Should you Stage your Property?

When you’re selling your home, it’s important to declutter, clean the windows, clean the guttering and do all the things that make your home look well-maintained and smart.

Over and above this, have you considered property staging? This involves making your home more appealing to potential buyers and helping them to envisage living in your property. When you stage a home, you’re presenting a concept to buyers, selling a lifestyle and a home that buyers will aspire to.

When developers present homes to buyers they are inevitably ‘dressed’ with clean, fresh, comfortable furniture, cushions, curtains and blinds, bedding, mirrors, photographs and stylish ornaments.

To do this, you don’t need to rip out the kitchen and bathroom, landscape the garden or build an extension. You simply need to take a step back from the interior of your home and make what can be some simple and affordable changes.

The objective is to make change that will help viewers imagine themselves and their belongings in the space in front of them. By ‘dressing’ the property, you could end up with not only a faster sale but a better return and all for minimal outlay.

Some sellers are comfortable doing this themselves, whilst others opt for a specialist staging company do this for them. The benefit of hiring a company is that they know what works and what doesn’t and can even hire the furniture, soft furnishings and finishing touches to the property.

Recent research from the Home Staging Association when surveying estate agents showed the staggering effects of staging. All respondents believed that staging made it easier for buyers to visualise the property as their own, 84% recommended staging for their clients homes, 94% believed that it increased the number of viewers, 75% believed buyers spent more time in the property for the viewing, 86% believed that a home staged property sold three times faster and 74% believed that the reception room was the most important.

In a slow market, home staging can be very useful as it can help to secure a sale and preventing the need to slash your asking price. It can even push up your asking price.

So how do you go about staging your home?

If possible, make the most of what you have in order to minimise your outlay. Here are some quick fixes:

Update taps and re-grout tiles
Change cupboard handles
Paint the walls
Give each room a clear purpose – for example, turn a spare room full of laundry into a bedroom or study
Tidy the garden and mow the lawn
Place colourful flower pots outside (you can take these with you)
Declutter and maximise the floor space
Clear away children’s and pet toys
Use mirrors to reflect light
Hire a professional company to deep clean
Remove pictures and fridge magnets
Clean windows and tie back curtains
Dress all beds
Set the dining table
Make sure your home has a pleasant odour

When to call in the professionals

If you have a budget and feel that the return could justify the initial outlay, you could hire a firm to do this for you. It’s a great idea if you’re busy or don’t have an eye for interior design and your home has been sitting on the market for a while and needs a change. A professional company will know how to effectively stage each room. There’s no harm in meeting with a company to get an idea of costs and how much they feel needs to be done to present your home to the market.

At Vanilla Square we work with a House Doctor from Sienna Interiors to improve your home for sale. Talk to us today and find out more about dressing your home for sale.

Vanilla Square – highly personal sales! At Vanilla Square you will always be liaising with one of our business partners, which makes our service that much more responsible and approachable. When you instruct us, your property will reach a wider audience as we are one of the few agents who are present on all the major property portals to offer sellers maximum exposure. If you’re looking to buy or sell your property, or you’re simply considering the idea, contact us by calling 0141 229 0210 or pop into our new office at 711 Great Western Road. One of our partners will be delighted to help and provide you with impartial, expert advice.