Staging your home for sale…should you do it? It’s a short question with a longer answer. We’ll address this as the article continues.
People can be amazingly objective when it comes to other people’s homes pointing out design mistakes, questioning their paint color choices, and criticizing their furniture. However, I have to be very careful and delicate when I ask clients, “What do you think about staging your home for sale?” So, what do YOU think about staging your home for sale?
If you read my other post, Getting Your Home Ready To Sell, you already read that I show and sell a lot of property. I watch what buyers are looking at, saying and not saying when I tour them through homes. You may be surprised to hear me say that I believe buyers spend more time looking at your things and are more influenced by your decor, cleanliness, organization, and how you use your spaces than they do looking at the actual home itself. I see buyers who are completely blinded by someone else’s furniture, decor and sense of style in good ways and bad ways. I’ve had buyers who have given me drop dead, line in the sand, must-have lists prior to showing them property or told me that they will only consider homes that feed into one particular school, only to completely forget their drop-dead, must-have’s for a beautifully decorated or new construction model home. Even when I remind them that the home lacks what they stated were their most important must-have’s, they abandon the list for the new home/nicely decorated home.
On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve had buyers turn and walk out of homes with unpleasant smells (food, animal, and strong, artifical perfume/home sprays) and barely walk past the front door before turning and leaving. I’ve had buyers who, unknowingly see the exact same model home in two different communities hating one and loving the other; the only differences being decor, furniture, paint colors, etc. So, should you stage YOUR home?
When it’s time to bring in the photographer and welcome home buyers to see your home read, Preparing For Photography and Home Showings.
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Call/Text Laurie: 239-216-0641
Email Laurie: LaurieAlbanos@kw.com
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Living in Our Homes
Everyone’s home should reflect their own taste and sense of style. When you’re living in your home, it should feel like YOUR home. This may be bright and colorful, filled with patterns, sleek, modern furniture, family heirlooms and antiques, walls lined with family photos and memories, etc. It should be undeniably you and what makes you happy and comfortable.
Most people, including me, do not live in homes that are ready to list for sale. My brand new family room sectional is slightly too big for the space. I have three kids and we like to entertain. The sectional is the center of my home so I want it to be big and roomy with enough space for everyone to stretch out and relax. I’m living in my home, not selling it.
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Are You Selling YOUR home?
As mentioned, a home for you, should reflect YOU. However, when you choose to list your home for sale we need to change the language and thought pattern. We are not selling YOUR home, we are selling the buyer THEIR home. Your home is now a product for sale. Though it can be difficult, it’s time to emotionally separate from where you live. The memories furniture and décor will follow you to make new memories at your new address.
We want to transform the home into a place where potential buyers can see THEMSELVES. Your product needs to appeal to the masses. You’d be surprised to know how many buyers can’t see past paint colors that don’t match their taste let alone whole homes filled with furniture and décor choices that don’t match their style. I’ve had buyers turn and walk out of a home showing simply because they didn’t like the smell from last night’s dinner or because it had strong pet odors!
Creating spaces That Appeal to the Masses
New construction model homes are a great example of what today’s buyer wants and you should take the opportunity to tour some. Model homes are professionally decorated with popular colors palettes, current furniture styles meant to fit the size and space of each room, and appropriate, non-personalized accent décor.
When staging your home, we want to bring it back to a more neutral state so that anyone coming in can see themselves, their furniture, their style, and their family in the home. Sometimes it’s as simple as deep cleaning, de-personalizing and de-cluttering. Sometimes it only requires fresh paint or a change in paint color. What do you think your home needs?
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What Happens During Staging?
Should we decide staging would be beneficial, my staging team will come tour the property and determine what type of staging is needed. Sometimes the team and I are able to use the homeowners furniture, just rearranged and sometimes reduced, to stage the home. In most cases, we’ll ask you to change all of the lightbulbs in your home to the highest wattage, white bulbs to make an instant difference (Click here to refer back to my article, Getting Your Home Ready To Sell where I discuss the importance of lighting) In other cases, painting may be recommended. And, sometimes we will have you put your furniture into storage and we will bring in new furniture to stage key areas of your home. This is not meant to be insulting or judgemental, so please try hard to not take offense when these suggestions are made.
Homeowners, myself included, buy furniture to fit the home we’re living in but we often keep much of that furniture as we move from home to home. When this happens, the furniture we have doesn’t always fit the space we’re using it for. The staging team will correct this. I have a kitchen table that I love too much to get rid of. It’s in perfect condition and was custom made. It doesn’t properly fit the area in my current home (I bought it in my last home). You have to do a bit of twisting to get to the seats at the backside of the table. When I am ready to sell my home, I’ll stage that area, but I will continue to live with my table while I’m in the home.
Styles and colors change over the years and though you may still love the furniture you bought five or ten years ago, it may no longer fit current styles and trends. Staging isn’t a judgement on you or your style, it is an attempt to appeal to the widest audience possible.
How Staging Changes the Appearance of Your home
Painting the interior of the home, for example, may be recommended for many reasons. First, it may be recommended to match current trends. Second, a new color may be recommended for the purpose of brightening the space and/or to make it appear larger. Third, the smell of fresh paint sends the message to the buyer, whether consciously or not, of newness. Further along in this article you’ll see amazing examples of before and after photos showing how paint color can change an entire space!
As I may have already mentioned, I show a lot of property and I can tell you without a doubt, that buyers spend more time looking at people’s things then they do the layout and design of the home. Is your home boring or plain? Does it lack upgrades? Is it mostly builder grade finishes? These are all things that staging can help with. Basically, it draws the buyers attention away from what’s lacking. Staging a builder grade home with fashionable furniture that fits the room well and matches current styles and trends, can give the illusion that your home is more than builder grade.
Staging is also done to make sense out of confusing layouts. As I show property I’ll often listen to conversations of buyers trying to figure out what a space was intended for. Staging takes the guesswork out of the equation. An overstuffed room filled with mismatched furniture may be turned into a functioning office space or a playroom for children. An empty area in a bedroom might be turned into a reading area. In the photo below, an awkward empty space was turned into a writing/office/studying area.
Additional Reasons for Staging
We don’t just use staging to accentuate the best parts of your home but we also do it to detract from things that could be viewed negatively. As you see in the photos below from a condo I sold recently, the office corner is where the cable/wifi company decided best placement for wires and cable boxes….um why?? This was not a pleasant sight but we were stuck with it as it was. We’re not hiding it from potential buyers but we’re certainly doing our best to draw attention elsewhere.
Smaller scale furniture can be used to draw attention away from lower ceilings. Heavy curtains can be removed from windows to brighten a room or make it feel less dated. On the opposite end of the spectrum, sometimes curtains, hung high on the ceiling and wider than the window, can be added to make the ceiling feel higher and the window appear larger. Lighting should be added to make dark areas appear light. Again, none of these things are meant to trick a buyer; they are meant to accentuate and draw attention to the best parts of your home.
In the photo below, you’ll see a home I staged and sold recently. In the first photo you’ll notice the home had dark floors, dark cabinets, dark furniture and golden brown walls. In the second photo you’ll notice we added light color furniture, light color area rugs, and painted the space. Do you think it was worth it? Ironically, my home organizer was there working on a closet at the same time. She came out and complimented the chandelier we had added. We hadn’t added the chandelier, but with everything else going on in the room, it was previously unnoticeable!
I’m hoping I don’t need to point out which were the before and after photos above. What a difference, right? The ceiling looks higher, the room looks brighter, the whole mood of the room has changed! With lighter paint, high wattage, bright white light bulbs, and lighter color furniture, the before unnoticed chandelier, now draws your eyes up to notice the stunningly high, coffered ceiling and is now the centerpiece of the room!
Below, are the before and after photos of the kitchen in the same home. The counters were cleared, areas were uncluttered, over cabinet decor was removed, the space was painted with a lighter color, and high wattage, bright white light bulbs replaced what was there originally.
This next example was of a vacant home I was hired to sell. We removed the dated curtains which had been hung too low. We added light color furniture, new lighter color paint, and (again) high wattage, bright white light bulbs! The home went under contract within two days and sold substantially over asking price! When I sent the owner photos of his listing, he said he didn’t recognize the house at first!
Staging to Show Functionality
I had visited the decorated model home for this particular home back when the community was being built. The builder called the room below a flex room – basically a huge laundry room with added cabinets, a craft island, and built in desks meant to use for homeshooling, homework, crafting, etc. It was an expensive and coveted upgrade. After years of living in the home it became their storage area. We turned it back to what had made this particular model so popular.
Additional Before and After Examples
What Are You Thinking Now?
Would staging your home for sale be beneficial? Remember, you are not selling your home, you are selling the buyers their new home. You are creating a product that appeals to the masses.
Looking at the before and after photos I’ve offered, would you be willing to pay more for one than the other? Would you be more likely to buy one than the other? Could you get more money if you were staging your home for sale?
Please take a look at my other article, Getting Your Home Ready to Sell for more valuable information and some more before and after transformations!
Would you like to find out what your home could sell for? Call/text: 239-216-0641 or email me: LaurieAlbanos@kw.com.
This article was written by Laurie Albanos, PA, GRI, REALTOR, located in Naples, Florida serving Naples, Bonita Springs, Estero, Fort Myers and Marco Island, Florida.
Final Photo Thoughts
What do you see when you look at the room above? Are you noticing the beautiful crown molding? The built in bookshelves? The enormous picture window? The flawless wood floors? The millwork around the fireplace? Or are you noticing, and not liking, the home’s decor?
The room above has very expensive millwork done around the fireplace along with built in bookshelves. Did you notice the unique ceiling work or the rustic wood floors? How about the beautiful trim around the door? OR, are you looking at the furniture and decor? The most beautiful parts of this room are not shining through!
Here’s my last example…hopefully by now I’ve made my point. The first photo is the original. For the second photo I used an online color replacing tool and virtually painted it a lighter color. How do you feel about the first photo vs the second photo? What do you think it would look like with trendier furniture?
Be sure to read my other article, Getting Your Home Ready To Sell.
Then, when it’s time to bring in the photographer and welcome home buyers to see your home read, Preparing For Photography and Home Showings.
