Home-staging: a must for real estate sales

As the name suggests, home staging originated in the United States. It was invented in the 1970’s by an agent named Barb Schwartz for whom it was important to prepare and showcase homes for sale.

Her experience in the field of theater inspired her to create staging in homes to make them more attractive to buyers. Due to the success of this method, Barb Schwartz started giving conferences and home staging spread all over the world. In Belgium, there are now independent « home stagers » whom owners can call upon when putting their property up for sale, but at Inside Properties this staging is directly integrated in our services.

Enhancement at a lower cost

Home staging can be defined as all the steps, actions and resources to be implemented to prepare a property for sale and make it as attractive as possible.

Home staging must remain simple, be limited to a small budget and the decoration put in place must please the greatest number of people. In general, the staging of a property begins with the decluttering and depersonalization of the spaces. We remove everything that is superfluous or reminds too much the presence of the owners, then we reuse as much as possible the furniture and the elements present in the house to create an atmosphere, to fluidify the circulation and to put forward the strong points of the interior. A good cleaning and small repairs may also be necessary.

When the properties for sale are empty or require major renovations, home staging can be replaced by a virtual version in the form of 2D or 3D visualizations in order to limit costs.

Home staging is a vector of love

Home staging has made a place for itself in real estate because it offers real added value to the seller and the buyer. For the latter, visiting an apartment or a house that has been well highlighted allows them to project themselves more easily and to immediately identify its potential.

In practice, home staging is a vector of love and a great help to the decision to buy. For owners, it guarantees a quicker sale and allows them to avoid negotiations as much as possible, or even to increase the price in certain cases.

Here is an example: a few months ago, Inside Properties was asked to sell a magnificent mansion in the Brugmann district. Before working with us, the owners had met with 7 agencies who estimated the value of the property at around 1.300.000 and 1.400.000 euros. The house was particularly cluttered, so Arnaud and Cédric spent two weeks emptying out the excess and giving it back its shine.

This work paid off because the property was sold in 3 days, at a much higher price than that estimated by other agencies who had certainly been influenced by the poor presentation of the house. The owners and the buyers were delighted!