Should You "Stage" Your Home Before Listing It For Sale

Many residents of Sarasota Florida and the surrounding towns are just now beginning to consider selling their homes. There are few homes or the market causing prices to rise for the past several months so fewer people are "under water" on their mortgage and thinking maybe now is the time to move to that bigger home, or maybe even to downsize into a home more suitable to the empty-nester phase of life.

You may hear several different versions of most important thing or things you should do to make your home as attractive as possible to potential buyers. Some Realtors will tell you to remove all the wallpaper, change the paint colors to more neutral colors, get rid of the personal photos, unclutter the kitchen and baths, and more. But in today's real estate market, there's another important approach to selling you home that is worth considering.

While it didn't used to be true, most Realtors today believe that one of the most important, if not the most important thing you can do to improve the probability of a successful sale of your home is to "stage it." It has generally been known that it is difficult to sell an empty home. Most people have difficulty envisioning what a room will look like furnished with their furniture if it is empty when they see it. Almost as bad as an empty home, is a home with either way too much or too little furniture, or furnishings that aren't "right for the buyer you're trying to attract."

This is where a professional "stager" makes a huge difference. These are people with extensive interior decorating skills and experience who can make your home as attractive as possible to potential buyers. Most good Realtors can put you in touch with a professional stager if you don't already know one. Yes, it will cost you some money to have your home professionally staged. But, at least in my experience, a well-staged home not only sells faster; it sells for a higher price than an unstaged home.

Will you get enough more for the home to cover the complete cost of the staging? That is a hard question to answer. There is ample evidence that staged homes sell for 10-15% more on average than empty homes. They also sell faster and for a higher price than the average home where the seller is as unaware, as most of us are, of what makes a home optimally attractive to buyers.

So, if you’re considering selling your Sarasota Florida home or condo, and particularly if it is either empty or your furnishings look "more yesterday than today," you definitely should consider having it staged before you list it.