Home selling?
How can you do it faster and earn more money?
Should you leave the home empty you try to stage it, in order to appeal to your potential buyers?
It’s not an easy answer to give, since there are buyers who love to see a home that’s already looking like a home, while others want to imagine their own stuff inside.
What it means to stage a home
If you ever walked into an open house, you might have noticed the interiors look like in the magazines. Perfectly designed interior, decorations that fit properly etc.
Well, in most cases, you walked into a stage house.
There are specialists who do just this: work on your interior and bring in appliances, curtains, paintings, furniture etc. to make it look more appealing to potential buyers.
If you don’t have money for this and wouldn’t want to go through it all, there is some home selling preparation you can do to make a huge difference. If you already have furniture and decorations, why not try and use it to make your home more inviting.
The pros and cons of a staged home
- it can be easier for the buyers to see themselves in your house. For many people, being able to picture their perfect life in a new home can be the deciding factor to buy or not.
- the listing pictures look more appealing – it’s easier to impress with some nice furniture and decorations than just present some empty walls and floors. Invest in professionally made photos, they can make the difference between selling fast or keeping your house on the market for many months to come.
The disadvantages
- it’s costly. To have someone professionally stage your home is costly and you might not have enough room in your budget for it.
- it’s time consuming – all this staging also takes time. The stager has to think about how to properly stage your home, bring in all decorations and put the decor in place, then, it takes time to remove it all.
- it can be annoying to some people. In many cases staged houses look similar and people might be turned off by this ‘artificial’ look.
The pros and cons of an empty house
The advantages
- some people like it like this. It’s easier for them to imagine how their furniture and stuff will look inside.
- clearly, doesn’t cost as much as staging your home. You’ll just remove all the items and, voila!, you have an appealing home
- it shows you have moved out and people can move in as soon as possible. Not all people like to have to wait until the house is really vacant, so an empty house means they can move in faster.
The disadvantages
- an empty home might look cold and uninviting for some people
- defects tend to be more visible with an empty home. There’s nothing to hide imperfect flooring, paint, cracks in the wall etc.
- a high risk of vandals breaking in, if you post pictures of the empty home online.
- some potential buyers might feel you are desperate to make a sale, since you already emptied the house.
What would you add? Have you successfully sold staged homes? Do you feel an empty home sells faster?
