Why you should stage your empty home

Fri 01 Feb 2019

Charlotte Gill BA HONS MNAEA, Director

Are you thinking about selling an empty home?  Or have you been struggling to sell one?

 

If your empty property is already on the market, has your estate agent suggested that the only way to sell, is to reduce the price?

 

Photographs of empty rooms which only show windows, doors, fireplaces and radiators are not only boring – they rarely encourage enthusiasm in potential buyers.

 

Supplying floorplans with measurements may help those who are surveyors, work in the building industry or are painters and decorators, however, the majority of people cannot visualise measurements and areas.

 

Consider spacial awareness.  How many wing mirrors are inadvertently removed from parked cars because people can’t judge the space accurately between themselves and another vehicle?

 

So visualising areas is a problem.

 

There are also those who cannot imagine how furniture would look within a given space.

 

How many people know the size of their lounge, go and buy a new sofa, the size of which they are given, and get said sofa delivered, to discover it is too big for their room?

 

This is actually more common than you would expect.

 

When one of the national house building companies starts construction of a new development they usually commence by building a ‘show home’.

 

Have you ever visited one of these show homes?  Some people go, not because they are remotely interested in purchasing one, but because they are looking for decorating ideas for their own homes.

 

These properties not only show off the design and layout of the build to their best effect but they also demonstrate ‘life-style’ ideas.

 

Builders do this because it helps sell houses.

 

By furnishing these empty spaces, builder’s demonstrate what the room could look like.  (These homes also look beautiful because the builders employ interior designers to make them look that way) and it helps sell houses.

 

Prospective buyers fall in love with the visual picture which has been created and imagine themselves living there.

 

So, if you have an empty property for sale and are struggling to sell – don’t blame lack of viewings or buyers or necessarily the price.  Buyers simply cannot imagine themselves living there.

 

For example:  We had a beautiful, small, new development for sale and the two and three bedroom properties sold within days of marketing.  The little one bedroomed house seemed to be taking a little longer because buyers couldn’t visualise how they would live in the open plan lounge/diner/kitchen.

 

Traditionally, one-bedroom properties do take longer to sell, simply down to the fact that there isn’t a second bedroom for guests to stay over and it would have been easy to suggest a price reduction – However, the feedback we were receiving was not price related and was just down to people not being able to see themselves living there.

 

We suggested to our vendor we organise ‘staging’ of the property and have our excellent ‘life-style’ photographer work his magic.

 

We worked with our local interior designer, who also made curtains and blinds and provided furniture and decorative pieces, all of which were also available to purchase if required and we agreed the sale 19 days later.

 

Proving the point that ‘staging’ works.

 

If you are interested in ‘staging’ an empty home that you would like to sell and would like us to come round for a coffee and a chat to talk about what we can do to help you, give us a call on 01757 709955.

 

Until next time,

 

Charlotte