Staging is an investment.
It's probably the best short-term investment you can make into marketing your property, which is probably your biggest asset.
Yet, so many sellers will spend a great deal of money on a top of the range bath, but struggle with investing money into staging. Here are some TRUE CASES of empty properties from my own experience with Home Stagers Cape Town, the business I started a year ago.
Here's what happened with the houses I staged:
3 properties were staged before they listed (the optimal time). Two sold on the first show day. One got two offers, both over asking. The third property is still on sale after three months, but it is over R25 million and those houses always take a long time to sell.
1 property had been on market for 3 months with two agents and no offers. A new agent persuaded the owners to stage. It sold in 3 weeks.
The other properties I staged had all been on the market empty for more than 6 months when they came to me. That makes selling harder as most buyers looking in that price range and area would already have seen them and rejected them. Even so, every one of those properties sold after staging.
Now let's look at the figures for empty properties where I advised the homeowner to invest in staging, but they chose not to:
House in Newlands. First listed at R7.1 million. Sold 18 months later for R5.8 million. That's a loss of R1.3 million.
Apartment in Seapoint. Consulted in December 2017, listed at R3.7 million. Still on market, reduced by R400 000.
House in Fernwood. Consulted in June 2018, after property had been on market for some time with hardly any viewers on show days. Currently delisted and trying to rent for R40 000 a month.
These last homeowners also landed up with months of mortgage payments, rates, taxes and maintenance, as well as no or less money in their pocket, which for a short-term investment could have been avoided.
Sellers! Seriously? Your Return on Investment will be much higher if you invest in staging, than if you buy an expensive bath.
Got an empty property to sell? Call me about staging it. 084 843 2426