Inspired by the article „Staging can unlock a home’s star power for hopeful sellers“
by Caron Golden, the San Diego Union-Tribune
So, you might ask, if we’re in a seller’s market, why bother staging a home?
Why not save the expense?
Realtor Michelle Silverman’s response was quick.
“Because even in a seller’s market, buyers are not visionary.”
Staging can unlock a home’s star power for hopeful sellers
Alex Ryden, CEO of a home staging company with offices in San Diego, acknowledged that while it certainly is a seller’s market, staging is still needed to maximize the sales price.
“It’s actually the cheapest way, the most impactful way based on the price to maximize the sale price of the largest asset you’ll ever own,” he said. “We’re seeing homes that we stage go above asking (price) dozens of times a month. On a $2 million house, that’s a couple of college tuitions right there. You could just lob it on the market and sell it and walk away, but you’ll never really know unless you invest the time and a little bit of money into making it truly stand out, both in how it’s presenting online all the way to in person and having people walk through and say, ‘I need this house.’ Staging is just another tool, another arrow in the quiver to help make sure that it not only sells fast but sells for more than you would have imagined.”
According to a 2020 survey of 13,000 staged homes by the Real Estate Staging Association, 85 percent of staged homes sold for 5 to 23 percent over list price. And, it noted, staged homes sell faster, averaging just 23 days on the market. By comparison, the typical U.S. home spent 43 days on the market last month , according to a report from Realtor.com.
As for return on investment, the staging association survey showed that with an average investment of 1 percent, approximately 75 percent of sellers saw a return on investment of 5 to 15 percent over asking price.
And this was before the market got as heated as it is now.
La Jolla Realtor M. Silverman can easily tick off the various homes she’s sold for which she got more and higher offers because of effective staging.
“There was one home that hadn’t been staged and was listed at $1.149 million. It was old. It was tired looking,” she said. “I took the listing and had it staged. We got 12 offers on it and ended up selling it for just a little over $1.15 million. So, maybe it was just a little higher, but the buyer said they were only going to get $900,000 for the house.”
Home staging is said (by the OG of stagers herself) to have begun in 1972 by Barb Schwarz, a Seattle real estate agent. She told The New York Times in 2016 that, based on her previous theater career, she coined the word “stage” to describe her strategy of fixing up houses for sale. Now, the National Association of Realtors, in its 2021 Profile of Home Staging, found that 31 percent of sellers’ agents said they staged all sellers’ homes prior to listing them.
Staging comes in a few flavors. There’s staging an empty house, staging a home in which the owner is still living, and there’s virtual staging — which has been a strategy used for new developments or empty spaces that just need online photos with a computer-generated interior.
- When there’s nothing in the property, the stager will set everything up — all the furniture, artwork, accessories — and give it a homey feeling. Making it look like people live there so that buyers can get an idea of how they could set it up. They can envision themselves living in the home, which really helps because buyers tend to buy on emotion.
- Staging a home being lived in: the client have some furniture, but maybe some pieces are taken out and replaced with better pieces, and then some accessories, plants, artwork are added that can make the room show better than what the client got.
A conversation will usually take place with the homeowner about what needs to happen to help sell the house quickly and for the optimum price. That includes basic decluttering of personal items — from photos and tchotchkes to pantry items — for at least a few reasons. You don’t want strangers touring your home to get too much information about you and your life. You don’t want your belongings damaged. And you don’t want your stuff to distract them from the house itself.
Sometimes there may also be a need to do some painting and repairs, even cleaning windows — something stagers do not do. Usually, a real estate agent can recommend tradespeople they’ve worked with. Then comes staging. Stagers tend to focus on a limited group of rooms — the living room, kitchen, dining room, primary bedroom and primary bathroom. But depending on the need and what the homeowner wants to invest, it could include other rooms, and even outdoor furnishings.
Many real estate agents have at least one stager they call on, or sometimes more, based on the type of house being sold. Staging companies tend to have their own warehouses filled with inventory and depending on whether it’s a multimillion-dollar estate or a smaller, more accessible family home, that determines what kind of stager will provide the most appropriate vision for the property.
Of course, this is assuming the real estate agent actually does the hiring. But Carol Kaplan, owner and CEO of Everything Creative Designs, a staging company in San Diego, is now finding that a lot of homeowners are now doing their own research, finding their own staging companies. “We get a lot of the homeowners calling us now,” she said. “I think people are now becoming aware that staging’s important and if they want to get the maximum amount for their homes, they need to stage because of the competition out there.”
While some real estate agents build staging into their marketing plan, Kaplan said that the agents are not picking up the bill most of the time now.
“It’s definitely the homeowner that’s picking up the bill,” she said. “The Realtor may pay a portion of it and then get it back at escrow, but I would say that 99 percent of the time, it’s the homeowner that’s paying for it.”
“If your home stands out and your photography stands out on the MLS, there’s no doubt that people are going to want to see that house first before a house that hasn’t been staged.”
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I am a home stager with vast experience in the field, my portfolio includes houses that were sold two weeks after being staged (properties that were on the market for a long time without being sold, due to not being staged and to poor presentation). Do you need help with home staging in Switzerland? contact me, I am just a click away! Carmen Goosmann – shabbynature.com
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