Reading the Real Estate Tea Leaves

If you have considered selling your home, now is the time to get it done. According to a recent report in Domain, real estate investment experts at BIS Oxford Economics say the four-year growth boom we’ve enjoyed in Sydney area real estate is likely to slow. By 2019, these experts predict a reduction in real estate prices to the tune of a full five percent. That’s not good news for home sellers in the Sydney market. If your plans include moving up to the next level of home ownership, acting now could be your best plan of action.

Preparing your property for listing now is your best plan for netting the best return on your real estate investment. It begins, of course, with the decision to sink a bit of money into house styling for sale – money that’s bound to return to you in a big way.

Real estate experts agree that marketing a property in the 21st century is vastly different than it ever was before. Today’s real estate sales depend almost entirely on visual perceptions. Since buyers almost always begin their home search on the internet, the images of your home posted there can make or break your sale. Over 90 percent of buyers evaluate the listings online before they ever call an agent. By the time that selling agent gets the call, most of the homes listed for sale have fallen off the buyer’s list of possibilities. It’s for this reason that most real estate selling agents agree that home staging, or home styling as it is sometimes called, is critical.

Home staging should not be confused with interior decorating. Interior decorating is the process of making a home more like its owners. Home styling is exactly the opposite.
An interior decorator is called in after the sale. The new owners want the house to reflect their personalities and the interior decorator makes that happen. That’s perfectly natural and normal. On the other hand, when a home is listed for sale, the home stylist’s job is to make the home a blank slate upon which new buyers can envision their new lives. A professionally staged home reflects nothing of the seller’s lifestyle, favourite colours, or hobbies. Instead, it’s prepared to be wide open for the potential buyer’s dreams and aspirations.

In order to capture the attention of a buyer, the professional home stager studies the nature and personalities of potential buyers who will be looking for property in the price range of your house. By knowing what they want and how they want it, your stager can tailor your property’s appearance to attract the highest offers in the shortest amount of time.

Given the scientific fact that buyers act on emotion rather than logic, as was previously believed, your property stylist can dress your home in a way that will be irresistible to potential buyers. When they see your house listed on real estate websites, they will include your property on the list of homes they really have to see. When they see it in person, the ‘love at first sight’ factor is bound to kick in and the bidding war is set to begin.

If that sounds just too good to be true understand that statistics prove professionally staged homes often sell for more than the original asking price. They also, on average, sell in a matter of days rather than weeks or months. Professional staging is a service that actually pays for itself.
There is one small complication. New home styling companies are popping up like mushrooms all over the greater Sydney area. This new boom in companies that provide staging services is a natural outgrowth of the real estate market’s need to up-scale the product. Unfortunately, finding the best stager for your property isn’t as easy as popping into the first site you see.

For the sake of your sale, find the best property styling company you can. Experience and longevity are the qualities to look for as you begin your search – find a company with years of hands-on practice at house styling for sale. The sale of your home is probably the biggest business decision you will ever make. With a potential downturn in the real estate world looming, you’ll want to invest in the best to protect your nest egg.