What Home Staging Will . . . and Won't . . . do when Selling Your Home

More and more home sellers are becoming aware of home staging in Calgary, AB. I get calls all the time from people checking into it for the first time. Surely, a lot of the HGTV type shows have contributed to this awareness.

Through my own real estate experiences, I became a big believer in the power of Home Staging! However, it will not sell a home all by itself when there are other factors working against the property.

Below is a quick list of what Staging can and can not help with when selling your home:

Home Staging will:

- Give vacant rooms scale and purpose

- Help distract the buyer's eye from minor flaws in the home

- Elevate the perceived value of the house a little!

- Contribute to a more updated feel for the home

- Help assure a buyer that the home has been well maintained

[Photo should go here . . . but I can't upload due to too many Proxy 502 errors!! Please use your imagination of a lovely bathroom with towels rolled within an oblong glass dish with a wide black ribbon around it . . . beautiful toiletries . . . and a luxurious hand towel.]

Home Staging will not:

- Help a home seller pass an inspection report

- Distract the buyer's eye from major problems with the property

- Put the home into a whole different price category, or compensate for overpricing a home

- Get a seller out of having to thoroughly clean the property

- Hide holes in walls that a home owner doesn't want to fix (especially when it means hanging art in an awkward place!) -- similar comment with rugs and flooring!

- Make the photos look better when the photos are of poor quality

- Make up for not using the MLS service.

[Photo of some dowdy bathroom with a gaping hole in the wall that would require hanging a picture dangerously close to the toilet paper roll -- off-center, of course.]

Home Staging is not a singular solution. It is part of a marketing plan that requires a multi-faceted approach -- correct pricing, proper preparation, selecting the right Agent, having good photos and an inviting atmosphere.

That being said, skipping the Staging/Styling/Preparation part of the home selling equation, is leaving money on the table from the home seller's perspective!

For anyone experienced in real estate transactions, you'll know that it is nothing for a deal to go $10,000 either way -- or more. And usually, it depends on how emotionally attached the buyer is to the home. Staging is the best way to create that emotional attachment with what I like to call a "lifestyle story".

To get the highest price possible in your area . . . in the shortest amount of time (and time is money!) . . . know your market, do your "home" work, and Stage that house!