January 4, 2011

You Have Eight Seconds To Capture Their Attention

by Connie Williamson

Eight seconds is all a seller has to make a good impression for their home. From the moment the potential buyer steps into their home, the homeowner helps form the initial impression buyers get and this is the impression the crucial future decisions are based upon. This is how important home staging is.

Home staging is a process whereby professionals enhance the look of a home in preparation for a sale. Despite the simple sounding process, there are many complex techniques involved in trying to stage a property for sale. The simplest methods would be to de-clutter the home and to depersonalize it so that it does not showcase someone else’s lifestyle and personal tastes. Fixing the small repairs needed around the house, like broken door knobs and slanted pictures, and rearranging furniture are all part of the home staging process.

It’s possible for the homeowner to ‘do up’ the home staging him/herself but it can be more challenging for them to do so than a professional. The removal of personal elements from the home in order for it to look “neutral” can be difficult for people who have been living there for years. When you have emotional ties to a home, it’s hard to change it in an effort to make it look different and impersonal.

In other parts of the world, home staging may not be part of the normal process but for those in the UK, US and Canada, it’s common for sellers to employ the services of a home staging professional before putting the property up for sale. Home staging is done so that the property can fetch a higher pricing in the shortest period of time. A study was conducted in the US to gauge the effectiveness and importance of home staging and the result was staggering. The studies concluded that when a home is staged, it tends to reduce the time it stands listed in the market by 50% and increases the price of the property by almost 15%!

While finding a home stager is not difficult, sellers have to be particularly careful about whom they engage. There are no industry standards as far as home staging is concerned and there are no regulations or official bodies governing the industry. Therefore, the professional home stager that the seller engages would have their own personal tastes and preferences that will eventually seep into the final end-result. Much of the decision-making process would have to depend on the experience and style of the home stager.

A professional would have his or her own ideals on how to make the property more likely to sell or fetch a higher price tag but the general rule is to try to make the home look more spacious, cleaner and neutral. Comfort and calm is also the kind of impression home stagers try to give potential buyers.

While home staging works best in luxury homes, even small apartments and condos benefit tremendously from home staging – in fact, we would go as far as to say that small spaces need home staging more.

This article was provided by Serenity Redesign. For more information on home staging please visit Serenity Redesign at www.serenityredesign.com, or contact Serenity’s home staging expert, Connie Williamson at (780) 417-9521 or [email protected]