The Best Investment: Home Staging in Washington DC?
Staging a home in Washington DC prior to sale is now the norm, but why? What benefits do homeowners receive from staging?
Statistics highlight two advantages:
A well-staged home sells for significantly more money than an unstaged home.
A professionally staged home will sell faster.
We have been staging in the Washington DC area for almost 15 years. After thousands of stagings, we have the statistics to back up the claim that home staging provides an incredible return on your investment.
Home Staging Yield Higher Sales Value
Preferred Staging’s statistics over the last several years show that well-staged vacant homes sold for about 5% more of the asking price than un-staged vacant homes. Doing the math, that means that for every $500,000 of your home's value, Washington DC area homeowners earn another $25,000 when selling after staging. Staging pays off in a big way!
Our statistics are calculated based upon the percentage of the asking price that Washington DC staged homes receive versus the percentage of the asking price received when the home is listed as a vacant property.
When you compare the cost of staging a home, versus the return you receive upon sale, on average our clients earn 700% of the staging investment back in a higher sales value. Using an example of a $1,000,000 home, staging the foyer, living room, family room, kitchen, master bedroom, master bathroom, a second bedroom and the basement might cost $6,000. Using average return stated above, the Preferred Staging home will sell for $50,000 more than it would if it where sold as a vacant home.
Now, before you think that you can ask $50,000 above market for your staged home, we want to make it clear that staging is not a pricing strategy. The pricing strategy is up to your real estate agent and you.
What we have seen in our business is that well-staged homes, on average, sell for about 5% more, relative to their specific listing price, than non-staged homes. Setting the listing price is between you and your Realtor based upon the market and your home.
Staging will result in offers close to or above listing price. That has been our experience and what has driven us to stage homes for so many years.
Don’t just trust our experience. Consider builders of new communities. Builders have a model home completely staged for potential buyers to tour. Why would builders, who are very savvy and motivated by profit, expend the effort and incur the expense of fully staging their model homes? Because they know through vast experience that a well-staged model will help them sell, and increase the selling price, of their homes. It’s just that simple.
Blue and gray compliment the exterior views during the winter months.
Faster Sale Means More Money as Well
Staging is not just about increasing the sales price of your home. Our statistics also show that staged homes sell faster. To understand the total return on a home that has been well-staged, we need to include the amount of time a staged home stays on the market, relative to an non-staged home.
In our business, our staged homes typically sell about 70% faster than other homes on the market. That means, if homes stay on the market for an average of 45 days in your Washington DC neighborhood, a staged home might be expected to sell in just 14 days. Our record for an offer on a property was 20 minutes after the house was listed. That home in Ashburn, Virginia sold exclusively based on the listing photos.
We have many examples of non-staged homes that sat on the market for months, even over a year. Once they were staged, they sold in just weeks. This is especially true of luxury homes in the Washington DC area. Often a vacant luxury home can feel like a cavern. Adding charm and personality through staging brings the property into scale and helps buyers see its true character.
A fast sale offers you cost-saving benefits, such as avoiding months of extra mortgage payments, property taxes, and utility bills. We refer to these costs as "carrying costs." A good estimate for carrying costs avoided due to a faster sale is about one-half of one percent of your home's value per month.
Also, the longer a home sits on the market, the more likely it will be targeted for low-ball offers. Once a home has been on the market for a while, buyers know that they can offer less than the asking price – the market has spoken that the home is not valued properly relative to comparable properties, or it is not well prepared for move-in.
If a home sits on the market for several months before selling, the home may experience one or more price reductions on the list price, typically totaling 5% - 15% of the original asking price. When a staged home helps you sell faster, there is usually no need for a reduction in asking price to attract offers.
A fireplace is in a master bedroom is a luxury! Placing a sofa directly in front of the fireplace might have been the obvious choice, but would have limited the view from the bed. We placed chairs to the side to demonstrate how purchasers can enjoy being near the fireplace without blocking its view while lounging in bed.
Finally, staging your home in Washington DC returns dollars to you because it increases the attractiveness of the home, resulting in both a higher perceived value on the part of the buyer and fostering competitive bids. These competitive bids can turn into a bidding war – the dream of every home seller!
Staging returns value to the homeowner in several ways. According to our statistics, which are supported by several independent studies, home staging results in a higher purchase price. Home staging helps sell the home faster, avoiding price reductions and carrying costs. Lastly, staging increases the odds of a buyer bidding war for your property.
We’d love to help you realize all these advantages when you are ready to sell your home. Please call us (703.851.2690) to discuss your options.
Best,
Monica