Why it’s more important than ever to consider home staging in this changing property market
According to the 2014 NAR Highlights from the Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 92% of prospective home-buyers are jumping online to search for homes. WOW – that’s a lot of potential eyes looking at your listing, so you want to make sure that yours has a point of difference.
It is no secret that the property market is starting to slow down. Properties are taking longer to sell or prices are being reduced in order to sell. While the competition has always remained rife within a hot property market, it is actually more important than ever to make sure that your property listing stands out within a cooling market.
Think about it – if the market is slowing down, and buyers are becoming increasingly more hesitant to hand over their cash, you will need to put in a little extra TLC to ensure you are selling the home’s entire lifestyle, not just the four walls and the roof!
Indeed, you are selling a home, not just a house – and in this blog, we wanted to outline the reasons as to why you should consider getting a professional in to help stage your home, in preparation to sell in this slowing climate…
A staged home will capture attention online
A beautifully styled home could make all the difference between those potential buyers who are enticed to register their interest online, or whether they quickly hit that ‘exit’ button and move onto the next listing.
When you hire a professional to stage your home in preparation to sell, the stylist will curate the property with the specific intention to draw the eyes of a prospective buyer. They will adopt industry specific techniques in order to work their magic, adding proportion, texture and ambience to every room they touch.
This will work to create a beautifully stylised and professional looking home which will look wonderful in your listing’s photos. With 60% of buyers spending their time viewing the photos over reading the property description, you will need to make sure that your property is visually styled so it gains the online attention it truly deserves.
Phone photos aren’t enough
If you haven’t already done so, make sure you read our blog on the importance of professional photography and how it goes hand in hand with home staging. Any quality home stager will tell you that gone are the days of snapping a few images of your home on your phone, and uploading them to your online listing. Professional property stylists will work with experienced photographers in order to ensure that your first impression counts when prospects stumble across your listing.
Quality content is king when it comes to your online advertisement and this is particularly important in a market which is slowing down.
You are selling a lifestyle
Selling a house is not as simple as placing an advertisement online, closing your eyes, crossing your fingers and hoping for the best! After making a strong first impression with your beautifully styled property and professional imagery, you will need to foster an emotional connection with prospective buyers. Consider what you want your home’s story to be. The layout of your home and the quality of the images will all come together to help narrate your home’s story to its prospective buyers.
Is your home the perfect space for a young couple wanting to raise their family? Perhaps it’s the ultimate bachelor pad for a busy professional? Maybe the home is the ideal property for a mature-aged couple who are looking to downsize and retire?
Whatever it is, the home will need to convey the very lifestyle of your prospective buyer to suit their aspirational needs. If you’ve nailed this correctly, even within a cooling market, you will certainly be enticing buyers to register their interest. If they can envisage their lives within your beautifully styled home, they’ll be wanting to snap it up before anyone else does!
Home staging is an investment…
… and the ROI is high! Staging is generally cheaper than your first price reduction, so instead of dramatically reducing the price of your listing to get prospects to buy, why not get it right from the onset and spend some money on professional styling? This will actually add value to your property, so you won’t have to reduce the price – rather, quite the contrary. The benefit is that staging gets buyers through the door after your online listing has left a lasting impression. No doubt, a poorly presented property won’t attract as much attention because if you don’t care about the appearance of your property, why should anyone else?
In a cooling property climate all these small things add up to set your home apart from the rest on the market. If you’re serious about selling in a challenging period, you should be giving yourself the best opportunity at doing so. In the scheme of things, investing in home staging is actually a small price to pay, given the opportunities and value it presents.
Right At Home Staging know how to style to sell according to your buyer demographic and we have quality photographers on hand to help with your imagery. We are always happy to answer any questions you may have about how home staging can assist you in selling your home, so don’t hesitate to get in contact today!
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