The spotlight is on home staging

Once primarily a luxury for the rich when selling their mansions, home staging is becoming popular with average homeowners seeking to get their properties off the market faster and earn more money. The proliferation of television programs on staging a home - often providing tips on how to do it yourself - has made it a fast-growing trend at all levels of real estate sales.

“It has always been done at high-end properties, but now the notion has gone mass market,” said Lea Katsanis, chair and associate professor of the marketing department at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business.

What is Home Staging

Home staging is the design process of de-personalizing a private residence prior to putting it up for sale in the real estate marketplace. This is often achieved by re-arranging, de-cluttering and improving on certain items.

The goal of staging a home is to help it sell quickly and for the most amount of money by appealing to the largest amount of prospective buyers. Staging focuses on improving a home’s potential by transforming it into a ‘neutral’ property because the way we live in our home is completely different than the way we should sell our home. Staging creates a living space buyers can “see” themselves in, similar to how model home displays are presented.

Staging also helps create an environment that will lead a buyer’s eye to the home’s attractive features, while minimizing its flaws.

Many home-sellers agree that staging is a practical first step prior to selling any home, especially since the cost of staging a home is usually much less than the increased selling price often achieved from a professionally staged home.

Staging Checklist

The goal is to depersonalize a private residence before putting it up for sale. It is recommended to spend about one per cent of the asking price on staging.

• Rearrange
• Declutter
• Improve
• Do minor repairs
• Paint
• Decorate

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