Has your house been in the market for sale for some months now, yet you haven’t received any serious or acceptable offers? Or you’ve only had few qualified viewers for it?
Then you need to increase the number of prospective buyers who come to view your house. It could be a matter of setting the right market price or putting the house in the right promotional channel, to capture the right target audience. Or perhaps you need to fix the house’s packaging, i.e. the way you present it to the market. One way to do that is thru a technique called home staging.
Staging a house for re-sale is a popular practice in the US and UK, but is relatively new in the Philippines. Staging is a selling technique to help each prospective buyer imagine as if the house is already theirs. Most home sellers aren’t too keen about this, since it requires a bit more effort and expense to stage a house for sale. What they sometimes don’t realize is that a staged home can encourage more serious buyers to make an offer early on in the purchase evaluation stage, as you make it easy for them to experience how life would be if they lived in your house.
It’s not just cleaning up your house: it’s what you do after you’ve organized, painted, and made minor repairs. Staging is dressing up your house to create an excellent impression, making it lighter, brighter, warmer, so desirable that home buyers want to buy it.
From what I’ve experienced in my many years as a Realtor and property trader, I can advise first time home sellers: once your house goes on the market, you should consider it no longer as just your beautiful home—see it as another house in a list of hundreds on sale daily. It needs to stand out.
That seems like a harsh statement. It’s true that your residence was built just for you, and that your home has been a witness to many, beautiful memories. But though having a good history will be a bonus consideration, serious, critical buyers will evaluate your house first on objective features: location, quality of build and make, improvements made over time, floor layout as suited to their personal living purposes, airflow/cross-ventilation, well-planned storage, intelligent use of natural light sources.
Re-decorate or re-arrange the setting in each area to help the buyer’s imagine as if they’re living in there with their own things in place. Unless you’re promoting it as a knock-down house for developers, refresh the look, feel and smell of your house before your Realtor shows it to the very first prospective buyer. Doing so will certainly help you get the selling price you want for your house.
In the US, people pay professional home stagers. In the Philippines, you may opt to hire an interior decorator or designer, as we don’t have formally recognized professional stagers. But if you want to keep your selling expenses at bay, you may wish to get a friend with a good eye for color and proportion to do it gratis et amore or for a minimal fee. Or if you’re feeling adventurous, you may try staging your own house with a few tips and tricks from us!
What Accessories Do Home Stagers Use?
Home stagers innovate on different materials to add interesting accents to your space. Vision, creativity and a dose of inspiration guide their choices. Here is a small sampling of items professional stagers often use to dress each room : mirrors, plants, silk flowers, floor and table lamps, area rugs, accent chairs, ottomans, pillows and plushies, inflatable queen-sized beds, baskets, plastic tables and chairs. Go to Divisoria or your local fabric supplier. You may find some other items that will stir your designer imagination.
Tips on Do-It-Yourself Home Staging for Sellers
If you have a flare for decorating or have an eye for space, color, and light, invest in a few décor items and try out our tips on home staging.
- First decide on a theme to guide your choice of items for staging the whole house, or for each room: is it Zen, classic, pastel colors, country style?
- Select three of your house’s best interior features or living areas, and focus your efforts on that. Try arranging small attractive items in units of 1, 3 or 5; select the best pieces of furniture you have available in each room, and put in an appealing grouping known as a vignette.
- You may make generous use of soft fabrics such as silk, lambswool, satin. Don’t hesitate to use your shawls with beautiful prints. They can add drama to a sofa or seat, while covering up worn or unattractive backrests.
- Stage your house using the earth’s natural elements:
- Light: Re-discover your house’s natural lighting strengths. Allow as much sunlight to stream in. For evening viewings, turn on lights, re-position mirrors to capture light and reflective lights in strategic places.
- Wind: Open windows or turn on fans to emphasize the airflow and good cross-ventilation.
- Sound: Hang a chime by the window to create tinkling sounds. If you have a portable indoor fountain, put one by in the living room and let the softly running water invite the viewer to relax. If you have a condo high above the city, open the window to let the viewer hear only a soft din of the dynamic traffic—and how far they are from the noise when they’re in your pad.
- Scents and smells: Yes, heighten the viewing experience with scent as part of the production! Schedule to have some sauce or soup on the stove, using these fresh herbs so the aroma wafts in the air. Or buy a ready-made dough for baking, pop in the oven toaster during a viewing, and you’ll have them imagining if it’s them baking the bread in your kitchen.
- Earth and Greens: On a trip to Tagaytay or your neighborhood plant nursery, get inexpensive pots of rosemary, basil, mint, or oregano. Arrange the pots on kitchen sils or island counters. Put flowering plants or succulents in the bathroom. To create a spa ambiance, put red lava rocks or smooth pebblestones in a shallow garden dish, fill with water to cover, then nestle a candle floater or two. You may put this underneath the sink or in a corner in the bathroom. Put a single orchid or bromeliad with a vivid bloom to add fresh color to an otherwise worn bedroom.
And don’t forget to stage the outdoors: stage your garden or your lanai! Trim your lawn, remove dead plants, and cover bare patches with grass or decorative garden stones. I’ve recognized that a buyer forms good first impressions of a house usually when there’s a manicured, landscaped lawn that adds fantastic curb appeal.
After you’ve given your house a new look, take some good photos of it, and advertise your house thru the free Internet ad sites and thru your Realtor. Chances are you’ll get a new wave of qualified buyers in no time!
