Good news—the housing market is picking up. If you were waiting for a safe time to put your home on the market, now is your chance. But what does this really mean for you, the seller? It’s a buyer’s market, and if you want to get the most money for your home, staging is a great tool. “In a market with a lot of unsold inventory, staging certainly perks up a property and separates it from a cold, vacant listing,” says realtor David Buck. “Staging a home greatly improves its showability, therefore making it much more likely to sell.”
As the housing market recovers, inventory levels are also on the rise. It’s time to get competitive and make your house look its absolute best. The longer a home sits on the market, the more its price is reduced. When a home sits on the market for 3-6 months, the next step is typically to reduce the price by 5-10 percent, depending on the market. At a high price point of, for example, $5 million, this can translate into a reduction of $500, 000.
Stakes are higher in the luxury market, where staging could be the difference between an offer at asking price and an offer that is reduced by hundreds of thousands of dollars. An investment in Stage to Move, which specializes in the luxury market, costs significantly less.