The Amazing Value of Staging
INTERIOR DESIGN AND HOME STAGING
Transform your home-selling experience.
You might be wondering, why bother with staging? There’s already enough going on with the process of selling your house—staging seems like just another burden.
The reality is, staging brings significant value to your home. It can help your house sell faster, make it stand out online, and even increase the amount your home sells for.
The magic of staging is that it allows potential buyers to see your house as a home, rather than just an empty shell. With stylish furniture and tasteful décor, your home will feel revitalized. Staging helps your home feel bigger, cleaner, and more organized—creating an overall inviting ambiance.
There are a number of similarities between staging and interior design—which is why we branched into both—because they both boil down to making a home feel like a beautiful and inviting place to live.
So how can staging transform your home-selling experience? Let’s dive in.
Anyone’s welcome.
If you haven’t moved out yet, you might be wondering why you can’t just use your own furniture and decorations during an open house. And you absolutely can! But professional staging takes it to another level.
Instead of a home that’s distinctly you—with your photos, furniture, unique tastes, and personality written on everything—staging creates a homey but depersonalized look so that anyone can imagine themselves living there. This makes it easy for potential buyers to picture themselves in the space.
Staged homes also don’t have to face the compromises of regular life. Gone are the piles of shoes near the front door, the overflowing closets, the messy laundry rooms, and pet food that always falls out of the cupboard. Rather than showing the messiness of real life, they show an ideal of how we wish we could live. What might be possible.
It’s like a breath of fresh air.
And that breath can make all the difference with potential buyers. When they walk in the house for the first time, they encounter a believable, attractive, and welcoming space that they could instantly see themselves living in. That creates a strong emotional connection.
No more pinching pennies.
This is the big one. One of the big resistances to staging is the cost, and yes, staging can be expensive. But in the long run, staging is actually likely to make you more money.
Based on studies by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), a staged home can increase offers by 1% to 10% more than a non-staged home. Another survey from the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA) reported 85% of staged homes sold for up to 16% over their listing price. There’s a clear jump in offers for beautiful homes that are ready to live in.
We’ve seen this in action during our recent work in Vancouver. This condo was newly renovated and listed for an ambitious selling price, and located in an older West End highrise. After staging, the condo received multiple offers in the first weekend on the market and sold well over list price.
Turn off the timer.
Staging doesn’t just make you more money—it also helps your home sell faster. The same study by NAR we referenced earlier showed that home staging greatly decreased the amount of time a home spent on the market. Another study from the RESA found that staged homes spend 72% less time on the market.
We consistently see that buyers are more interested and more willing to make an offer on a home that they can immediately see themselves living in. By selling faster, your home avoids the pitfalls of staying on the market for a long time—and dropping in price as a result.
We worked on a condo in Coal Harbour that was having trouble selling. It sat on the market for months, listed with the previous owners’ furniture in place, but no one was biting. The owners eventually moved out and decided to try staging. We stepped in, cleared everything out, staged the home, and relisted it. The result? An immediate sale.
Clear in your mind’s eye.
Staging helps potential buyers imagine themselves living in the space, but it goes deeper than that. By having furniture in a home, they can get a much better sense of the house’s scale and picture how their own furniture would fit.
Empty rooms tend to look smaller than they actually are, so having intentionally placed furniture will help show your home in the best light. In a NAR study, 82% of buyer’s agents said home staging makes it easier for potential buyers to visualize the property as their future home.
Staging also shows creative ways to use the space. If the house has an unusual layout, that might be a deterrent to potential buyers if they can’t imagine a way to place furniture. But if it’s staged with interesting and useful layouts, they’ll be inspired and even excited to try something similar with their own furniture.
Let’s make a splash online.
Maybe it’s because of Instagram or AirBnb, but we love seeing a beautiful home fully designed online. An empty one just isn’t as exciting. It’s difficult to judge the size of rooms and imagine what might be possible in the space, and buyers are more likely to scroll past your listing.
A home with a strong online presence will attract buyers before they even see it in person. Instead of getting lost in the sea of online listings, it will stand out and pique interest. You’re also more likely to get visitors who are genuinely excited to see it in person because of the impact it made online.
Many people know within the first few seconds whether they’re interested in a house or not—so let’s start them off already excited about the property.
Extra perks? Yes please.
If you still need convincing, there are even more benefits to staging. When DEKORA stages a property, we offer all the furniture for sale with the home. If the buyer has their own furniture, we can empty the home for them, but if they fall in love with the look, they can buy the property exactly as-is.
We just saw this happen with a recent property in Brittania. The buyers weren’t even in the market for a new house, but couldn’t resist falling in love once they saw the fully staged home. The final product was so stunning that the new buyers bought the complete package, furniture included!
And the best part? Staged furniture is practically new. While it has been used to stage properties, it has never been used by a homeowner. We have used beds, couches, chairs, and much more that have never been slept in and rarely sat in. If the buyer likes a few items but doesn’t need the entire set, they can also buy it directly from us without having to go out and find it.
Staging takes a home from good to show stopping—and increases your chance of selling fast and for higher value. Get in touch if you’re ready to transform your home today!