Hire a Home Stager Before Selling your Home
In a housing market that is growing increasingly sluggish, sellers are
doing everything they can to make their homes more attractive and
increase their chances of selling. This includes hiring real estate
stagers to help them make their homes more appealing to a larger pool of
buyers.
Evidence indicates that hiring a home stager is certainly beneficial. On
average, homes that have been staged tend to sell a whopping 4 months
faster than homes that have not been staged. While home staging has been
a common practice on the West Coast for a number of years, it has
finally begun to penetrate markets on the East Coast as well as the
Midwest.
The primary goal of a home stager is to make the home less focused on
the previous or current owners and really more about the house itself.
Since the house is really what the buyers want to see, it makes good
common sense.
In many cases, a home can have great architecture but it may become
hidden or obscured due to personal details and influences of the
sellers. This makes it difficult for prospective buyers to focus on the
house. Instead, they tend to focus on the contents and that can be a
problem when you are trying to sell your home.
To work toward this goal most stagers spend a significant amount of time
on depersonalizing the home. In most cases this also translates to
clearing out much of the clutter that many of us tend to accumulate over
time.
Closets, in particular, are an important area. All buyers want spacious
closet space; however, they may feel that your home is lacking in that
area if they can’t really see what the closets are like.
In addition, stagers work on making the home more pleasing and
eye-appealing. This could mean removing some of the older furniture and
temporarily replacing it with rented furniture and even accessories like
window treatments, rugs and art work. Furniture may also be re-arranged
so that it appears to be more balanced. The key is to make a room feel
inviting and warm yet also make the most of the space by helping it to
be appearing as spacious as possible. Unfortunately, most sellers have
their furniture arranged for their own personal preferences and comfort.
When you are selling your home this can make it difficult to snag the
right buyer. To combat this problem, stagers make changes to highlight
architectural features in rooms such as fireplaces.
To a large degree there is a tremendous amount of psychology involved in
staging a home. Stagers look for areas in the home that could be a
turn-off to buyers such as furniture that is turned with the back to the
entry-way. If you live in the home day in and day out, it may not seem
to be a problem; however, when a buyer enters the home it could send a
negative message.
Even new homes are now being staged to make them more attractive to
prospective buyers. The approach in a new home is somewhat different;
however. Since no one has lived in the home, stagers work to make the
home seem lived-in. By renting furniture and accessories they are able
to set the scene that is not unlike setting a scene for a movie.
It should be pointed out that staging a home is certainly not cheap. The
actual cost for staging can vary based on whether the home is empty or
inhabited as well as exactly what the homeowner or realtor is looking
for. Homes that are empty tend to cost more for staging because of the
additional furniture and accessories that must be rented. In order for
staging to be successful each room must appear as though someone
actually lives in the home.
For sellers who are on a budget, it can still be beneficial to hire
stagers for a consultation. This is usually less expensive and involves
the stagers doing a walk-through of the home and then making suggestions
that the seller can follow up on. A typical consultation lasts about an
hour and runs around $250. Considering the advantages this type of
service offers, it could definitely be worth the money.
Despite the cost, staging could definitely be worth it if you find that
you are having difficulty selling your home. Besides the fact that
staged homes typically sell faster, they also usually bring in a higher
sales price; which could more than make up for the cost of the staging.
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