So. You’ve decided to sell your Sydney area home. Your selling agent has recommended that you hire a company that offers property styling services, but you are dithering on the decision. You wonder if home staging is something you really need – after all, isn’t that a service that is only for luxury properties? What can it possibly do for your nice but not extravagant house? We thought we might spend a few minutes exploding a few of the most prevalent and totally mythical notions about house styling. Here goes.
Property Styling is for Fancy Properties
Perhaps it’s true that in its infancy property styling was used primarily by developers, apartment complexes, and the occasional movie star. Today though, because property styling has proven itself so completely useful in making home sales both faster and more profitable, most Australian selling agents will recommend that clients invest in home staging.
When we say the word ‘invest’ we mean it. This expense, though generally small and painless, is one that will nearly always come back to the homeowner when the sale is final. A styled property will invariably sell for more than an unstyled home, which more than covers the cost to prepare the house for presentation.
The Market is Hot so Property Styling is Unnecessary
You might imagine that because the real estate market is so active at present that extra attention to your property is not important. That would be an unfortunate conclusion. While most properties will sell faster in a busy marketplace, the fact is that the more buyers there are the more money to be made from a staged property. The more interested buyers there are in your property, the livelier the bidding will become. Attractive properties generate higher bids and more offers for you to choose from. The more attention your property generates, the more money you will have at the end of the process.
Property Styling is Only for Vacant Properties
This is absolutely untrue. If you cannot see your way clear to move out of the property ahead of the listing and bidding process, a home stager can still help you generate more interest in your house. Because a home stager’s job is to help the homeowner declutter and depersonalise a home (among other things), there are a thousand things a property stylist can do for you using your own furnishings and your own décor. The maximisation of your property’s appeal is the primary goal of the property stager, whether you still live there or not.
Is this the ideal situation? Probably not, but a good stylist understands that homeowners have lives and limitations just like everybody else. So a reputable styling company can and will help maximise your home’s potential for sale while you still reside there. The end result will be a benefit to the homeowner in any case.
Home Staging and Interior Decorating are Identical
Nope. Interior decorators transform a house to make it more like the homeowners so that it reflects those individuals and their lifestyle. A home stager’s job is to do exactly the opposite. When a house is on the market for sale, the goal is to make the property attract more potential buyers. A house that is “for sale” must become something of a blank canvas on which buyers can easily create their own image of life and family life. Property styling services serve to create broad appeal and an image more potential buyers can relate to.
Home staging services are part and parcel of making a piece of real estate irresistible to as many potential buyers as possible. Anything that limits such appeal is counterproductive and definitely not on the agenda of a property stylist.
Your decision to hire a company that provides property styling services may be the best thing you can do to make more money on the sale of your home. A property stylist can be the catalyst for a faster and more lucrative sale by making your home stand out from all the others on the market today. If you’re like most Australians, this process is the biggest business deal you’ve undertaken in your entire life, so you owe it to yourself to maximise the ultimate outcome. You do this by bringing in the professionals.
