Home staging – a way to speed up the sale of your property

Unknown a few years ago, today it is storming the property market.

Learn the whole truth about home staging – is it just a marketing trick? Or a valuable tool that really lets you sell properties faster?

It all began in 1972, when Barbara Schwarz came up with the idea of "staging" the interior of a certain property, as one stages a theatre production (that is exactly what the word "staging" means), and giving it character, class and style by suitably renovating it, cleaning it and decorating it in a way pleasing to the eye.

As it turned out – the house sold much faster than expected.

No wonder. Home staging is nothing other than putting into practice the idea of marketing, which – according to the definition of Philip Kotler, the well-known marketing guru – is "the delivery of customer satisfaction at a profit".

Home staging therefore consists in renewing, renovating and decorating a property – in other words "packaging" it – so that the client feels at home from the doorstep. As a result of what they see and how they feel in the house or flat on offer, they are simply meant to fall in love with it.

Today Barbara Schwarz is a world expert in the field she practically built herself in the United States – home staging. If the statistics on her website are to be believed – she has trained more than a million people (!) in this area.

How does home staging work?

According to research she conducted – suitably styling a property, renovating it and decorating it can raise its value by as much as 10%. If we are selling, for example, a flat for PLN 200,000 – thanks to home staging we can put around PLN 20,000 more in our pocket. It must be admitted that this is a sum that makes a difference.

Moreover, professional home staging can speed up the sale of a property. According to Barbara Schwarz, the selling time is cut by as much as... 40%.

Experience in Poland shows that for smaller properties (e.g. small flats) home staging can literally work wonders. There have been cases where flats that had waited for a buyer for many months, driving their owners to frustration, sold the day after home staging solutions were introduced.

What does home staging look like in practice?

First of all, it is worth taking a look at the furniture inside the house or flat. Often – especially in small spaces – furniture that is too large and badly arranged makes rooms seem cluttered and claustrophobic.

Worse still – it can also block the inflow of sunlight, which makes the interior seem depressing and gloomy. An excess of unnecessary items has a similarly bad effect – needless pictures on the walls, posters, decorated shelves or wall units, flowerpots. That is why the first stage of home staging is often clearing the flat of unnecessary things that spoil its charm, hide its spaciousness and needlessly distract.

The next step is… cleaning and airing the house. It is astonishing, but many people do not come up with this revolutionary idea on their own. Scattered socks, piled-up clothes, an unpleasant smell hanging in the air or even untidy stacks of books can make the flat look neglected and sloppy and put off potential buyers. And yet even when we invite guests, we usually take care to keep the flat tidy. So why not do the same when clients arrive at the doorstep?

Because home staging is by design meant to be a low-cost method, more serious steps are considered only afterwards, such as repainting the interiors, plastering, laying new floors or ripping out old-fashioned wood panelling. It happens, however, that such serious renovation investments are simply necessary – because the overall impression the property makes is dreadful. And it can no longer be got rid of with a skilfully placed rug on the floor or a scented candle.

Fortunately, in many cases these costs can be greatly reduced. The cost of paint, a new chandelier, aromatic oils or plastering over unattractive cracks in the wall is relatively low compared with the real financial benefits gained by the seller. The better impression the client takes away from visiting the property is often the key that opens their wallet.

It also happens that a property is in such poor visual condition that we need a thorough renovation and an interior stylist who will advise how to furnish the flat or house to delight visitors. Contrary to appearances, this is a very difficult task – because most people are already used to quite high housing standards and minimalist little cabinets from Ikea are not enough for them. Sometimes it is worth – at a stylist's urging – investing more boldly, e.g. in a large, old clock or an exceptional, lavish lampshade, which will raise the interior to a higher level of aesthetics, rather than fiddling around buying hundreds of things that will make no difference. The person who knows this best is someone who has already decorated more than one interior and understands how to influence people and their emotions by means of colours, shapes and light.

Summary

So if you have been trying to sell your property for some time, clients come, view it, and then contact with them breaks off – get in touch with me and find out which inexpensive home staging solutions will be the most cost-effective for you.

What home staging solutions do you know? Have you ever tried to implement them? If so, with what result? Share your knowledge in the comments!