Four Really Bad Staging Decisions
Real estate is an intensely personal experience for many buyers and sellers. After
all, a home, at its core, is a personal expression of a homeowner’s entire life
wrapped inside four walls.
And while buyers should ultimately be more focused on the “bones” of the
home—the things that will stay after the current owner has vacated—staging
can often be the difference between a buyer bonanza and a dearth of hot
offers. Don’t let your sellers suffer at the hands of poor staging.
It may be challenging, but a little tough love now, will make for enormous joy
post-sale. Here are 4 significant staging sins sellers make and how you can avoid
these pitfalls before it costs them a deal.
1. The ‘Lived-in’ Look
When a home is being shown for sale, it must be immaculate every single time
it’s being shown. It should look like no one lives there: no toothbrushes, curling
irons, protein shake mixes or paperwork laying around. Is this difficult to keep
up? Absolutely. But you’d be surprised at how bad an impression just a few
personal toiletries or dishes can make.
Recommendation: You need to understand the importance of a flawless
showing. Set up a system for putting everything away and wiping down all
kitchens, bathrooms and other daily mess hot spots every single time the home is
going to be shown.
2. Closet Cramming
Out of sight is not out of mind when it comes to showing your house. Home
buyers today are as desperate as you are for storage space and will always
open those same, crammed-tight doors in an effort to evaluate how the home
ranks for storage. Beautifully organized closets with ample room create an
impression in the buyer’s mind that they, too, can have an orderly life in the
home.
Recommendation: View the whole process of staging as an opportunity to sell,
donate or throw out things you no longer need. Even huge closets, if crammed
to the gills,
3. Failing to Stage for All the Senses
A house that smells like pet mayhem or cigarette smoke or has a noisily
defective heater or air conditioner is a tough house to sell, no matter how
beautifully it is staged. Unfortunately, smells and sounds are very easy to get
acclimated to, when you live with them. Buyers, though, will detect them the
second they walk in—and the moment they do is the moment they experience
“turn-off time.”
Recommendation: Don’t be oversensitive to this topic and don’t be offended
when your agent says something to you. There are ways to deal with these
problems—and it’s important to do so.
4. Not to Stage At All
Ultimately, the most shockingly bad of all staging decisions is the surprisingly
frequent decision not to bother staging the home at all. As a result, lovely homes
with vast potential end up selling at a discount. This is a particular tragedy in
cases where the owners could have painted, spruced, moved loads of things
out and a few newer things in and made much, much more money on their
homes—no discount required!
Recommendation: If budget is a concern and you don’t want to bring in an
outside expert, just have good, honest discussions with your agent who can help
you through most of these issues. Focus on de-cluttering and small accents or
paint, which can make a big difference on a dime.
The post Staging Sins To Avoid When Selling Your Home appeared first on Clay Stapp+CO.