You’re ready to move forward, and are about to bring your apartment to market. Exciting, crazy times, certainly now. Lots of questions about how to prepare. I have had to go through it myself, and am always trying to view the world through a seller’s eyes. I recently read an article about staging your apartment. The question is “Should you stage it or not?” The article goes on to talk about the importance of the staging the master bedroom closet, some of the pitfalls of things stagers have found.
My bigger takeaway was that the article doesn’t do enough to get very clear with sellers. WHY should you stage? And what’s really going on in the minds of buyers when they walk through. Further, the thrust of the article is that there’s something wrong with how you live. That your kids can’t be kids. That you’ve gone and lived your life and it’s horrible!
Let’s step back from the precipice- No need to stress you out further. Staging should make you feel good about the whole process of gearing up for a change. So let’s talk about the top 5 reasons why staging makes incredible sense. All of them are psychological, all helpful- to you and your buyers- to get the best buyer at the best price, as quickly as possible:
Let’s Start With YOU
First, as a seller, you’re planning to make a big move! Staging is helpful in many ways, but certainly it is about your mentally preparing to sell your apartment, when you begin to see your home again as an apartment- or a home for someone else. This includes decluttering, throwing away things that you’re not really going to want to use or keep in your new home, and all of this is psychologically powerful stuff. Very good medicine for you to gird yourself for what is inevitably a stressful time.
Let’s Put on A Party Dress! Maybe not this one, though…
Seeing Your Apartment Through the Eyes of a Buyer
Staging is all about helping your buyers see themselves in your apartment. The process of having your home feel like their home begins immediately, right then. Through staging, you are then curating what you think was best about your home, and without words, communicating that to your buyer. Staging can be as simple as removing your photos. Or as intense as moving out and moving in new furniture. At its core, it’s about your buyer envisioning themselves living in a new home- yours.
Having More Than Enough Storage
Closets don’t need to be perfect, but they will certainly communicate one of two things to a buyer- The first is that there is more than enough storage in this home for me. The second, which you want to avoid, is that there isn’t enough storage. Cleaning out your closets, allowing there to be room inside to look around, sends the psychological signal that there’s enough space in the home for their things. This is critical. Impressions are everything.
I Don’t Want To Do Work
Especially Today, buyers do not want to do any renovation. While staging isn’t renovation, it can include painting. And what staging usually does is help a buyer see what the “final product” of an apartment can be- and often helps a buyer be less overwhelmed with any work to be done in the apartment- EVEN IF THERE IS WORK TO BE DONE. Staging is magic medicine- providing vision when most buyers simply don’t have it. If you want buyers to focus on home, and not the cost of renovation, invest in staging.
The Facebook Approach
Life doesn’t have to stop when you begin marketing your apartment. But your apartment should communicate to the world in the same way that your Facebook feed might- in essence, I am encouraging you to use staging to make your home into its own “Highlight Reel.” In this sense, you are living as you normally do, but you’re communicating your “best selves” to the potential buyers, which is all about inspiring your buyers.
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In the end, nothing is wrong with your apartment. It is perfect for at least one buyer, and we are simply helping you squeeze your apartment into its cutest party dress! Your apartment is going to the Prom, and wants to be Prom Queen. And staging makes this happen. If you’d like to learn more, please contact us for a consultation. Thanks! -Scott & The HRT