Home staging is a relatively new concept on the Coffs Coast, and has seen a significant rise in popularity in recent years. When you’re selling your home, the first impression the property makes on potential buyers is crucial. Get it right and you’ll hopefully be inundated with offers well above what you had hoped to receive, but get it wrong and you might struggle to receive any reasonable offers at all.

What is home staging?

There is more to home staging than just hiring furniture, and ANY property can benefit. The reasoning behind the concept is simple - Home staging is about preparing your property for sale in a way that will transform it into a welcoming, attractive product that will appeal to a broad range of buyers. By doing so, your home should spend less time on the market and sell for the best possible price.

In the modern era of smart phones, we have only a few seconds to capture a buyer’s attention before they swipe on to the next property. First impressions are absolutely critical! It is the photos that are going to encourage a buyer to click through for more information, and property staging is designed to ensure that your property stands out from the crowd.

A professionally-styled home can help potential buyers visualise what they can do with different spaces in a home. It can accentuate space, make the property look less run down or dated, and it can warm up empty or cold-looking spaces. Just using different colours, textures, lighting, ornaments and artwork can make a huge difference to how a space looks.

The atmosphere inside your home will improve its desirability, which will then lead to increased competition and ultimately, a higher selling price.

So how much does a home stager cost?

Pricing will depend on a range factors, including the size of your home and the level of staging that you wish to engage.

Full staging is suitable for vacant properties, or when the owner wishes to vacate during the marketing campaign. This would include the hire of all furniture, artwork and accessories with pricing starting from around $300 per room.

Partial styling is aimed at partially furnished or occupied homes, In this case the stylist would use your existing furniture as a base, and adding accessories & artwork in order to maximise buyer appeal. Partial styling would be available from around $100 per room.

Most property staging packages will operate over a 5-6 week period. This allows 1 week for photography and marketing preparation followed by 4-5 weeks for your marketing campaign. This rental period can be extended should your property not sell within this timeframe.

Sometimes this may seem like an extravagant expense but the benefits of property styling far outweigh the cost. Property styling can add anywhere from 5% to 10% to the final sale price, which in Coffs Harbour can equate to tens of thousands of dollars. See our Case Study below.

Property staging should be seen as an investment, rather than an expense. Your home is likely to be the most valuable asset you ever sell, so it pays to try to get the best price for it.

Is property staging for me?

Every home is unique and requires different amounts of styling and additional furniture or accessories. Some homes may have dated looking furniture and require a substantial facelift, while others may have modern, classy furniture and just need a few items moved around or a few small furniture tweaks.

That said, not every home needs to be styled - if you believe most buyers are likely to knock your home down and build a new one, why bother?