Investing in a property purchase is one of the largest financial commitments many people will make during their lifetimes. Buying a property typically takes many years of disciplined saving, property market research, and hours of negotiations as you navigate the sales process. Not to mention the wide range of emotions property buyers feel as they evaluate properties and try to imagine living their lives in the property.
And after purchasing a property, many people will eventually sell it and purchase another property. The new property could have more space or be in a more exciting part of town. Regardless of whatever reason is driving a property owner’s decision to move out of their existing property and sell it, it is critical that the seller maximise the sales price of their property to ensure they have the most capital available for their next move.
As part of the sales process every property owner must take the time to make sure their property is maximally attractive and desirable to prospective buyers. Because the more desirable a property is, and the stronger the emotional feeling a property owner can create in a prospective buyer, the higher price the buyer will be likely to pay for the property.
Staging a Property
Preparing your property for sale by making it as aesthetically pleasing as possible involves “staging” your property, or preparing it for prospective buyers to come visit.
Most advice online for property owners who want to stage their home consists of simple, common-sense information such as cleaning up your property and making it presentable. In this article, we will dive deeper and offer more impactful advice. We will share why we believe home staging is so critical in the first place, before sharing the top 5 ways to impress home buyers when they visit your property.
Why Staging Your Property is Crucial
So much of a property’s value is related to factors outside of the property owner’s control. Many properties are valued based on the perception of an area, and the price of recently sold properties that are comparatively similar, or “comps”.
If the property is in an undesirable part of town or has an odd floor plan layout, there is only so much dressing up the property owner can do to improve the property’s appeal. And conversely, a great location for a property can make the property owner’s job very easy. If the property is in a great location, it will have a higher value based simply on being in a popular geographic area. From there it is a simple matter of presenting an already desirable property in the most favourable light.
Thus, staging a property is so crucial because staging is what allows the property owner to extract the extra few percentage points of value that are not determined solely by the property’s location and nearby comparable sales. Staging is the property owner’s opportunity to truly impress the potential buyer so the buyer can imagine themselves living there.
The Emotions Behind Staging Your Property
The best properties are the ones which are staged in order to elicit a positive emotional response from the prospective buyers. The prospective buyers want to picture themselves living there, or immediately grasp the investment potential of the property.
Otherwise, the prospective buyer wouldn’t take the time to go review the property. And that is why staging a property is so critical; staging a property gives the owner the chance to create excitement in the heart of the prospective buyer, and set the property apart aside from its objective facts and figures, such as square meters or the bedroom and bathroom count.
Now we are going to share some of the most effective strategies to successfully stage your property and impress home buyers.
Step #1: Understand Your Potential Buyer
While this first step may sound initially simple, it does require that the property owner step back and objectively evaluate their property and which potential buyers it is suited for. If you own a 3 bedroom property in the Central Region, which includes the exclusive Districts 9, 10, and 11, you will be catering to a different audience than if your property is located in the Outside Central Region, or Districts 16 through 28.
So first and foremost, think about the geographic region your property is located in and who is most likely to be looking for property in that area. There is a large difference between a suburban property for a family of 4, versus a property for a high-net worth executive who lives alone and wants to be in the center of activity near his business dealings in Singapore.
With this information in mind do establish an ideal “buyer persona”, or a rough sense of who the potential buyer of your property is. This buyer persona will inform the rest of the property staging efforts as you prepare it for potential buyers.
Step #2: Re-Design The Property With Your Buyer Persona In Mind
It is a unique challenge for property owners to first establish who their target buyer is for their property, but once they have created this buyer persona, their next step is to re-design the property with this potential buyer’s tastes in mind. While this does not necessarily entail a complete re-design of the property and getting rid of the existing furniture and interior design, it does mean enhancing certain elements that will speak to your potential buyers.
All too often, property owners are focused on staging the property based on their preferences, and their living situation. Consider this hypothetical example of a family of four.
When a husband and wife purchased their 3 bedroom flat, they weren’t yet parents. They were young professionals who were likely focused solely on their careers and wanted to be in the middle of the busiest and most exciting parts of Singapore. However, as they had children, their property undoubtedly changed. The furniture might have become more conservative, and child-proof. The contemporary paintings on the wall may have been replaced with bulletin boards for the children. And the bottles of wine resting on the kitchen counter were replaced with sippy-cups, and snacks for the young children.
As a result, the property became designed for the family currently living in it, but it is located in an area predominantly filled with young professionals who do not have children. And if the property is staged with its current elements where it is catered more so towards growing families, then the property may appear less desirable to young professionals who can’t imagine the potential of the property for their current station in life.
In short, do keep in mind that you may need to adjust the current design of the property to be relevant for your ideal buyer, and not how you are currently enjoying the property.
Step #3: Use Design Elements That Target All Of The Buyer’s Senses
The most successfully staged properties are ones that can engage as many of the buyer’s senses as possible. For example, a well-known trick among realtors who are selling suburban homes catering to families is to cook vanilla extract or cookies in the oven for a few minutes before potential buyers arrive to visit the house.
That way, when the potential buyers enter the kitchen area, they’re immediately greeted with the pleasant smell of vanilla and they can already imagine themselves cooking with their family in the kitchen.
Another way to trigger an emotional connection in your buyer’s to your property is to have music playing in the property upon their arrival. Just like the best restaurants are the ones that have music playing in the background while patrons enjoy their meals, one of the best ways to stand out among the crowd of properties for sale is to have pleasant music playing upon entering the property.
In short, every property owner is already focused on the visual appeal of their property to potential buyers. Going above and beyond to make sure your property is attractive to all the buyer’s senses will help set you apart from the competition.
Step #4: Ensure The Property Is Fully Functional And Repaired
This step of the home-staging process is worth repeating because it can make a huge impact on potential buyers, and is entirely under the control of the seller.
When preparing a house for sale, it is advisable to walk throughout the entire property and ensure it is functional from top-to-bottom. Ensure every light switch and faucet work, doors are closing fully and not squeaking, the appliances all work, and there’s no scratches or major flaws present.
The benefits of this preventative sweep are twofold. First, the buyers are impressed by a fully functional property and they aren’t going through the property imagining how much work they must put into the property to repair it. And secondly, this prevents the seller from losing leverage during the selling process.
Because if the property has multiple defects or unattractive qualities, even if they are easily fixable, it is a common tactic for buyers to use these necessary repairs as leverage to negotiate a lower sales price. As the seller, you don’t want to lose thousands of dollars on the sale price during negotiations because of small fixes that could have been made ahead of time.
Step #5: Sell The Attractions Around Your Home
The adage for property value “Location, location, location” still rings true in today’s environment. Although the buyers are purchasing your property, the buyers will also be interested in the surrounding area and its activities around the property. Whether your potential buyer has a young family and wants parks nearby for outdoor activities, or your potential buyer is a young professional couple who values access to the most exciting restaurants and nightclubs, do use the surrounding area to your advantage when you are trying to make your property desirable to potential buyers.
Because whenever a potential buyer is traveling to inspect or visit a property, they are evaluating the surrounding area and trying to note nearby activities or places of interest. However, as the current owner, you will know nearby hidden gems and interesting activities that the buyer may miss during their travel to the property. Do be sure to share that with the buyer during their visit to the property, while they’re evaluating what else is available to do near the property.
The most successfully staged properties are ones that leverage the nearby attractions and create an emotional response in potential buyers when they think about the activities near their new property.
Staging Creates Value For Property Owners
In closing, properly staging a property is one of the most effective ways for sellers to enhance the value of the property in the eyes of potential buyers, and ultimately close the sale with a higher sales price. Staging a property doesn’t have to be expensive or overly time consuming, but a successful staging ought to evaluate the property through a potential buyer’s perspective, rather than the current owner’s perspective. If you can keep your buyer in mind as you stage the property, you will both be better off with a faster sales process and higher closing price.
If you have more questions about how to properly market your property and ensure it sells for its highest value, do reach out to the team at Property Lim Brothers to see how we can help.
