During difficult economic times, we all look at areas of our finances where we can cut and reduce costs. When selling a property, vendors want to be able to spend as little as possible yet still achieve maximum return.
It is particularly important during these difficult economic times that your property look its best and stand out from other properties on the market. With a limited amount of buyers searching for properties at this time, they can afford to be picky. Vendors can’t rely simply on land value, or houses receiving exceptional prices anymore. Your home needs to stand out from the rest of the properties on the market, otherwise it could potentially fall through the cracks.
Vendors unfamiliar with the success of property styling deem it an unnecessary extra cost and often comment that the “home will sell itself” and insist on leaving it empty. This is a major misconception; empty homes sell for less and don’t sell as fast as furnished ones for a number of reasons.
- A property without furniture will always look smaller than a furnished one, even if the space has a superior level of design and architecture. This is because a furnished room provides depth perception. Styling the home for sale provides perspective that buyers need and eradicates guesswork. For example potential buyers shouldn’t have to guess what size/how many couches can fit in the living room, or what size bed can fit in the guest room. Unfurnished rooms appear smaller as you are unable to perceive depth and space without furniture. See the before and after photo below.
- Furnishing your property for sale, allows people to see how they could live a beautiful life in your property and make an emotional connection to the property. Unfortunately empty homes are unable to elicit that emotion and potential buyers cannot visualize themselves or the potential lifestyle they would lead in the home.
- Studies have shown that only 10% of buyers who view a property that is vacant, are able to visualize their life in that home. This means that having that property left unfurnished has lost 90% of the potential buyers already. Furnishing and styling the home for sale eradicates guesswork. Buyers who walk into empty spaces are often confused about how the space is supposed to be used, its functionality, what type of furniture could fit the space, and how to arrange the room.
- A furnished property will distract and detract buyers from the less desirable aspects of the home, such as an outdated kitchen or a difficult floor plan. When a house is unfurnished buyers are more likely to find flaws, as there isn’t anything else to look at! Buyers are most likely to find issues in scratches on floors and chipped paintwork. Buyers will mentally add up their perceived costs of repairing all those minor flaws and end up with an amount that is generally much higher than the actual amount it will cost you to repair this for sale. Adding up these costs will therefore affect the amount the potential buyer is willing to pay for the property and they will want to pay you significantly less.
- When buyers are searching listings online, there is only a mere few seconds to capture their attention. The photos of your property must have wow factor to make the buyer stop as they are scrolling through endless properties to click on your property. Empty listings don’t offer anything special or exciting and it looks almost the same as every other empty listed home. You can make out a living room and a kitchen, and the rest of the rooms just look the same unless there is a particular feature in the photo to explain what the room is used for. Buyers will skip past properties like these to ones that draw their attention. A room is just a room with walls and floors unless it is styled for sale, and this does little to create any impact or excitement on potential buyers.
Furnishing your property for sale is a cost effective and proven way to help sell a property faster and for bigger returns.
Why would you accept a lower price for your home? When you consider that your property is often you biggest financial asset, it is paramount to make sure the home is properly furnished and styled for sale.
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