a home that’s always clean and show-ready.
Potential buyers should be alerted that the seller has vacated the house to show it at its best. Otherwise, shoppers might interpret a vacant home as meaning a “motivated seller” who needs to sell quickly. For example, one story told on a real estate online forum tells of a client making an offer of $30,000 less than the asking price, believing the owners might be getting desperate to sell. They were asking $300,000. The buyer was sold on it anyway and would have paid more, but “haggling” began well below what was expected simply because the buyer read the fact that the home was unlived in as a clue to a desperate-to-sell owner. A bit of staging would have made a big difference -- instead of "empty and desperate" it would have been seen as "staged to look its best."
BUDGETING YOUR “BIG PRODUCTION”
When preparing for sale, think of your home as a movie or stage play set, arranged precisely for the intended purpose—to earn you more money on the sale of your home. Your home-staging expenditure might range from 1 percent to 3 percent of the listing price of a home. On the other hand, it may result in selling the house for 5 percent to 10 percent more. That would be a $6,000 investment on a $200,000 home sale, resulting perhaps in an increase of $20,000 in the sale price. A study by Homeagain.com was even more favorable and showed that sellers who spent $500 on staging recovered a whopping 343 percent of the cost when they sold their home!
START STAGING WITH WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE
Often, the trick with staging is to take out, rather than bring in. At base, home staging is about creating more space by clearing clutter, unnecessary objects, or furniture, giving the rooms a fresh, neutral color, and making necessary (and even cosmetic) repairs.
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