What is Home Staging?

By josephine on Nov. 11, 2008.

What is Home Staging?

Home staging is the act of preparing a private residence prior to going up for sale in the real estate marketplace. The goal of staging is to sell a home quickly, and for the most money possible by making a home appealing to the highest number of potential buyers. Staging focuses on improving a property to make it appeal to the largest number of buyers by transforming it into a welcoming, appealing, and attractive product for sale. Many people believe that staging raises the value of a property by way of reducing the home’s flaws, depersonalizing, decluttering, cleaning, and landscaping. For vacant homes, staging furniture is used to create a living space the buyer can “see” themselves living in. Properly executed staging leads the eye to attractive features while minimizing flaws.[1]

Staging has been a powerful tool I’ve used for many years in the industry. It wasn’t until the 1990’s that staging was adopted by other professionals in the interior design industry. In fact, today there are companies that are solely dedicated to providing staging services.

I firmly believe that staging may help reduce the time a property stays in the market prior to getting sold.

Once you hire a real estate professional to sell your house, he/she should be able to provide tips and assistance when it comes to staging. So keep in mind that it is greatly advantageous to hire a realtor with staging experience.

For all do-it-yourselfers out there this might even turn out to be a fun project that will lead to a great result, but if you decide to do it yourself, have your realtor walk around the house once you have completed the work and get his/her opinion. The reason why your realtor’s feedback is of great importance is because she/he will not be attached to personal items around the house that you did not want to remove, nor will she/he know of your history with a specific piece of furniture that should have been removed and you kept for sentimental reasons.

According to www.StagedHomes.com, a leader in home staging services, statistics show an average of a 3% minimum increase in final sales price on homes that had been staged, versus those who had not. On a $300,000 home, that’s a $9,000 increase-and well worth the home staging fees.[2]

I would like to invite you to look at the next video of a recent 20/20 broadcast on House Staging. This is a perfect example of what you need to do with important tips to keep in mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TykoFulayAc&feature=related

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_staging

[2] http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/wiki/home_staging_pricing.asp