Staging Leads to Picture-Perfect Homes and Quicker Sales

Five years ago, real estate agents had to explain home staging to potential home sellers. Today, the concept has caught on.

With an average of eight homes for every buyer in the Twin Cities area, according to the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, a house that looks it best has a much better chance of selling. A thorough cleansing, decluttering, and packing away personal items to make a home appear more appealing to strangers can only go so far when the goal is to sell it. In today's market, a house needs to stand out from the scores of others.

When selling a home, professional home stagers can offer invaluable advice that could move it faster, even at a higher price. They can help sellers pick the right colors to paint their walls and tell them what might be detracting from a house's internal appearance. Professional stagers can even bring in items artwork, area rugs, sofas, pillows, and more to emphasize a home's special features.

Staging is not decorating. It's depersonalizing the home so a buyer can imagine what it would be like if they moved in. Most people don't have the time or knowledge to give their homes a generic look that is also inviting. A stager can help. A range of services are available, from a written consultation that lists repairs and changes that a home seller can make all the way to a whole-house makeover that could include rental furniture.

Of course, those services come in a range of prices as well, from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. But home owners may be able to recoup most of the costs if staging helps their home sell more quickly and without a significant reduction in price. If the market stays as competitive as it is now, more sellers in the future will likely employ the skills of stagers to stay competitive.

Once a home looks its best, professional photos of each staged room take marketing the home to the next level. Staged photos on an online real estate listing can vastly increase its initial appeal to potential buyers, making them want to see more. That leads more people to view the property in person, which leads to possible offers.

Home staging is a must in today's market. In this case, though, a little investment can go a long way towards selling a home more quickly and at the right price.