Your house is up for sale, somewhere in South Africa. You figure it's a good house, of course. It is in decent repair and well priced for the neighbourhood. But nobody is buying. In fact, you haven't received a single offer to purchase the property.
What's wrong? Does everybody in South Africa already have a house, or what?
Well, you might be looking right past the problem. You've lived in your house day in and day out, remember. You've become so accustomed to your house being the way it is. Your house is your house, after all. What could be wrong with it?
Imagination
Even if you click your heels together and wish real hard, it still is very difficult for you to picture another family living within those comfortably familiar rooms in your house, isn't it? Now, if it's hard for you to imagine someone else living in your house, imagine how hard it is for a potential buyer to see themselves living there.
It might be time for you to consider some "house staging."
House Staging
House staging is just a way to present your home in a way that makes it easier for potential buyers to picture themselves living in your house. The house staging process is a way of "de-personalizing" your house. Small changes to the decor of the rooms make it easier for a potential buyer to imagine the buyer's family and possessions in the house. House staging is a rather subtle skill, and sometimes a painful process, but it works.
De-personalise the house
If you're still living in the house, while you're showing it, house staging can be a difficult process. De-personalising the house is going to involve some personal sacrifice, and even discomfort, but keep in mind that when hour house sells, you are going to be moving anyway. So, why not take advantage of this opportunity to get a head start on the inevitable packing?
To de-personalise your house, start packing away those things you use the least, but see the most: Your decorations. Strip the passage of those family photographs. Clean the fridge and pack away those refrigerator magnets.
It might be a little uncomfortable living in a house stripped of everything that you love, but the effect it will have, on potential buyers walking through the house, is worth it. When people see a neat, clean house without personal effects, it reminds them of a showroom or a model home, and makes it easier for them to imagine their own belongings in the rooms.
House staging is about feelings
Be honest for a moment: Would you, as a homebuyer, feel more at home in a living room crowded with photos of someone else's dogs, kids and parents, or a living room with clean walls and a vase of flowers on the table? A very personal living room can make you feel like you're intruding in another person's home, can't it? And the last thing you want potential buyers to feel, when they come to view your home, are negative feelings. A neutral living room lets you feel safe about dreaming of living in the house a little bit, doesn't it? And if a potential buyer can see a room's potential (and the house's potential) and imagine themselves in your house, selling the house is suddenly just a matter of negotiating the terms of the sale.
Yes, your aim, when house staging, is to turn your house back into simple walls, floors and doors. But, of course, those walls, floors and doors can still be presented in an inviting and attractive way.
Colours and House Staging
Speaking of walls, and particularly the paint on the walls, it's important to take a good look at the colour choices you made in your home. For house staging purposes, soothing neutral colours are the best colour choices. It is easy for a buyer to paint the house once they've moved in, but they first have to move in, remember! The psychological effect of seeing paint colours that clash with their furniture, or taste, could cost you a sale.
Re-evaluating your Rooms
House staging also involves one other major step: You have to see your rooms in a new way.
Every room should be furnished and decorated in such a way that potential buyers can easily see what the function of a room is. This may mean moving your furniture around and even storing some unnecessary furniture, which clutters the house, and makes the rooms seem smaller than they really are.
Just because your family has always had the computer set up in one corner of the master bedroom doesn't mean it has to stay there while you are selling the house. Do some experimenting. Try to find a space that can be staged as a "home office" space without confusing buyers about the purpose of the room.
Create new, practical spaces with your furniture to show buyers the potential in each room. Try placing a small sofa or table and chair in the office and making it a sitting room instead (if this is a better solution for your house).
Every house has a whole lot of different possibilities. The trick with a successful house staging is finding the potential in your house and displaying that potential in the most effective way. You want potential buyers to become excited about making those rooms their own.
House Staging
In South Africa, house staging is not a very widely used marketing tool. But in other parts of the world, it is practically the norm.
House staging is not brain surgery. So, why not make use of house staging to give your house a competitive edge in the real estate market?
