Staging A Home From A Buyers Perspective
One of the current trends in real estate is to ‘stage’ a home when it goes onto the market. This generally involves bringing in a professional stager who will rearrange furniture, perhaps remove older furniture items and replace them with rented furniture, change drapes, add knick-knacks and generally make the home look at its best. This is great from a seller’s perspective, but what about buyers? Does it help or hinder them?
It would probably make an interesting psychological study to see how much ‘staging’ actually influences their decisions. Where staging does help a buyer is that it tends to de-clutter a home, making it easier for the buyer to imagine their own furniture in each room. Where staging doesn’t help a buyer is when it is used to hide problem areas. For example, placing furniture where carpet may be stained.
As a buyer, you can sometimes tell if furniture has been moved around by looking for any telltale ‘footprints’ left in the carpet. If you see them, then you know the furniture has been moved – it often pays to look a little closer to see why. The same can be said for any pictures hanging on walls. If the paint behind is a slightly different shade, then that picture has probably been there for some time. You may consider what the wall will look like once the owners move out and take that picture with them.
Staging a home is a smart way to sell your home. Should a potential buyer be told it has been staged? Perhaps, but ultimately, the buyer needs to imagine the home empty or with their own furniture in place. Staging can often make this a little easier rather than harder and, in reality, knowing whether the home has been staged or not should not make any difference to their final decision.
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May 2nd, 2011 at 5:12 am
As a Professional Visual Merchandiser, I have been called in by Realtors who have had their homeowners try to stage the property, but have fallen short due to lack of experience or have tried to take shortcuts by “hiding” problem areas. I am called to help fix this because of the nature of my job…we speak to sellers about how to best visually merchandise the Best Product they can for sale. Never should Professional Stagers hide stains, cover holes/weak walls, or make any attempt to keep hidden flaws of the home. In fact, my first question to sellers is, “Are there any mechanical, structural or proprty damage/issues that need to be addressed?” Then, when the leaky faucets are fixed, the chimney cleaned, the rug shampooed, etc. and the best product is achieved, we can address how to “appeal visually” to all buyers. That portion is entirely second in my professional visual merchandiser’s arsenal! In fact, many Realtors who hire me to sell are excited to show my staged homes to buyers, as they know I won’t “stage” it until the house is buyer ready…I acually WORK for Buyers Agents! If you aren’t working with a professional stager who is your right hand in Marketing the home, you have the wrong stager! Sincerely, Maggie Kent
May 5th, 2011 at 10:26 am
Another reason to consider staging is the current number of vacant/foreclosed listings on the market. If you own two homes and the vacant home is on the market, people think it’s distressed. Consider the buyer’s thought process (ah, they HAVE to sell!) before leaving a home vacant in this market. It could lead to much lower offers than a home that shows an owner still living there.