Homestaging - Staging of a Property

Homestaging - turning the home into a stage - staging a property

For occupied properties, it should be noted: they are often characterized by the owner and do not appeal to the aesthetic sense of the general public. Between aged furniture and rooms cluttered with knick-knacks, which may serve more for function than for well-being, the prospective buyer cannot find any space for themselves and their needs. They may be overwhelmed by the chaos, even if it is just a messy kitchen in which their beloved kitchen appliance mentally finds no place.

In contrast, through home staging in a vacant property, using high-quality and/or tasteful furnishings that meet current trends and sparse decoration, a feel-good atmosphere can be created that allows the buyer to feel at home there. Many people can only grasp the size of a room and understand the proportions through furnishing, even if it is as sparse as a sofa, for example. Many people also have difficulty imagining how to fill an empty room with furniture and give it a function, and therefore need inspiration on where and how something could be placed. The effect of the design works subconsciously.

The summary for both of the above variants: the house is not sold!

Homestaging is a marketing tool to promote the sale of residential properties through professional redesign and depersonalization of the property or living space.

When taking stock of the property to be sold, one should not shy away from small repairs: refreshed parquet flooring reflects incoming light much more, and descaled taps allow the water jet to come out straight again, while a rotten garden gate and broken roof tiles emphasize the decay of the house.

The sense of smell can also be positively impressed: the scent of freshly brewed coffee positively awakens the senses of the prospective buyer, while a clogged and old drain pipe spreads its mustiness in a small bathroom and causes the nose to wrinkle in front of that room.

Through these measures, which also include my favorite method, namely decluttering and tidying up, the value of the used property, but also that of an unoccupied new build, can be increased so that the property can be sold or rented for the highest possible price.

Since one becomes blind to renovation and change needs in living spaces even after longer occupation, there are now several ambitious homestagers or interior designers in every major city who have completed seminars at private academies and specialize in the sale of real estate. But also committed real estate agents attend these seminars in order to be able to sell slow-moving properties.

After a redesign, the property is best staged effectively by a photographer so that professional photos positively attract potential buyers to the property.

Price-wise, one should budget 1% of the estimated sale price for homestaging. If one foregoes the services of a homestager, it is not uncommon for the property to have to be sold for 10% below its actual value. With a €200,000 property, you can invest €2,000 or sell for €20,000 less.

It is like with a used car: a recently conducted inspection as well as thorough exterior and interior cleaning, possibly with paint and plastic polish, can also bring several hundred euros more here.

From my point of view and experience, it strongly depends on the interested party. A "Schrottimmobilie" may attract more interested parties, but the property usually does not get sold, whereas a new build or a solid house in a sought-after location is always easy to sell if the price is right. HS is primarily interesting for vacant old buildings, where one can distract from things that have aged somewhat. For example, terrible tiles or partially faded parquet no longer look as bad when most of it is covered by a carpet or similar.

I think that staging can distort the actual condition of the property for sale. Especially here, I see a few "traps" that potential buyers could fall into. To achieve a higher purchase price, HS in my opinion conceals what the buyer should not see. For example, the aforementioned old floor or the wall tiles, possibly also serious defects. I have also experienced that walls that should be completely renovated were simply painted over to look fresh. My question now is, is this a discovered market gap to squeeze money out of buyers of used properties, or does HS really add value to properties?

Please don't get me wrong, I am just very skeptical and actually look much more closely at properties that have been pimped up through HS.

I question this because recently a friend of mine nearly fell for it. In a condominium, the kitchen was beautified with cardboard furniture and smelled wonderfully of fresh paint. Then, when the cardboard tall cabinet along with the cardboard base cabinets were moved aside... what was revealed was not very nice.

But the buyer should also be held responsible. If someone doesn’t become skeptical when the seller repaints their house before selling, then there is no help for them.

Sure, you would do that like me and some others as well. Only the buyer is not being led to believe that they are getting a property that is "freshly" renovated and in which possibly not much needs to be done?

Sure, but if someone only looks at fresh paint when buying a house, there's hardly any hope for them anyway...