Posted on January 12, 2015A house isn’t staged to sell the same way it is staged to live:
Staging to live makes the house comfortable, visually appealing and functional for your particular needs, interests, tastes, and lifestyle.
Staging to sell creates an environment that encourages buyers to see the potential of your home to meet their needs and fulfill their desires.
These two types of staging are often in direct opposition to one another, which is why many professional real estate stagers tell their clients that their house will lose 50% of the visible items when staged… especially furniture.
Why? Because space is luxurious. Staging for space will showcase the house – rather than the contents of the dwelling or the personality of its inhabitants. Open space makes a house more attractive to buyers. It tickles their imagination and permits buyers to envision living their lives in this space.
What Does “Space” Mean?It doesn’t mean a huge house will sell faster than a modest one. It does mean that a house crammed full of someone else’s stuff gets in the way of a potential buyers vision of that space becoming their own.
It also doesn’t mean your house should be empty. This can leave buyers uninspired and frustrated because they can’t “see” how their possessions will look in an empty space and the house can appear to be too much work.
Make Your Home Look Like A Luxury HotelIf you think of your home as an extended-stay luxury hotel, you will create the perfect “stage” for your home to sell. In a hotel, you carry in a small bag of personal belongings. Everything else you need is there and no unnecessary items are cluttering up the space.
As you stage your home, ask yourself, “Does this room pass the “Hotel Test?” Can a buyer imagine bringing in a few of their personal items and living here comfortably?” If the answer is yes, you have properly staged your home – and improved the odds that it will sell faster and command a better price.
