Last week, we spoke about the importance of presentation when it comes to selling your home and how some reasonably minor changes can make a huge difference to the final selling price.
Whether it be new carpet, fresh paint or basic landscaping, it’s often that the money spent on these sort of improvements will be one of the best investments you could make.
If I were to place a dollar value on it, I believe that every one dollar spent could bring you three to five dollars in return.
We also chatted about soft furnishings and dressings…and how some extra items can completely modernise a home and give purpose to areas that might be ‘dead space’.
Remember – Tina from my team offers a free service to all of our sellers whereby she brings in items that can provide those finishing touches to your property.
So what else can you do if you have very a little money to spend on a property when placing it on the market?
In an ideal world, ‘Staging’ a home with modern furniture can be a great way to increase it’s value but this cost can be anywhere between $3000 and $5000 to do it properly.
Whilst we’ve done our own research and believe that an effectively staged home will usually increase the value by anywhere from $20,000 – $50,000, not everyone has access to several thousand dollars to make this happen.
Another option can be ‘Virtual Staging’…a process where a photo is digitally enhanced with modern furniture to create a modern look.
There’s been some debate over Virtual Staging for some time in real estate circles.
Some say it is not a true representation of the home and therefore should not be allowed whilst others argue that it showcases what can be done with a room and as such, it is a great marketing tool.
Certainly, the early days of Virtual Staging (only a few years ago) were a disaster – the photos looked so fake, it was hard for the buyer to determine how the room really looked and if anything, it was a ‘turn-off’ to many buyers.
In the past year or so, the technology is so much better and if it’s done by someone that knows what they’re doing, it’s virtually impossible (no pun intended) to determine whether the furniture is real or fake.
It’s vitally important to ensure that the furniture is to scale and the furniture is in direct proportion to the size of the room or there is a valid argument that the marketing would be misleading.
It’s also vitally important to ensure that you have a photographer than knows what they’re doing when shooting a property, as he/she will normally adjust the angles of the photos ever so slightly to ensure that the furniture is placed at correct angles or the entire room will look distorted.
Some would argue that buyers will be disappointed when they arrive at a home to view it face-to-face and the property doesn’t appear to be what was represented in the photos but I must say that I disagree with this theory.
There are so many times that a buyer has made up their mind to purchase a property before setting foot in the door and this perception can give a seller a huge advantage when competing with other properties on the market.
Not only that, we’re starting to sell more and more properties to buyers from NSW and Victoria without an inspection at all so again, marketing is everything when it comes to securing the best price possible.
The cost of ‘Virtual Staging’ is approximately $75 per photo and often in our shoots where the sellers wish to employ virtual furniture, we will have 3-5 photos digitally enhanced.
Until next week, Happy Listing & Happy Selling!