In our opinion the answer is YES most definitely if you want to achieve the maximum price for your property!
However whether it’s the right option for your particular situation depends on a number of factors. The main one being whether your property is going to be vacant during the campaign. If so, then it’s definitely worth investing in some quality property styling. Our clients find they are able to recover the cost of styling in their final sale price anywhere from 3 to 10 times over!
Obviously if you have your own furniture, then there is no need. However there is also the ‘partial styling’ option where you can add some stylish pieces to what you already have for a fraction of what it would cost to buy. You may have one or two rooms that need sprucing up, or perhaps need some new artwork, linen and an outdoor setting more suited to the size of your alfresco area. Sometimes your furniture, although extremely comfortable for you, may be too large and overbearing for the size of the space. When it comes to property presentation, less is definitely more and the more floor space you can see, the larger the room will feel.
What are the benefits of property styling?
Home staging has become a “must do” for sellers. We can honestly say from our many years of experience, staged homes sell faster and for more money than those that are unstaged. When a home presents beautifully with tasteful artwork, elegant furniture and cosy cushions and textures, buyers are more likely to imagine themselves living there.
Good styling also shows off the home’s best features and hides its flaws; turns weird spaces into usable spaces; creates a mood (stagers call it “emotional” staging); and makes the home look significantly better in photos.
Property styling has many potential benefits for home sellers, including:
- Expert selections. Using a property styling service allows you to fill your home with furniture, accessories and decor that have been selected by an interior expert. Not only will these items fit the home perfectly and make the most of the available space they will also create the look and feel you want. Property stylists know how to get the best out of an interior and have experience in what it takes to attract more buyers.
- Appeal to a target demographic. Property stylists use their expert knowledge to create a look that will appeal to a specific type of buyer. For example, if you want to attract a young family or maybe a professional couple in their twenties, the stylist can choose furniture and decorative items that will help create an appealing and attractive environment for your target buyer.
- Fill an empty home. Selling a vacant property can be difficult. Buyers sometimes have difficulty imagining how to lay out their furniture to make the most of each room. When it’s already furnished that’s one objection already overcome. Property styling allows you to add warmth and character, helping buyers see the potential for a welcoming home – and not a cold empty shell they would otherwise see if it was vacant.
- Create a great first impression. First impressions are critical when you want to entice buyers to put in an offer for your home. Buying a home is an emotional decision for many people, so if you can create a stunning impression in the first 30 seconds after someone walks through the door they are much more likely to be hooked.
- Stand out from the crowd. When there’s an abundance of similar properties on the market, property styling can help your home stand above the rest.
- Attract more potential buyers. Property styling not only has a positive impact on buyers who are physically inspecting your property but also on people browsing real estate listings online. Beautiful photos of an expertly styled property will attract more interested buyers, which means more people through the door at an open house and a more competitive bidding environment.
- Boost your sale price. The ultimate goal of spending a few thousand dollars (or more) on property styling is to help you sell your home for the highest price possible. We’ve seen many examples of very similar properties up for sale where the unstyled property sells for between 7% to 10% less than the styled property. If that isn’t enough of an incentive to consider styling as an integral part of your sales strategy, then I don’t know what is!
Disadvantages of property styling
The main drawback of property styling is that it’s an upfront cost and doesn’t come cheap. You should bear in mind though that the service includes both the stylist’s expertise as well as the hire of the furniture, so you’ll need to factor this expense into your budget.
Recently, a new category of staging called ‘virtual staging’ has emerged whereby furniture and accessories are digitally superimposed into photos of empty rooms. It’s worth considering for online photos and is a fraction of the cost of actual staging. Engaging photos online are crucial to attract maximum buyer interest in the home. However the use of virtual staging needs to be disclosed on the advert as people can often become annoyed when they turn up to find the property is actually empty and looks very different to the online photos.
Timing is everything when considering a stylist. Spring and the Christmas rush are their busiest times of the year. So if you are considering styling your home it’s a good idea to get started as soon as possible.
If you’re not sure what improvements you should make to your home before selling, book in a strategy call with us today.
If you’d like to learn more about how we help sellers prepare their home for sale, choose the right agent and achieve the highest possible price, check out our FREE Vendor Advocate service CLICK HERE.
