Let's be honest: the process of selling your home can quickly become overwhelming and expensive. If you're like most home sellers, you'll hear all sorts of tips for how to prepare your home to sell and be given a list of projects and renovations you should do in order to sell for top dollar.
It's easy to look at those long to-do lists and think that home staging is one area that you can skimp in order to save time and money. Trust us, we've heard it over and over again.
But, there are a lot of benefits to home staging that are important to consider, if it's in your budget. Or, you can always learn easy home staging tips that you can do on your own to get some of the benefits without the cost.
Before we jump in to the 5 benefits to home staging, let's quickly cover the basics on home staging for first time home sellers:
What Is Home Staging?
Home staging is the act of preparing a home for sale by putting special effort into presentation and appearance. Basically, it's the process of making your home look its very best, so potential buyers fall in love with your house and have to have it!
While there are some things you'll want to do before you list (and we share them in this post), these should be done before investing in home staging, to make sure you get the most bang for your buck.
Then, when it's time to stage your home, you (or your home stager) will want to look for ways to accentuate the best parts of every room in the house, while creating an open flow and design cohesion from room to room.
This extra effort usually pays dividends - in the form of more or higher offers, often with very eager potential buyers who will be willing to pay more to get the house of their dreams.
Most importantly, staging your home gives you another advantage over homes that are not staged. Particularly in a buyer's market, you'll want to make the most of every opportunity to edge ahead of the competition.
5 Benefits of Home Staging:
If you're almost ready to add home staging to your home selling checklist, then you'll definitely want to learn more about the benefits of home staging.
First, home staging allows potential buyers to imagine themselves living in the home - rather than feeling like a trespasser on your property.
Home staging looks at what the buyer might want and draws attention to those areas.
Home staging decorators look for ways to improve the home's appearance for the largest possible audience of potential buyers.
A great home stager will also bring a fresh perspective to your home - from curb appeal to the backyard - and have invaluable insight on where to draw the eye in order to maximize furniture and decor.
Second, staging your home will make it appear larger.
Home staging will force you to declutter and get organized from top to bottom. People will open cabinets and peak into areas where we might be tempted to shove a bunch of things.
Home stagers will help you in staging every area, including pantries, and closets, so that your home can appear as large, bright, and spacious as possible.
Third, home staging can increase showings and improve open house turnouts.
Home staging puts your home's best foot forward. It's always a good idea to make a great first impression and when people see pictures of your home staged, they'll be more likely to want to see it in person.
Plus, if a home shows well, more agents will want to show the home to their clients. This increase in traffic is always ideal for ensuring the right buyer falls in love with your home. Or, it could even increase the number of offers you receive and start a bidding war!
Fourth, staging can help your home sell faster.
When agents and potential buyers walk a staged home, they know the seller is ready to go. They've already cleaned up and packed away personal belongings and they've invested in home staging to ensure the best possible turnout. All of this creates a sense of urgency for agents and potential buyers who will know that they will need to make a move if they are interested.
The more offers you can get on your home, the higher the purchase price will usually go, too. While studies on that look at the relationship between home staging and time on market vary, most agree that homes that are staged do sell faster. Likewise, staged homes usually sell for more than ask, which more than covers the cost of staging, especially when you just consider holding costs associated with a home that sits on the market.
Fifth, Buyers spend 8x more time in a staged home.
This one is interesting. Studies have shown that buyers spend only 5 minutes viewing an unfurnished house versus up to 40 minutes in a furnished home (source).
This is probably due to the calming effects of a clean, neutral, spacious staged home. But, whatever the reason, one thing is for sure: the longer they spend in the home, the more likely they are to want to make it their own.
We know that having your home staged might seem like an extraneous expense, but it usually more than pays for itself in a variety of ways.
These are just 5 of the benefits of home staging to consider when selling your home.
If you're interested in staging your home on your own, check out our free ebook packed full of tips for how you can maximize your home value with staging.
And, if you're already sold on staging and ready to start moving out those personal belongings, don't miss our post with 45 moving tips you will love!
Thanks for reading!