When you have lived in your home for several years, you become accustomed to it having a certain layout and appearance. However, you need to consider that potential buyers may prefer the interior of your home to look a different way. This is the reason that 82 percent of sales agents representing buyers recommend home staging and state that it helps clients sell their homes faster.

What is Home Staging?

Home staging refers to arranging furniture in your home and removing most personal effects to allow potential buyers to visualize themselves living there. As a home seller, you want to make buyers feel at home and not like they are visiting someone.

People who attempt to stage their own home in preparation for a sale often make the mistake of leaving too many personal items on display or showing their home with completely bare walls. Real estate agents do not recommend taking either approach. By hiring a professional home stager, you get advice from someone who has helped many people sell their home before you.

Tips for a Successful Home Staging Process

The first step in preparing your home for showings is to schedule a consultation with a home stager. On the day of your appointment, the professional home stager will complete a walk-through of your home and recommend how to set up each room to look as attractive as possible for buyers.

Be sure to complete a deep cleaning of your home or hire someone to do it for you. Homeowners sometimes overlook this step after spending hours positioning their furniture and props exactly right.

Make sure your home has a pleasant aroma on showing days. This is especially important if you have pets, since you do not want any odour they leave behind to turn off potential buyers. Investing in a few scented plug-in candles should do the trick.

Consider the budget and lifestyle of your prospective buyers when completing your home staging. If your home and most other homes in the neighbourhood are upscale, you will want to avoid used furniture and accessories that obviously look worn. For homes or condos within a business district, avoid choosing staging items that appear too casual, like a beanbag chair.

When in doubt, minimize. Keep in mind that the goal is not to fully furnish the rooms as if you were selling the property as-is. The idea is to improve your home’s aesthetics and make it appear as welcoming as possible to people who might make it their future home.

Home staging consultants make recommendations to clients verbally as they complete a walk-through of their home and provide them with a list for reference. Consultants typically do not involve themselves in moving furniture or other tasks necessary to transform the home.

What Are the Benefits of Home Staging?

The National Association of Realtors reported in April 2021 that sellers who invested in home staging received offers one to five percent higher than sellers who did not stage their home. Another key finding was that 70 percent of homebuyers think quality pictures and videos, along with the ability to view homes virtually, is more important now than before the coronavirus pandemic. Slightly over 30 percent of realtors stated that staged homes spent less time on the market than non-staged homes in 2020 and early 2021.

Work with a Real Estate Agency That Does the Staging and Renovations for You

Homeowners sometimes consider doing renovations to their homes as they prepare for home staging. Many sellers realize that updating certain areas of their home would bring them a higher sales price but lack the funds to initiate the process.

Griffin Group, an Oakville, Ontario, real estate agency, does things differently from the rest. We finance the cost of home renovations ourselves, receiving repayment when the home sells. There is no risk to you since we never bill you for the renovation work directly.

We use a four-step process to renovate and sell your home at Griffin Group. First, we identify potential areas of renovation that will increase your selling price. Next, we provide you with selling estimates for your home before and after renovations. We then complete the renovations or hire qualified contractors to do the work. Our real estate agents stage your home in preparation for showings as part of this process. The only thing left to do then is sell your home.