The Importance of Home Staging

When we represent sellers, our goal is clear. We want to sell your home in the shortest amount of time for the highest possible price. In order to accomplish this we believe the home must look, feel and show its very best. We want your house to stand out from others on the market. We want your house to be the one buyers see and say “wow” because it has great curb appeal and is comfortable and inviting.

Home staging is the art of preparing a home for sale by making it as appealing as possible to the largest number of potential buyers. This means the home will be clean, attractive, warm and inviting when people see it online and in person.

Good staging leads the eye to attractive features of the property while down-playing any lesser desirable qualities or flaws.

Staging a home can be as simple as de-cluttering or rearranging furniture or moving large items into the garage. We can also hire professional stagers who will come in and “design” how the home should look. They bring furniture, artwork, paintings, accessories, lights, greenery, and area rugs to stage the home.

A national study by the Real Estate Staging Association found that (on average) homes that were staged spent 78% less time on the market than those that were not staged.

If we look at sales data for homes recently sold in Los Gatos, we can see a distinct correlation between list price, market time, and final sale price and conclude that the amount of time a home spends on the market is critical to the bottom line.

The difference between properties that were on the market for 30 days or less and others that spent more than 100 days on the market is disquieting to say the least.

In Los Gatos, houses that sold within the first 30 days sold above the asking price, and homes sold after 100 days sold for only 93.5% of the asking price.

For a house listed at $1.5M that is on the market more than 30 days, this could mean losing out on $78K to $130K! This is WAY more than the few thousand dollars it would cost to have the house professionally staged.

By staging a home, we help to make it look great in person and online. Nearly every serious, qualified buyer will preview your property online before coming to see it in person. Since these “virtual” first impressions are so critical, we feel the property should look absolutely fabulous in the marketing photos and video.