Home staging, preparing your property to highlight its best features while keeping furnishings neutral to appeal to a high number of buyers, is one way to achieve swifter and more profitable results. Photos: Daniel Maurer/dpa
Deciding to sell your home is a serious step and no easy task. While you might not want to sell to "just anyone", time and profit are likely also to play a role.
One way to increase your chances of achieving good results is home staging – preparing your property so that it is fit for the market. In the United States, home staging has become an established business in real estate, but is now also catching on elsewhere as sellers seek professional help to put their homes in the best possible light.
"This is more than just about redecorating and sprucing up a house in order to achieve a high sales price," says Iris Houghton, head of the German Society for Home Staging and Redesign in the city of Wiesbaden. Many sellers also want to make sure that their house winds up in the right hands.
"They don't want to see some construction developer buying their beloved home, and then tearing it down in order to build a new house on the property. Instead, they would prefer handing it over to a young couple which – as they once did – will raise their children there," Houghton says.
Of course not everybody is looking for younger buyers, she adds. Often sellers also prefer middle-aged couples for example, according to Houghton.
Home stagers will remove personal items and eye-catching decorative pieces when preparing your house for the market. Photo: Kai Remmers/dpa
Making way for the new
This is where the home stager comes in, to help address the desired target group. They will redesign a house to make it appealing to potential buyers.
The professionals are likely to remove imposing, dark furniture from past decades, for example, while assigning every room a clear function that's directly recognisable. Personal items and eye-catching decorative pieces will also disappear.
Importantly, they will also tackle the garden. "It must be well-kept and look inviting, with space for children to play," Houghton says.Depending on who your target audience is, home stagers might highlight different features of your property.
The children's room, for example, might be converted into office space or a walk-in closet, or a yoga room. "The imagination of the potential buyer should be tickled," Houghton says.
"They should walk through the house and imagine how they would use it."
And that's easier to do in an emptier space.
Once a house has been prepared, the seller and home stager come up with an expose that includes pictures. In the best-case scenario, that leads to your target audience showing up for the viewing.
"Those focusing on a specific target group right from the start will sell their house more swiftly than if they invite many very different candidates," Houghton says.
The cost of home staging depends on the type of work that needs to be done. Photo: Markus Scholz/dpa
Learning from the pros
The cost of home staging depends on the type of work that needs to be done.
"Sometimes it is enough to rearrange a few things, but sometimes more elaborate craftsmanship and gardening work is necessary," Houghton says.
In the end, home staging will help you to achieve a better sales price, making the additional expenses worth it, according to the expert.
Those who do not want professionals to be moving their furniture around can at least profit from their experience. For a start, it is a good idea to go around one's own house, looking at it from the viewpoint of a stranger who might find some things disturbing.
Anna Katharina Fricke of the German homeowners' association Haus & Grund Deutschland recommends to remove personal items before any viewing. This applies equally to family photos and toothbrushes in the bathroom.
The house should reveal as little as possible about the personality of the current or previous owners, for in the end, deciding on a property is a major decision in the life of the buyer, she says.
"Prospective buyers want to enter and feel immediately at home," Fricke says. One way to achieve this is by furnishing the property in a way that highlights the advantages of the house while still being neutral.
Don't try to cover up defects
When selling your home, not only the house itself, but also all the relevant documents should be in good order.
Matthias Bauer from a German consumer advice office recommends to have all the most important documents at hand, like receipts of maintenance work or the heating bill, for example.
"This gives the buyer an idea how well-maintained the house is," he says.
Any encumbrances on the property, such as usufructuary rights (when someone maintains the right to use all or part of the property for a certain time), easements or building encumbrances, should also be disclosed to potential buyers.
"Everything is welcome which can help the buyer to reach a decision," Bauer says.
While home staging is a great way to put your home in a good light, there are limits.
"Under no circumstances should major defects be glossed over or damage concealed," Bauer says. – dpa
