In a previous article, we have explained what were the most common mistakes when putting a house for sale. Among these, there is the lack of attention that many sellers put into presenting their property. Normally, we use the following example to illustrate this:
When you decide to sell your used car, you will not leave the children's toys or dirt generated by the last visit to the Mc Donalds, on the contrary, it will clean it thoroughly, it will pass products on the plastic parts so that they shine, it will pass the mechanical revision and It will put a subtle perfume. It makes sense, you want your car to look as attractive as possible to get the best price. To sell your house, you must do the same.
Home Staging can be defined as the set of measures taken to organize the object of real estate for its commercialization and to provoke love at first sight in a future buyer. Before starting to detail one by one what these measures are, we want to emphasize one essential point: the investment we will make in Home Staging will always be less than the potential benefit that it can offer us.
But let's see what are the steps to follow and in what order:
Depersonalize: Usually when you walk into someone's house, you can see that their house is like them. The decoration was designed to make you feel at home. The shelves are full of family photos and travel memories, there are accessories for the glory of a favorite football team and the spaces are occupied by all kinds of objects and furniture. These elements make up the personality of your home, and this is likely to prevent a potential buyer from displaying on these walls. The first step is to eliminate all personal items from the field of vision in order to keep only the minimum necessary.
Clear: The second step will aim to optimize the occupation of spaces. A room crammed with furniture does not allow to realize the volume it represents. Therefore, it is necessary to keep only things strictly necessary in terms of furniture to allow the future buyer to have an idea of the volumes and possibilities of the furniture, while giving a sense of fluidity between the spaces.
Renew: One of the most profitable investments, when putting a property for sale, is still the painting of walls and ceilings. A freshly painted white apartment, whatever its age, immediately gives the impression of having been well maintained. The investment in painting always allows a faster sale and a significantly higher price. It goes without saying that the work must be done by a professional because, otherwise, the effect can be reversed.
Clean: cleaning is absolutely essential. When entering a house that shines and smells good, cause a sense of well-being in anyone. During the visit, buyers look in every corner and everything must be impeccable.
Decorate: the decorative elements that we will use for Home Staging pursue the same objective as in the previous steps: create a pleasant feeling of well-being without focusing attention. Light colored quilts, cushions, floral elements, folded bath towels, are just some of the accessories that we can use.
Finally, to complete the picture, it is important to work on the artificial lighting of the house. When not knowing the weather during the visits, do not neglect the importance of investing in some LED bulbs of more than 800 lumens, warm light, and distribute them in the house.
Finally, let's mention the properties that are sold completely empty. This happens when the good is new, for example, when the seller has already moved. In this case, there are cheap solutions in the form of cardboard furniture, which allow us to organize the space so that future buyers can have an idea of the possibilities offered by the house.
To illustrate how effective this action can be in the home, we will give you a concrete example that we deal with in 2017.
An apartment located in Platja d'Aro, the salesman was an elderly man who did not want to go on vacation anymore. The apartment was full of objects and furniture, but had interesting features: two double bedrooms with fitted wardrobes, a nice living room, a large terrace, communal pool, parking and storage. Our first estimate of the property was difficult to reach € 100,000 given the age of the building and its condition.
At the end of the trial period, we asked the vendor to come and pick up everything that was in his apartment and that he wanted to keep, that he would pay us € 3,000 and leave us carte blanche, and he did so.
So we emptied the apartment of everything that was not necessary, keeping only the bed, the mattress, the sofa and the fridge. We completely painted the walls and ceilings in white, changed some parts of the rusted radiators, thoroughly cleaned all the corners and polished the floors. Finally we complete the furniture with cardboard furniture, change the accessories and add some decorative elements.
In this way, we put the property back on the market at a price of 130'000 € and sold it in 15 days for 125'000 €.
Thanks to the Home Staging, and an investment of € 3,000, the seller obtained an additional benefit of € 22,000.
If you also want to benefit from this type of service, don´t hesitate to contact us.