If your real estate agent suggests staging your home before selling, but you have misgivings about it, you may want to reconsider.
After all, some buyers who home improvement TV shows have influenced may arrive at your home with high expectations.
Staging makes it easier for them to visualize your property as a future home and may help you get a higher offer. For example, 20% of buyers’ agents said that staging a home increased the dollar value offered by between one and five percent, compared to similar un-staged homes.
In addition, sellers’ agents say having photos (89 percent), traditional physical staging (44 percent), and videos (44 percent) for their listings were much more or more important to their clients.
That’s according to the 2023 Profile of Home Staging done by the National Association of REALTORS® Research Group’s Research Group.
Here are some additional takeaways.
Home improvement shows have had a definite effect on the home buying and selling processes, and 64% of respondents to the NAR study said buyers were disappointed by how houses looked compared to homes they saw on TV shows.
Other effects TV home improvement shows:
- Unrealistic expectations/increased expectations (73%)
- Higher expectations of how homes should look (55%)
- More educated home buyers and sellers (26%)
In addition, staging can cut the time—either slightly (27%) or greatly (21%)—that your home sits on the market.
Still, you don’t necessarily have to stage the entire home. For buyers, it’s very important to stage the following:
- Living room (39%)
- Primary bedroom (36%)
- Kitchen (30%)
Staging guests’ (9%) and kids’ bedrooms (10%) are the least important for buyers.
In addition to staging, you can improve your house’s appearance with some DIY projects. Among the top home improvement items agents recommend to sellers before putting a house on the market, include:
- Decluttering the home (96%)
- Doing an entire home cleaning (88%)
- Removing pets during showings (83%)
- Getting professional photos (73%)
- Making minor repairs (72%)
- Carpet cleaning (71%)
- Depersonalizing home (65%)
If you’d like to learn more about how we can help! Feel free to reach out!