What is the most vital factor when you are trying to sell your home? What is that one thing that if you got it right, would speed up the sale and help you get the most money from it? Many things go into selling a home, and each of them is essential to the sales process.Â
Bigham and Associates Management says some of the things you must get right when looking for a buyer for your property include:
- Making sure the home is priced competitively, by comparing it to similar homes in your neighborhood that were sold recently
- Choose a competent estate agent who can help you set the right price and choose the best time of the year to sell your home
- Get your home on the local MLS where estate agents exchange information and help one another buy or sell properties
- Choose the home upgrades that will impress buyers and return the most profits
- Make the home show-ready by cleaning and decluttering it to make the right impression.
These are great things to do when selling your home. However, which one of them is the most vital factor for making that home sell fast and for more money than you anticipated? The answer is none of them. That is because all of these factors do not directly address the most important thing for getting people to buy a home.
How people make buying decisions
When people make buying decisions on a big purchase, like buying a home, you would think that they would follow a methodical process. But the truth is that emotions play an enormous role in how people acquire things than logic. When we purchase items, especially things that are central to our social status, love, not reason, is often the primary driving force behind our decisions.
When potential buyers look at a home, the number one thing they will be looking for is how the house makes them feel. They will ask, does this home resonate with the image that I have of myself? Does it match the person I want to be and my highest aspirations? It is only after a buyer answers these questions that other aspects of your home become important.
In other words, potential buyers want to be captivated by your home the first time they see it. They want to fall in love with the property. It is only after this has happened that they will start to look at the specifics of your home to understand why they feel the way they do. Buyers will only use logic to justify decisions they have already made emotionally.
That is how most buying decisions are made. The question is, how can you make the behavior of buyers work in your favor and not against you? The answer lies in hiring a professional stager to stage your home before listing it. Professional stagers know sales psychology and how to deploy that knowledge to help you sell your home.
Who is a professional stage, and why do you need one?
A professional stager is a marketing expert who uses the principles of interior design to sell homes. They know how to use colors, lighting, décor, symmetry, and placement as tools for turning an ordinary home into a showpiece that will wow potential buyers. The goal of professional home staging is to make a home reminiscent of the ideal home that people often see in home design magazines.
How do professional stagers achieve this, and what is the effect of professionally staging a home?
1. Home stagers see your home differently
They look at the home from the perspective of marketing it. They view every feature with the eye of using it as a lever to make the home more salable. They see the potential and weaknesses of the home and know how to display the former while disguising the latter.
2. They can help you appeal to a larger audience
Unlike homeowners, professional stagers are dispassionate when staging a home. They don’t let their personal preferences interfere. Instead, they use trending designs and choose those items, colors, and patterns which have the potential to reach many people. They give the home mass appeal.
3. They understand today’s marketing landscape
Professional stagers recognize that most people are first going to encounter the home online. They know that selling a house online is different from selling it offline. And they are at home using digital marketing tools and photography; they know how to deploy them to tremendous effect.
4. Professional stagers sell dreams
They know that every person who looks at your home has only one question in mind; will this home help me fulfill my dreams? Therefore they stage the house to make it evoke positive emotions in buyers’ minds.
Finally, the sum effect of a professional stager’s work is that your home will sell faster and for more money. And that is something you want.
