression on potential buyers, and facilitate a speedy and profitable sale.
Choosing to stage your property can give you a competitive edge, as not all sellers opt for this approach, particularly for homes in lower price ranges. By taking the extra step of staging, you can enhance your chances of success. Here’s how you can do it.
Why is Home Staging Important?
When selling a home, there are better options than settling for a lower sales price or enduring a more extended marketing period for any homeowner. Home staging holds significant value—it can prove to be a highly profitable investment of time and money. Potential buyers are not simply searching for a place to reside; they aspire to fulfill their dreams and enhance their lifestyles. Buyers can be prompted to make a more emotional connection by leveraging home staging, ultimately leading to higher returns for the seller.
The essence of home staging lies in accentuating the finest aspects of your property, enabling a larger pool of potential buyers to envision themselves living there. Home staging is a powerful marketing strategy that involves strategically rearranging and adding furniture and decor to create an appealing presentation.
What Are The Top Home-Staging Tips?
Here we describe each tip in detail:
- Maintaining Cleanliness
Presenting a clean and well-maintained home to potential buyers is essential in showcasing your property’s care and value. It is advisable to thoroughly clean every area of the house, ensuring no corner is overlooked, from the floors up to the ceilings.
In the kitchen, even if you don’t have brand-new appliances, it is crucial to ensure that the existing ones are immaculate. Focus on cleaning even the most inconspicuous areas, such as the corners of the tub, the sink drain, and that often-overlooked spot behind the toilet. Similarly, pay extra attention to creating a sparkling bathroom environment. Your objective should be to make an impression of freshness and newness throughout the house.
- Removing Clutter
Clutter in a home can cause two significant issues during a sale: it can divert potential buyers’ attention from the house’s features and make rooms appear smaller.
Having ample storage space available and unoccupied can create a more appealing atmosphere for buyers. The best solution is to box up and store away any items that are not used daily, such as knickknacks, games, papers, seasonal clothes, and articles related to messy hobbies. Additionally, it’s time to dispose of things that are no longer needed, such as expired food items in the cabinets or clothes and toys that your children have outgrown.
- Creating a Neutral Environment
You must depersonalize the space to help potential buyers visualize living in your home. It involves removing family photos, keepsakes, and refrigerator art that may be specific to your family. It’s also advisable to minimize the visibility of personal items such as clothes, ensuring they are kept hidden as much as possible. In the bathroom, aim for clear countertops, except for essential items like hand soap.
Similarly, putting away all toys and anything else that may be highly personal or remind buyers of the home’s current occupants is essential. The goal is to create a neutral environment that allows buyers to imagine themselves in the space without feeling like they are invading someone else’s personal space before buying.
- Focus on Freshness
Adding a few potted plants to your home can significantly impact making the space feel fresh and welcoming. If you have many plants, it’s essential to strategically space them out so they only overpower any one area if you have a designated greenhouse. Additionally, it’s necessary to keep plants healthy and thriving to maintain the appearance of a well-maintained home.
Another critical aspect of creating a fresh atmosphere in your home is eliminating odours. Pets, children, yesterday’s cooking, a damp bathroom, and other conditions can contribute to unpleasant smells in your home. Simple and cost-effective solutions for removing odours and creating an inviting aroma include baking cinnamon-coated apples or cookies in the oven (being cautious not to burn them) or burning vanilla-scented candles.
Although air fresheners can be used to deodorize your home, they should be avoided since they can cause allergic reactions and asthma in sensitive individuals. If you’re a smoker and typically smoke indoors, limiting smoking to outside the home and taking additional measures to deodorize the interior is best. It’s also a good practice to wipe down the kitchen sink with half a lemon and grind it in the garbage disposal to eliminate sink odours. Lastly, remember to take out the trash.
- Defining Room Functions
Ensure that each room in your home has a clear and singular purpose. Establishing a designated function for every space within each room is also essential. For instance, if you have a finished attic, transform it into an office space. A finished basement can be repurposed as an entertainment room, and a cluttered room can be renovated into a welcoming guest bedroom. This approach will help potential buyers visualize how to optimize the home’s square footage according to their needs.
Even if buyers have different plans for room utilization, the key is to demonstrate that every inch of the home offers usable space. It includes highlighting alcoves, window seats, corners, breakfast nooks, and other areas that can serve practical purposes. By showcasing the versatility of these spaces, you enhance the overall appeal and functionality of the home.
- Wallpaper and Paint
Wallpaper can be a potential turn-off for buyers, so it’s best to remove it and paint the walls with a neutral colour instead of over it. Painting over wallpaper can make the walls look shabby and create an impression of future work for the buyer.
Similarly, custom paint colours that suit your preferences may not appeal to potential buyers as their taste in colours may vary. While white walls provide a blank canvas for buyers to imagine their decor, warm neutral colours are a better option to create an inviting ambiance throughout the home.
What Are The Benefits Of Home Staging?
Although home staging has so many benefits, we pointed to some more important ones here:
- Increased Selling Price:
By investing in home staging, sellers can expect a higher selling price for their property than homes that have not been properly staged. A well-staged home showcases its full potential and creates a positive impression on potential buyers, leading them to perceive its value more favourably. Several benefits to home staging can significantly impact the sale of a property.
- Enhanced Buyer Imagination:
When prospective buyers step into a thoughtfully staged home, they can easily envision living there. By creating a welcoming and aspirational atmosphere, staging allows buyers to connect emotionally with the space and picture their future life. It can significantly increase their
- Elimination of Distractions:
A non-staged home often displays the seller’s personal belongings and unique style, diverting a buyer’s attention from the property’s features. However, staging helps neutralize the space, allowing buyers to focus on each room’s architectural elements, layout, and potential functionality. It lets them visualize how they would personalize the home to suit their preferences.
- Improved Online Presentation:
Online listings are crucial in attracting potential buyers in today’s digital age. Eye-catching listing photos generated by a well-staged home can capture the attention of buyers browsing online, increasing the chances of scheduling viewings and generating more interest in the property. Professionally staged homes tend to photograph better, as the strategic placement of furniture, decor, and lighting can make rooms appear more spacious, appealing, and photogenic.
Home staging offers several benefits that can significantly affect the sale of your property and help you achieve a quick sale at a higher price. It is especially beneficial in competitive seller’s markets and ensures that your home remains memorable, aesthetically appealing and stands out. Home staging can be a valuable tool if you’re working on a tight time frame or want to maximize your profits.
Sum Up
If you are still determining the benefit of staging in your particular situation, it is recommended that you consult with a professional real estate agent such as Yervand Safarian. We have the expertise to evaluate your property and provide recommendations based on market conditions and the preferences of potential buyers. Selling your home is an essential milestone in your life. So take every opportunity to sell your home for the highest price.
Frequently Asked Questions
In GTA, the price range for home staging varies depending on the size and scope of the project. Typically, staging a single room for a month can cost anywhere from $600 to $800. For larger properties with approximately 2,000 square feet of space, the monthly staging fees can range from $2,400 to $3,600.
Staging a home can accelerate the selling process, as these properties typically sell in 11 days or less, which is 17% faster than unstaged homes.
