How-To Guide for Sellers: Should I Stage My Home?

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How-To Guide for Sellers: Should I Stage My Home?

Should I Stage My Home?

Those thinking of selling their home often ask us, “Should I stage my home before selling?” So we thought we’d take some time to answer this question in-depth. If you’re wondering the same thing, then keep reading as we explore some of the pros and cons of staging!

   

Before

After

Before

After

What IS Staging?

Clean Up and Clean Out

It can be as simple as clean up and clean out, to renovations and moving in furniture. The basics start with cleaning up and clearing things out. And a seller can often do that themselves. Our team recommends sellers start at the street. Take a look at the house and determine if the yard needs clean up, trimming, weeding and/or bark. When a buyer pulls up to a house the first impression is set. Even just mowing and edging the lawn makes a big difference.

We have an investor that we work with often. He buys near tear downs, fixes them up beautifully, taking lots of pride in his quality work, only to want to put the home on the market without mowing the lawn. I have to remind him all the time that marketing a house without a mowed lawn is like trying to sell a dirty car. It has to look pretty if you want to sell it for its true value.

Clearing Out Clutter

The second low cost aspect of staging is clearing out clutter. I ask sellers to remove the knickknacks and family photos, clear off the counters and the refrigerator, and put away anything else not needed for daily living. It’s important that the house doesn’t feel too personal, otherwise a buyer will have a harder time envisioning it as their home.

Once those two things are done, I recommend having a stager come out for a consultation. Often, the only step needed is to move some furniture around. Most people don’t need to bring anything into the house, they just need a strategic eye to show them how to make the home appear more inviting with their own furniture and art. Many of my sellers employ this low cost method.

Vacant Home Staging

But sometimes the seller has already moved out of their home and there isn’t anything to stage with. In this case, we highly recommend having a stager bring in furnishings and art work. Stagers are specialized in turning cold spaces into warm and inviting rooms that buyers would love to spend time in – and that sells houses.

Should a seller stage their home before selling? My team specializes in selling homes that were on the market previously with another agent and the home didn’t sell. Often we find when analyzing why the home didn’t sell, is that it wasn’t staged and therefore did not show in it’s best light. We have our stager come in and do her magic, and not only do we sell it, we sell it for more than when it was listed before and it didn’t sell.

To Stage Or Not To Stage?

The answer to this question is simply, yes! Many years of working with both buyers and sellers have sold us on the importance of staging their home. Sellers will always, at a minimum, make their money back and sell faster than if they hadn’t staged. Often times, we’ve seen the house sell for tens of thousands more than it would have had they not staged. Yes, you read that correctly – tens of thousands!

For these reasons,  we believe the question is not should I stage my home, but how should I stage my home? There are several aspects to staging, and one home often requires something different than another. The price range and comparable sold homes play a role as well. There is no need to over-stage a house if the return isn’t going to be there, and on the other hand, it’s important to compete with other homes in the neighborhood if a seller wants to get top dollar for the true value of their home. To lay it out simply, we’ll start off with the cons of staging and follow up with some pros.

Cons:

  1. It often costs money up front to stage. Although, when a seller works with our team, the staging payment can be moved to the time of closing so the seller will have the proceeds from the sale to pay the stager when their home successfully closes.
  2. It takes time. It will add a few days to the roll out of a listing going live on the market.

Pros:

  1. It will photograph better and therefore look better online, setting you apartfrom other listings.
  2. The home will attract more buyersto your door for showings.
  3. Staging shows the possibilitiesof the home and shows how the spaces can be used.
  4. A staged home feels warmerthan a vacant home.
  5. A staged home will sell soonerthan the competition’s home that isn’t staged. And in a buyer’s market, it sometimes is the determining factor of whether it sells at all.
  6. Most importantly, the home will sell for more moneythan it would have if not staged!

When Staging Isn’t Needed:

With that being said however, there are circumstances when a seller should not stage their home. These are listed below.

  1. The house is a tear down and the marketing position will be all about the value of the land.
  2. A buyer is already lined up to purchase the home for top dollar, and the home will not be going on the market.

We recommend having an experienced agent come out and take a look at your home, offer you advice on what will make you money and also where you could be wasting your time and effort. My team offers a free, no obligation consultation that will help you best determine where to put your time and money, or if there’s anything that is even needed. Once we come out, you’ll have a plan in place for your next step to selling your home for the most money.

So that’s it! Thank you for taking the time to read our blog and we hope you found some value in this article. If you have any questions about staging, or general listing inquiries, please contact us at the number below.

 

Sarah Robbins and Associates

253-470-8163

33434 8th Ave S
Federal Way WA 98003

www.washingtonhomelist.com

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