The Power of Staging

5 Reasons to Stage a Vacant Home

We've rounded up our top 5 reasons to stage a vacant home!

Staged homes typically sell for more money.

Staging is worth the investment.

We see it work wonders time and again, and we are not alone. According to the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA), sellers who invested 1% of the sale price in staging saw an ROI between 5% and 15% over asking.

For reference, that is between a 500% and 1500% return on investment, or about the amount of money you would have made had you bought Apple stock, five years ago. Think of staging as one of those rare opportunities to travel back in time five years and buy Apple stock, knowing what its value is today.

Staged homes typically sell in less time.

We found the following surveys, conducted by the National Association of REALTORS®, to hold some pretty interesting statistics.

For example, 53% of sellers’ agents reported that staging a home decreased the amount of time the property was on the market, with 22% stating that there were slight decreases and 31% reporting great decreases in the time on market when the home was staged.

A staged property will spend less time on the market compared to an unstaged property. The less time your home is on the market, the higher the chance you will be able to sell it at or above asking price. Survey results validate this: the longer a home stays on the market, the further its price drops. Homes sold in the first month averaged 1% over list price; 1-3 months, 5% less; 4-6 months, 6.4% less; and finally, homes on the market for 6 months averaged more than 10% less than list price.

Staging presents the home in the best light.

A stager is the third party observer arriving at the scene with a fresh perspective, they are professionally trained to enhance your home in the most marketable way possible. Their specialty lies in their ability to orchestrate luxurious and cohesive furniture in a way that can make any space more enticing to prospective buyers.

Although counterintuitive, empty homes feel smaller than furnished homes. Stagers will bring in furniture and accessories that create a new sense of scale for the room.

There is another beneficial optical illusion staging creates- this one more intuitive. When a home is vacant, all of its flaws are on center stage. Staging takes a visitor’s attention away from things that are less desirable and moves that attention toward things that are more desirable.

Staged homes make a great first impression.

Over 95% of buyers, and over 99% of millennial buyers, start their home search online according to the National Association of REALTORS®. One of the biggest influencers in a buyer’s decision making process is photos. Generally speaking, whether or not a prospective buyer decides to view a property is determined by their impression of the property’s photos.

Staged homes are visually more appealing than vacant homes, resulting in more buyers getting a favorable impression from a staged property online. This further increases the likelihood they will want to view the home in person.

When comparing potential properties, staged homes have a competitive advantage against other similar properties in the area. A well staged home stands out both online and in person over unstaged homes.

The benefits of staging extend beyond drawing in prospective buyers through digital channels; staging makes a meaningful first impression in person too. Buyers decide in moments if they are interested in a property or not. Great curb appeal and an immediate ‘wow’ factor when walking in makes the home memorable for buyers.

Ultimately first impressions matter and staging significantly improves this.

Staging allows the buyer to envision themselves living in the home.

82% of buyers’ agents said that staging a home made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

Staging helps the buyer connect with the home on an emotional level and is often the difference between the buyer falling in love with the property and simply being interested in it. Staging showcases the property in an engaging, move-in ready way that makes the home more memorable and the buyer more interested in submitting an offer.

Put simply, with a staged home, buyers can picture themselves making breakfast in the kitchen, or watching TV on the sofa. Without staging, even the most imaginative of buyers will find it more difficult to picture themselves actually living in the home- and without that element, buyers are much more likely to view the property as your empty house, rather than their new home.