Are you struggling to get a good price on the sale of your empty property? Ever thought of maximising your sale with home staging? Creating show homes in empty properties is a concept tried and tested by larger UK developers. It has now become increasingly popular with smaller developers and with landlords selling ex-rental properties. The fact that viewers nearly always want to buy the staged ‘show home’, often including all the furniture, speaks volumes. Here are five reasons why home staging maximises the sale of empty properties:
1. Size can be an optical illusion
Empty rooms look smaller than rooms furnished with well selected and placed furniture. The eye is drawn to focal points in the room so having more focal points will make the room look larger. If the only focal points are the walls, they will look closer together. That is why it is often hard to see how a bed can fit in even good sized room.
2. The challenge of making sense of empty spaces
Viewers often find it difficult to make sense of empty spaces, to envisage whether their furniture will fit or how best to position it. This is particularly true of open plan living spaces where viewers can often struggle to imagine where to position their furniture and how the space will accommodate everyone’s needs. Home staging with carefully placed items shows buyers where the furniture can go. It helps buyers to imagine your property as their new home.
3. We buy with our emotions
For most home buyers, the decision whether or not to view and buy a property is based on the emotional pull and feel of the property. Empty properties usually feel cold and uninviting and it is very difficult to imagine them feeling any other way. A buyer is more likely to request a viewing when they see an image of a beautifully furnished property than an empty one. And they are more likely to want to buy a property that looks aspirational and feels like a warm, inviting home when they step inside. Buyers want a home they can fall in love with. The better it feels, the more they will fall in love with it. And the more in love they are, the more they are willing to pay.
4. No place to hide
In an empty property every minor defect is on full display. Few people live in a perfectly immaculate home and we don’t normally expect the property we are buying to be blemish free. But with no furniture or accessories, every minor fault could take on major proportions. Home staging isn’t an attempt to deceive the buyer, rather to show the property’s true potential. Particularly for the sale of empty properties, staging with well placed furniture and warm colours and textures will draw the eye away from the weakness and focus on its strengths.
5. Time to stand out from the crowd
With the completion of new builds in London at an all time high and a swathe of empty properties competing for buyer attention, it’s no wonder the show homes are the first to go. With so many similar properties on the market, it’s more important than ever to make your property stand out from the crowd. Buyers are looking for aspirational homes, homes that promise the lifestyle and luxury they dream of. The more luxurious, the more they will want to see themselves living there.
Don’t take our word for it. There is a plethora of evidence that home staging is particularly advantageous in the sale of empty properties. Take a look at the Real Homes article on home staging and the Home Staging Association facts on the benefits of home staging.
Janine Shalev is a professional property and home stager at JS Property Staging based in North London. She transforms empty properties into spaces that prospective buyers or tenants would love to call home. Call or message Janine if you would like to discuss home staging tips and strategies for your property.
More to read:
Moneywise – Is professional home staging worth the cost?