When your sellers are tight on cash, they may be tempted to skip staging during listing prep in order to save some money. After all, staging can seem like a huge expense for a seller – why not list it as-is and see what happens?
However, the hidden costs of not staging often aren’t thought about before deciding to list as-is. Keep these costs in mind when deciding whether or not to stage so your sellers truly get the most money possible out of the sale.
Price Reductions
What’s the first strategy Realtors use when a home isn’t selling? Price reductions.
Price reductions are used to reignite buyer interest in a home that’s been on the market for a bit. However, each price drop chips away at the overall profit of the sale, undoing any savings you thought you’d gained by not staging.
It’s sometimes difficult for sellers to realize how much they’re losing in profit with each price reduction since it’s not cash in hand. To help put the numbers into perspective: the average price reduction is 3% of the list price. While that may not seem like much, that’s over 3x the average cost for us to stage the home.
Staging a home is all about increasing the perceived value for potential buyers. The higher the perceived value, the more buyers are willing to pay, which can drastically reduce the likelihood of needing multiple price reductions to sell the home.
Monthly Payments
As the housing market begins to shift, keeping in mind how long the home has been on the market is even more important. Every extra day your property goes unsold means more mortgage payments, property taxes, and utility bills.
These costs aren’t small and add up quickly. No seller wants to watch their home sit on the market as they continue to pay those bills, usually on top of paying the same bills for their new home.
Although we’re more than happy to answer the “Help! We need staging ASAP to get this sold!” phone calls, we find the best (and cheapest) option is including staging in the listing prep – that way, you can avoid the panic and the bills that keep piling up.
Missed Opportunities
Every missed chance to make an amazing first impression with a buyer is a setback for the sale. An unstaged home doesn’t stand out in online listings or grab interest, meaning that potential buyers may keep scrolling – which leads to fewer showings and fewer offers.
As we’re seeing more and more here in Albuquerque, buyers are looking for a home that feels move-in ready. A vacant space feels cold to potential buyers, forces them to rely on their imagination when it comes to envisioning themselves in the space, and doesn’t spark that little bit of excitement that buyers want to experience when they walk in.
Remember, at its core, staging is a marketing tool, and a very effective one at that. We don’t just make the home look beautiful; we use our knowledge of buyer psychology to be sure that you don’t miss any potential buyer, opportunity, or offer.
In our experience, the “list now, stage if it doesn’t sell” strategy not only doesn’t work well, it’s more expensive than staging before the property goes on the market. Deciding to skip staging can save you the up-front cash, but cost much more in time and money in the long run. After all, our goal is a stress-free sale with as much profit as possible…and to help avoid those headaches and extra costs entirely.
(P.S. – We totally understand that some sellers may truly not be able to afford the cost of staging before listing. That’s why we offer our Pay At Close program – so we can still stage without those out-of-pocket costs.)
