Is staging your home for sale really important?
Yes Yes and Yes!
Just a quick story I remember from a past transaction. Sarah and I listed a home in Menomonee Falls a few years back. It was very small- right around 900 square feet. You walked into this home and it was furnished perfectly. It was straight out of Pottery Barn! The furnishings fit the space and the walls had mirrors to make the rooms seems larger. They were decorated with accents that match the furnishings and carpet. And they had very few family photos that allowed the buyer to see themselves in the space and not the seller.
That home was purchased in less than a month by a woman that was coming from out of state. She viewed the home and loved it and wrote an offer right away. She closed a month later and had all of her furniture shipped to the new home… None of it fit. Everything she owned was too big for the spaces in the home. She ended up having to buy new furniture for almost every room. Why did this happen? Because the buyer fell in love with the “feeling” the home had. She totally forgot to keep in mind what would happen when the sellers’ belongings were removed and hers put in there place.
Is this a good story? It depends on how you look at it! It was truly a bummer for the buyer but she dealt with it. But for the seller who had a home that they knew was small and would have a hard time selling it couldn’t have worked out better! They loved the home and had it decorated the way they liked and in the end it was that sense of space and style that sold there home quickly and for more money then if it was vacant.
The moral of the story is this: people may tell you that you have to stage your home and even more people may tell you that people can see past your belongings. But at the end of the day you’re selling more then just a home when you put your house on the market- you’re selling someone’s dream! And the more you can do to make that dream as visible as possible upon entry, the more buyers you’re going to have interested in your home.
Remember! Clean, de-clutter and de-personalize, and if your real estate professional says your home would benefit from staging by a professional please hear them out. They may just know what they are talking about…
Posted by:
Mickey Koch
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