Over the past several months, we ran a home staging poll on several factors Toronto and GTA house and condo sellers consider when deciding whether or not to use a professional home stager and what is important to them when they select a home staging company. We will have future posts related to different aspects of the home staging poll findings.
An overwhelming number of those polled agreed that the better a home looks in photos, the better potential it has to sell for a higher price. When a home is staged, it can be shown in its best light. When a staged home is professionally photographed, the property can be properly showcased. Many potential buyers search the internet for available homes, and when they look at different sites, such as the MLS site, they are much more likely to be more interested in properties that look great in the photos. If they are interested in a property, they are more likely to attend a showing. When a potential buyer attends a showing, if the property looks great and looks like the photographs they have already seen, a connection to the property is more likely to be made. When potential buyers see a home in its best light, they are less likely to haggle over the price.
Although some people feel they can stage their own home, it is important to realize that a professional home staging company understands what needs to be done in order to make the home appeal to a broad range of buyers. While you can do many things yourself, you don’t have the background or experience that a professional home stager has. The bottom line is that you are moving out and the only thing that matters is what potential buyers think about your home. Professional home stagers know what buyers are looking for, so they are more likely to be able to make the home show itself off to its best advantage.
Once you realize the importance of using a professional home stager, the next step is choosing the right one. As you can see from the chart, home and condo sellers felt that the most critical factor is experience, closely followed by the company’s knowledge of the current real estate market. Price is also important, but must be looked at in terms of its impact on the selling price. For instance, if you save $300 by going with a lower priced home staging company but the results are poor and you must drop the selling price by $10,000, you have made a bad trade-off.
Your home is one of the biggest investments you will likely make, and you want to maximize its equity when you are ready to sell. In order to make the most from your sale, you want to work with professionals, such as home stagers, that know how to get results. Doing it yourself may end up costing you quite a bit in the long run. A good rule of thumb is to plan on investing approximately one percent of your home’s selling price in the preparations necessary to sell the home, including home staging. If you invest in other preparations and try to do the home staging yourself, you may be shooting yourself in the foot. Typically, selling price reductions come in increments of $10,000. Your relatively small investment in a professional home staging company can potentially bring you a very large return that will definitely be worth it. Click here for more on why home staging is worth it.
We hope that you have found the results of our home staging poll insightful.
