The National Association of Realtors® conducted it’s first national home staging study and the results could quite helpful to investors looking to improve the total price and speed with which they sell their properties. The report highlighted, among other details, that buyers tend to pay 1%-5% more for a staged house and that they generate an offer 10% faster than a non-staged home.
What do Realtors feel about staging? Of the participants surveyed, nearly half (49%) believe staging a home usually effects the buyers perception of the potential home. The other half (47%) believe staging only sometimes impacts the potential buyer and a mere 4% sided with no impact.
How does staging make an impact on a potential buyer? Most Realtors sided with the positive impacts of staging. The vast majority (81%) agree staging helps the potential buyer envision the property for sale as their future home. Staging has a better chance of attracting the buyers, who saw the home online, to go walk through the home (46%). When staging a home, the decorations will never appeal to every buyers taste. However 45% of realtors say if the décor does appeal to the buyer, it has a positive impact on the value of the property. Where as, 10% say if the décor is uninviting to the buyer, it could have a negative impact on the value of the home.
Realtors believe that buyers tend offer 1 to 5 % more on the value of a staged home (37% Realtors representing sellers, and 32 % representing buyers). A smaller percentage agreed the value increases 6-10%. Of the realtors surveyed, 62% offer staging services to sellers. There are circumstances (39%) when the seller pays for staging before the home is listed for sale. 34% of realtors stage all home for sales, 13% stage hard to sell homes, and only 4% stage homes with a higher price tag.
As a homeowner or investor, if you cannot afford to stage the property ($675 is the median cost spent on staging a home) there are several steps you can still take to make the property appealing without forking out cash. Staging isn’t the only determining factor in a homes value, even though realtors agree they see change in value a buyer will offer for a staged home compared to not. One of the most important ways to keep the home appealing and attractive is to remove clutter! Get rid of excess belongings that could make the home look dirty or smaller than it really is. Keep the home clean. If you can stage even just a few rooms- in order these were chosen by realtors to be the top rooms to stage. Ranking the living room number one, followed by the kitchen, master bedroom, dining room, and then the bathroom.
The 2015 study concludes that it’s more beneficial to the seller to stage the home, for the slight increase in value, potentially seen by the buyer.
Real estate investors must also weigh the costs of staging before immediately jumping head first into a full house stage. The typical cost can run thousands for a really good home staging service. So if the house is being sold for $80,000, the costs of staging may not outweigh the potential upside. However, as the sale price goes up, the better an investors chances of financially benefiting from staging. Using the 1%-5% figure, if a $500,000 house is about to be put on the market for sale, if the staging service charges $2,000, then even at 1%, the potential gain is $5,000 and far outweighs the cost.
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