When I first heard of staging a house, I thought it was just to make vacant houses look lived in. Coming into the real-estate industry, the more I learn about staging, the more I see how much it impacts the desirability of a home – and therefore its saleability. Here, I’ll delve into the fundamentals of staging to sell.
Staging isn’t only about making the house look nice. Yes, it is about that, of course, but it’s also about furniture placement and creating a flow through a living space. It’s the ideal way to see how a space can be utilized and judge the size based on seeing furniture in a room. Ever walk into a vacant bedroom and think, “Can I fit a queen in here?” Well, if a bed is already there the buyer is able to see more clearly that, yes, there’s already a queen bed in here. This takes away some of the questions that might be poking at the back of their minds and creating doubts about whether it’s the right fit for them. The more doubts a buyer has about a home, the less likely that they’ll put in an offer.
Staging a home to sell is also about decluttering and creating a neutral space that any potential buyer would be able to envision as their own. This is key! A lot of people get a bit turned off when they can see other people’s personal belongings, photographs, dirty dishes, etc. It doesn’t allow them to picture themselves in the home. Bright paint colours on the wall and shelves full of knick-knacks are distractions – minimize them! It’s about giving each potential buyer that walks through those warm fuzzy feelings when they can picture their own stuff in the home. Cleaning is also a major aspect of staging because no one likes a messy room. Yep, your mom was right all along.
Now you might be thinking, “But it’s a seller’s market already, I can do absolutely nothing and my house will still sell.” Yeah, totally, for sure. But it’ll likely take longer to sell, and it will likely sell for less than if you had fixed up a few little things, decluttered, and staged.
There’s data behind this, real numbers! According to the National Association of Realtors, 82% of Realtors say that staging helped their buyer clients visualize themselves in the home. According to the Real Estate Staging Association, staged listings sold on average 9 days quicker and for 7% more than non-staged listings. This is because most buyer’s (90%!) start their search online. At TrilliumWest we understand that this is the world we live in, so online marketing is something that we’ve put a lot of effort into perfecting. That’s why those staged photo tend to jump off the page creating more interest for buyers to get into the home and see it for themselves – this is half the battle.
In Kitchener-Waterloo listings are currently spending on average 7 days on the market. This is because holding offers, with the high buyer demand, is the best tactic to get more offers and create bidding wars which is better for you, the seller. On average houses in KW sold for 115.46% of the list price in 2021. When you list with us you’ll get the winning combination of TrilliumWest as the brokerage for online marketing of your property and Simplicity Real Estate for all your Realtor and Staging needs. With Simplicity Real Estate, we stage all of our listings, because we have the numbers to prove that staging works. Our staged listings in 2021 sold on average for 126% of the list price, almost 11% more than the average for the region!
I mean, Pinterest is great for ideas, but sometimes implementing them gets a little overwhelming, especially if you think about going out to buy anything just to stage. But that’s why you have people like us. With our experience and full inventory of staging supplies, we can make it really simple and easy. Plus, it’s a service we think is vital to get our seller clients the best and highest price for their home, so we offer it free of charge. If you’re thinking of listing, but still aren’t sold on the idea of staging your home to sell, we’d love to chat about what your unique situation calls for.
Alexandra Visosky, Alyssa Vasey, Constance Guglielmo - Simplicity Real Esate - Staging - Selling - Listing