Why You Need to Stage Your Home to Sell

For most people, their home is the largest asset that they own, and hopefully, you love it! However when it comes time to sell, many people think ‘I’ll let the new people decorate the place, it’s not worth the bother’ – I’m here to tell you, you’re dead wrong about that! Here’s why you need to stage your home:

Image: Garden Trading – Featuring Farringdon Heart and St. Ives Ships lights

If you want to take that next big step, you need to get maximum value from your biggest asset. You wouldn’t put your car up for sale without at least washing it and giving the inside a vacuum, would you? Not if you expected to get a top price for it! So it’s the same with your home. If you want people to fall in love with your home and want to buy it, you’ve got to make it look amazing! Home staging isn’t about interior design, it is about marketing. In order to give yourself the best chance of selling at a top price, you need to stage your home to appeal to as many buyers as possible. Other people need to be able to imagine themselves living there, and most people just don’t have much imagination!

When you stage your home, you have to put yourself into the buyer’s shoes; what are they looking for in a home? For example if it’s a home that might appeal to young families, then that’s what you should present to buyers. Highlight the family living spaces and the backyard. Make it easy for them to visualise themselves in the space – or how they can make the space suit their needs. How you actually live in the home and how you present living in your home, are two different things!

And it’s not just me saying this, surveys of Real Estate Agents and Property Developers internationally consistently say this too:

The UK Home Staging Association noted that in 2020:

  • 71% of respondents stated that Home Staging increased the number of viewings a property received
  • 75% of respondents stated that compared to other similar properties, staging increased the offer value
  • 51% of respondents stated that staged properties sold twice as fast as non-staged properties.

Similarly, in the US, the Real Estate Staging Association 2020 report notes that:

  • 85% of staged homes sold for between 5-23% over list price
  • With an average of 1% investment in staging, 75% of sellers saw a 5-15% Return on Investment
  • Staged homes sold faster, averaging just 23 days on the market.

With stats like that, can you afford to not make an effort when selling your home?

From my own experience of selling properties I have a whole host of staging tips to share! I have also created a FREE downloadable room by room Home Staging Checklist, to help you on your way! Simply pop your email into the form below: