What is Home Staging? Characteristics and benefits

Have you ever heard of Home Staging? This is a rather modern technique that has shaken up the real estate industry over the last years. Read on if you’d like to know the ins and outs of Home Staging.

What is Home Staging?

Home staging is a marketing technique that dates back to the 1970s in the United States as a way to bridge the gap between the overwhelming supply of real estate and lack of demand. It wasn’t until the 1990s that Home Staging made its way to Europe, although in Spain it started taking off in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis: lots of homes on the market, yet little demand from buyers.

What is Home Staging? Now that you’re aware that home staging is a marketing technique, the next thing you need to know is that it strives to make a property stand out head and shoulders from the rest. Home Staging strives to make a property more attractive while making it stand out from its competitors on the market. One of its offshoots is Virtual Home Staging; this entails taking high quality photographs and videos so that potential buyers can view properties remotely. This boosts the chances of a sale going through. 

Giving an apartment a Home Staging makeover entails sprucing it up to make it more attractive to potential buyers. People can imagine what their life would be like living in the fully-furnished property. But be careful; home staging also strives to depersonalise the home, making it more neutral. This is done to attract more potential buyers.

Don’t mix home staging up with decoration. Home Staging entails “setting the stage” so that it looks beautiful and attracts more potential buyers, while decoration strives to make it comfortable for the inhabitants and to give the house its own personality. This marketing technique brings out the property’s strengths and goes for a more universal décor (a one-size-fits-all approach).

How to Stage your Home?

Can you stage your home after renovating an old house? What about after renovating a property? All properties can be Home Staged, as long as specific guidelines are followed. The first thing to bear in mind is that, if the house is empty (whether due to renovation, refurbishment or if it’s a new-build), staging your home means sprucing it up to give it a cosy and neutral vibe. 

For Home Staging you need:

• Fabrics that make the property cosy and let potential buyers to get a feel for the property. This calls for curtains, tablecloths, towels, sheets and bed linen. 
• Show off the rooms at their best as if they’re ready to welcome the new inhabitants. Sofas should have cushions and beds should have pillows. Potential buyers should be able to imagine themselves unwinding there. 
• Home Staging can incorporate real and even cardboard furniture. This gives visitors the chance to get a feel for the full potential of the house and its spaces. 

You’d be surprised to know that Home Staging is part of your day-to-day life, if shopping in furniture and décor shops is your thing. In fact, there are chain stores that assemble the furniture in small spaces, with cushions, bedding and other accessories so that buyers can get an idea about what the room would look like before opting to buy all the accessories on display. 

Advantages of Home Staging and how to go about it

Why is Home Staging a good idea? Give Home Staging a try if you have a new, unfurnished house and you’re looking to rent it out or sell it. Potential buyers aren’t just looking for a house in specific areas of the city and at reasonable prices; there’s also an emotional side to buying a property. 

The goal is to make a good impression on potential buyers and not just on the decision-maker (when it comes to families), but on everyone that could end up living in the property. Home Staging is the property’s business card and has the following advantages:

• It means you can up the price of your property. 
• It gets more people to view your property and, in turn, there’s a much higher chance of a sale going through. 
• It prevents potential buyers from trying to haggle over the price of the property. 
• Boosts the chances of a sale going through. When prospective buyers view a staged home, they can picture themselves living in it so they’re more likely to buy it. 
• It saves the owner money, as the sooner the property is sold or rented, the less money is spent on maintenance and promotion costs on specialised networks and platforms. 

Home Staging doesn’t require major renovations to the property. You can lay out the spaces differently and “spruce up the house” to give it a different look. Nevertheless, personal belongings must be removed if Home Staging is to be used on a second-hand property that’s still being lived in. Everything needs to be neat and tidy so the house looks like it’s ready to be lived in right away. Start by giving it a thorough clean!