Real Estate Talk: Home staging fuels buyers’ imaginations

Marty Kovacs is the 2017 Chairman of the Santa Clarita Valley Division of the Southland Regional Association of Realtors. Courtesy photo.
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Staging a home before listing it for sale enables buyers to envision what’s possible, to see themselves happier and more content in this home than in any other.

That’s why nearly two out of every three Realtors say that staging a home speeds its sale, decreasing the number of days a home sits on the market. It also was a key conclusion in the National Association of Realtors 2017 Profile of Home Staging, available online at www.nar.realtor/reports/profile-of-home-staging.

“Staging can be the extra step sellers take to help sell their home more quickly and for a higher dollar value,” said William E. Brown, NAR president.

Seventy-seven percent of buyers’ agents said that staging a home makes it easier for buyers to visualize the property as their future home, and 40 percent are more willing to walk through a staged home they first saw online.

However, 38 percent of buyers’ agents said that staging positively affects a home’s value if the home is decorated to the buyer’s taste, meaning that a home’s staging should be designed to appeal to the largest number of potential buyers.

Realtors agreed that the living room is the most important room in a home to stage, followed by the master bedroom, the kitchen, and then the yard or outdoor space. The guest bedroom is considered the least important room to stage.

When it comes to paying for home staging, 25 percent of the time the seller pays before listing the home. Twenty-one percent of sellers’ agents will personally provide funds to stage the home, while 14 percent of agents will offer home staging services to sellers.

Beyond staging, agents also named the most common home improvement projects they recommend to sellers: Ninety-three percent recommend decluttering the home, 89 percent recommend an entire home cleaning, and 81 percent recommend carpet cleaning.

Other pre-sale projects include depersonalizing the home, removing pets during showings and making minor repairs.

Marty Kovacs is the 2017 Chairman of the Santa Clarita Valley Division of the 9,600-member Southland Regional Association of Realtors. David Walker, of Walker Associates, co-authors articles for SRAR. The column represents SRAR’s views and not necessarily those of The Signal. The column contains general information about the real estate market and is not intended to replace advice from your Realtor or other realty related professionals.

 

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