The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) recently released its report on Home Staging, Here are some of the highlights of this report.
A good 40% of buyer’s agents surveyed for this report said that yes, staging a home is important. 83% of those 40% pro-home staging buyer’s agents reported that their buyers could more easily visualize the property for themselves when the home was staged. Buyer’s agents also reported that 38% of their clients were more willing to personally view a house when they’d seen it staged online.
Twenty-five percent of buyer’s agents reported that staged homes rendered increased dollar value to the tune of 1%-5%. Twenty-nine percent of buyer’s agents said home staging made no difference whatsoever in the dollar value of the home.
Forty-seven percent of buyer’s agents felt that the living room was the most important room in the house to stage. After the living room, 42% felt it was important to stage the master bedroom and 30% felt the kitchen out to be staged.
Seller’s agents had a different perspective on staging. Twenty-eight percent of seller’s agents stage all their listings prior to bringing their homes onto the market and 13% of seller’s agents stage only their most difficult listings.
Seller’s agents define staging to mean de-cluttering (95%), entire home cleaning (89%), removing pets during showings (83%), carpet cleaning (78%), minor repairs (77%), depersonalization (70%), landscaping (67%), painting walls (66%), paint touch-ups (63%) and actual staging (44%). The median dollar cost of such improvements/staging runs approximately $400.
And what are buyers’ expectations of home staging?
- 10% felt the home ought to look the same way homes staged for television shows look.
- 58% reported they were not influenced by staged homes they had seen on television.
In terms of the home buying process, what are buyers’ expectations?
- 82% had ideas about where they wanted to live before they started to “look.”
- 74% had ideas about what they wanted in an “ideal home” before they started to “look.”
- 40% consulted family members and/or friends during the process.25% brought family members and/or friends with them when viewing houses.
- 56% plan to remodel
Interestingly enough, 41% of buyer’s agents reported there being an increase in the share of buyers planning to flip the house(s) they purchase.
