Sell Well With Styling And Staging

Hi guys, it’s Naomi Findlay here. 

So, you’ve completed the renovation. It’s done – the dust has settled, the tools have been put away; you’ve cleaned up all dust and dirt and the updated kitchen and living space is looking flash. 

Great effort for making it this far! The hard work is over, and it’s almost pay day.  

Now, it’s time to put this baby on the market! All you need to do is hand over the keys and kick back with a hard-earned beer or wine right? Well, not quite… 

Are you going to showcase your hard work as is? Are you going to leave it up to your buyers to picture themselves living in the space? Are you banking on the fact that they will all have big imaginations and a good creative flair to utilise the space how It was designed for? 

Feel free to crack open that beer, but don’t make the mistake of leaving the property sell itself.  

Yes, you probably have a good agent by now who will be a whizz at marketing the property for you. But what about that personal touch? 

What about styling the property? 

Think about it this way: you can either show off the bare space and hope that your target buyers will picture putting in a TV, couch and stylish rug. OR you can style the space and have them skip to the part where they’re actually picturing kicking off their shoes and living in it.  

Would you rock up to a corporate interview wearing a plain t-shirt and jeans? Probably not. Sure, you can wow the person sitting on the other side of that table with your skills and experience, but they will always have that first impression in their head. They can picture your coming in to work in your smart blazer, but wouldn’t it be easier if you just presented that image in front of them straight away? 

First impressions count.  

So how do you create an irresistible and lasting first impression when selling your renovation project? 

Enter, home staging. 

What on earth is home staging, you ask? 

Well basically, home staging is that first impression you give your potential buyers. It that super important preparation stage, the part where you are putting your house up for sale. It’s about giving the buyers a taste of what it would be like to live in the property. 

A few decades ago, nobody worried about staging their home before putting it on the market. It was enough to just revamp the kitchen, give it a good polish and voila! The property was sufficiently prepared to take off your hands. 

These days it’s not enough to just stick up a “for sale” sign at the front and expect your real estate agent to do the rest. In the competitive modern market, home staging can set your home apart from the rest. 

Stand out from the rest of the pack. 

Not to bore you with statistics, but did you know that a staged property will give you between 10 and 15% more profit than a non-staged one? On average, for ever $1 that people like yourself invested in property staging, they got back $20. The numbers talk for themselves.  

It’s the difference between an old black and white photograph, and a HDR colour one shot on the latest DSLR and edited by the pros. 

I can already here the questions in your head: But isn’t home staging going to cost me an arm and a leg, Naomi? Isn’t that the sort of stuff reserved for the high-end luxury market out there? 

And the answers to both of those are absolutely not!  

Now it’s true that styling up your property will cost some money. But skimping on styling and presenting a bare bones package could end up costing you in the long term. 

How? 

Well styled houses aren’t just more appealing in real life. They also look way better on paper – and your buyers are a visual bunch. Their first impression begins before they even walk through the door; it begins the moment they start scrolling through the likes of realestate.com.au and Domain. 

And you know what’s going to happen to an empty home? It will probably just get scrolled past without anyone batting an eyelid. But the home with that shiny kitchen AND a beautifully laid out living area with a couch, TV, coffee table and rug? Well that one will be saved and viewed over and over again. Why? Because it sells the dream, the dream of “come right in and make yourself at home”. 

A well-dressed, sparkling house will attract lots of attention, and will also attract a good pay cheque for you – as well as a quick one at that. 

Home staging will help you sell QUICKLY. 

The last thing you want is your property sitting on the market for ages. 

It’s kind of like leaving fresh bread out for too long; once that freshly baked smell goes away no one is really interested because the bread is turning stale. 

Not only will an older property listing be less appealing to buyers, it will also end up costing you. The longer you hold the property the longer you will have to pay maintenance costs like loan repayments and council rates. That and the fact that if buyers aren’t jumping at your property, it probably means they are waiting around for a discount. And all of these things will eat into your end profits. 

Home staging connects to your buyers on an EMOTIONAL level. 

Remember that emotional connection I talked about in my other blog post? The one where you add natural elements like pops of green and natural fibres to connect with your buyers? Well, home staging is the perfect time to be using those tips – because it is one of the best ways to achieve that emotional connection.  

It’s hard for buyers to picture themselves living in a place that is bare. Sure, the kitchen renovation might be amazing, but if the open plan living is empty, it will make the place look dull – you won’t be showing off your renovation to its full potential. 

Add some plants, a jute rug and some timber furniture, and you’re already well on your way to connecting with your buyers on that deeper level. And we both know that an emotionally invested buyer will mean more profits for you come sale day. 

Home staging can help create a narrative for your home, as well as highlight its potential and appeal.  

It’s the perfect finishing touch to make your renovations stand out. 

 

 

 

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