By the time you get to the staging process of selling your home, you’ve already been through a lot. You’ve hunted for the best real estate agent, made any necessary upgrades to your home, cleaned and organized the whole space, and worked with your selling team to get the marketing materials ready to go.
At this point, it’s easy to wonder if staging is really necessary. Isn’t your home good enough to sell by itself? Yes, your home is amazing. But staging allows potential buyers to imagine themselves and their possessions in the space which makes them that much more eager to get their hands on your gem. In fact, according to the Real Estate Staging Association, homes which are staged before going on the market sell on average 73% faster than un-staged homes and 31% of buyers increase their offer on a home that is staged.
What is Home Staging?
Here’s the low down: home staging is the process of aesthetically preparing your home for market. The translation of that is, a home staging team comes into the property and adds décor, furniture, and accessories to the home to make it look beautiful for showings and photographs. It’s sort of like having an interior designer temporarily decorate your home but with the intention of selling it. In some cases stagers will use your existing items and reorganize the space to illustrate space and style in a different way. If you’ve already moved out or your house is empty, stagers will bring their own items to decorate and bring your home to life!
Why Does it Help?
The goal of showing a home to a potential buyer is to get them to picture themselves living in it. If the buyers can visualize making a home in your space, they’re much more likely to purchase. But it’s not just about the sale. According to the National Association of Realtors, 40% of buyers were more likely to visit a staged home period. So staging has the effect of bringing more buyers in to see your home, making it easier for them to fall in love with the property, and then inspiring them to offer more than they originally would have.
Can I Stage My Own Home?
You can, but even if you’re an interior designer it’s not quite the same as working with a professional stager. Stagers don't just have good taste, and the physical resources to stage your home, they know how to arrange the home specifically to sell it. That requires a different skill set than just making the house look nice.
We work with the amazing local group Painted Door Home Staging and we have had a lot of success selling homes with their expertise. If you’re still not sure if staging is a good fit for your home, give us a call at 617-942-1741 and we’ll be happy to talk it through with you.