Property staging is the process of presenting your property for sale or for rent in order to achieve the highest return on your investment. You could be a homeowner looking to sell, or a property investor or developer looking to attract new tenants for your HMO or serviced accommodation.
How is property staging different to interior design?
Unlike interior design, which is aimed at a specific client, property staging needs to attract the widest number of people in your target demographic. In summary, you're not appealing to one person's taste, you're appealing to a wider audience! Quite a significant difference.
Having done this for the best part of 20 years, the biggest mistake I see my clients make is thinking about what they like, instead of their potential buyer.
Is home staging worth it?
In short, yes! Staging a property before you sell it makes all kinds of sense. I could tell you that...
Furnished rooms actually look bigger than empty ones
Research shows 9/10 buyers are unable to visualise living in an unfurnished space
Professional staging will give you better photographs that will attract more viewings, stand our from the crowd and improved your portfolio
Professionally staged properties receive higher offers (up to 15% higher!)
On average, staged properties sell up to twice as fast then if they're empty
Staging a property is always cheaper than dropping its sale price
But more than all of the above, it's important to consider why staging is SO effective that in Australia, the first thing people do when selling a property is contact a professional stager, not an estate agent! The real reason is not about stats and figures...
It's because us humans make our purchasing decisions as a result of emotion. NOT logic
I repeat.. .NOT logic (neuroscientists tell us so!). These decisions are made at a subconscious level, and then we justify the emotional signals with logic to back up our initial feelings. And we feel emotion based upon first impressions... ...And we make those first impressions within 3 seconds! So it's really important to nail those first impressions from the outset (you only get one chance) and to make your buyers feel all the positive feels!
Staging is an investment, NOT a cost!
And it will 0.5-1% of the value of your home.
Imagine the scenario: Your property is valued at £500,000. You invest £3,000 getting your property professionally staged. It goes on the market and you receive an offer for 3% over asking price. This means you've made £15,000 more than you'd hoped, and the return on your investment is £12,000. Not bad, eh? The first property I staged for WildKind Interiors is a great example of how the numbers really do make sense:
House value: £200,000
Staging cost: £2,800
Sold for £220,000 = ROI £17,200
This client saw the value in staging her empty property as soon as she knew she wanted to sell. As a result, it had 20 viewings and sold within 2 weeks for a HUGE 10% over asking price.
Here's what she had to say about this great result:
"I cannot thank Louise at Wild Kind Interiors enough! She has been amazing from start to finish, contacting me regularly to organise and select the most perfect products, answering my many questions and keeping me updated with the plan. Her whole team were warm and welcoming and made the whole day of staging enjoyable. She has transformed the house into a home, which I now want to live in!" - Ellie
And it's never too late...
Even if your property is already on the market and it's been stagnant for a while, all is not lost! Staging will ALWAYS be cheaper than your first price reduction.
Curious? Questions? Drop me a line!
Louise