Home staging is often an under-considered option but can take a sale from good, to exceptional. Local expert Keith MacDonald shares his knowledge about the value of staging your home for sale and creating a strong first impression.

Home staging is part of our real estate toolbox and can be a real eye-opener for clients during the sales process for its positive and transformative effects it can have on your overall marketing campaign, elevating photographs and other marketing materials. Staging a home is the opening of an additional avenue to draw potential buyers into your home and have them interpret the home at its best and see its maximum value.

 Staging is a cooperative process between you and your agent. By curating items and furniture to suit the style and functionality of a home you can unfold the story your home tells and what feelings it evokes to anyone stepping inside. Older homes also benefit from gaining some renewed energy with a gentle push of modernisation to get their aesthetics on show and in turn build an expressive and emotive story.

Staging can transform your property from drab to fab, and widen the sales band as a broader demographic will imagine themselves living and enjoying life in your curated space. Hence, the value increases as well as the competition for it. This is one of the better investments to help obtain a premium sale price. Selling faster and selling higher is a winning formula, within reason. We want to attract more enquiries, viewings and multiple offers.

A common concern is that your home is dressed for a significant investment, for a short period, but what’s not often factored into this criticism is the comparative value of your home against the investment of potentially increasing overall value by staging it for buyers. Your home needs to be at its best when it makes a first impression and you don’t often get a second chance to make a good first impression, particularly with real estate.

An impressive example of staging’s benefits was provided by Bindi Norwell, previous Chief Executive of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand. Two identical properties (4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, same CVs) were sold just a few days apart from each other. The one that was staged sold for $100,000 more than the other.* 

We are in a more balanced market in Christchurch now and understandably, those looking to buy at the minute are proceeding with care as money for many people is tightening around developing economic circumstances. Despite this, staging needs to be a considered option for sellers and viewed as a valuable investment to get your property across the line competitively, and I recommend it to everyone selling.