Why should I stage my home for sale? Is it REALLY that important?! Is this another sales scam?! I know those thoughts because I’ve asked myself those same questions and believe me, if there wasn’t value in home staging, I wouldn’t be doing it.
Think of it like this: You currently own a car that you’ve had for the past 12 years and you’ve decided that it’s time to treat yourself to something new. The one you currently have is still a reliable, dependable car – you just think it’s a good idea to treat yourself now that you’re an empty nester and the kids are doing fairly well with their own lives.
For the next step you decide to sell your car and place an ad online to see if you get potential buyers. Upon placing the ad, do you take photos of the car as is or do you have the car professional cleaned and detailed before taking photos? If you’re looking to sell the car sooner rather than later, it works to support your efforts by having the car professionally cleaned and detailed.
Home staging works the same way – you’re literally preparing your home so that someone else can visualize their family living in it and an impeccable presentation will excite them to take action and make an offer now rather than later. I’d like to share a few stats from the National Association of Realtors 2019 profile of home staging:
At the time I wrote this article, we were waiting on the numbers for 2020 and I'm sure the COVID-19 pandemic is causing a delay with results. If those numbers aren't convincing enough, I'd like to share a few more reasons why home staging is extremely beneficial to sellers: Buyers get the impression that the home is well taken care of, possible increase in appraisal value, and agents love to show a home that is staged.
When your home is staged, there's no running around and trying to make it look pretty before a showing - it's already well-presented and ready to show.
Ready.Set.STAGE!