If you’re interested in getting better answers to your real estate showing feedback questions, you’ll be interested in a home staging survey the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) recently released that summarizes feedback from buyer agents and listing agents on the topic of home staging. Real estate professionals find that it really works.
Home Staging Survey of REALTORS® is More Believable than Vendor Feedback
Most agents believe that if you stage a home well, you’ll get it sold in less time and at a higher price. However, there hasn’t been much information available to prove that staging works.
Most agents have anecdotal evidence from a handful of agents they know who typically don’t agree on how effective staging is. And, vendors such as StagedHomes.com, a company that trains people to become Accredited Staging Professionals (ASPs), often publish success stories. However, many agents would prefer to have insight from other agents, not a company that has an interest in promoting home staging.
Recently, the National Association of REALTORS® published a report called the 2017 Profile of Home Staging. The Research Division of NAR compiled this report. After inviting 53,760 REALTORS® to participate in the survey, NAR received 1,894 qualified responses, representing a 3.5 percent response rate. At the 95 percent confidence level, the margin of error is plus-or-minus 2.25 percent. Therefore, the results are considered reliable.
What REALTORS® Know About Home Staging
Buyer agents and seller agents were included in the survey and here’s what they reported.
Does staging make a difference in how buyers view a home?
- 48 percent say that staging has an effect on most buyers
- 48 percent say that staging has an effect on some buyers, but not all
- 4 percent say that staging has no effect on buyers
Therefore, virtually all buyer agents find that staging does make an impact on almost all buyers.
How does staging affect buyers?
- helps a buyer to visualize themselves living in a home – 77 percent
- makes a buyer more willing to see a home they’ve viewed online – 40 percent
- home value increases if it’s decorated to the buyer’s taste – 38 percent
- staging helps a buyer overlook other faults – 27 percent
The point here is that when you’re working with your sellers, you can prove that staging will make a difference in the number of buyers who will be interested in their home. Further, when you’re asking a seller to paint in neutral colors, or remove the pink and purple wallpaper from the master bedroom, you can quote these figures. You can point out that neutral colors are most likely to be “the buyer’s taste,” and it will make a difference in how many buyers attend a showing of their home, forgive other faults and can visualize themselves living in the home.
Does staging make a difference in the dollar value of the initial offer?
Here, it makes sense to look at buyer and seller feedback side by side.
- An increase of 1-5 percent in the initial offer
- Buyer agents: 31 percent; Seller agents: 29 percent
- An increase of 6-10 percent
- Buyer agents: 13 percent; Seller agents: 21 percent
- An increase of 11-15 percent
- Buyer agents: 3 percent; Seller agents: 5 percent
- An increase of 16-20 percent
- Buyer agents: 2 percent; Seller agents: 3 percent
- No change
- Buyer agents: 14 percent; Seller agents: 14 percent
- Not sure
- Buyer agents: 27 percent; Seller agents: 26 percent
It’s interesting to see that both buyer and seller agents have seen very similar impact on the value of the home.
Does staging make a difference in how long a home stays on the market?
- 39 percent of listing agents experience a big decrease in DOM
- 23 percent of listing agents experience a slight decrease in DOM
- 8 percent of listing agents see no change
Final Thoughts
If you’re not staging homes now, you might want to give it a try. The rooms that are most often staged include the living room, kitchen and master bedroom, with the dining room and bath close behind. Very often, the seller can do the job themselves by decluttering, depersonalizing, getting the home and carpet professionally cleaned, painting and doing minor repairs.
Sellers typically pay for the staging before the home goes on the market, but some agents will hire a professional home staging service.
If you’re not getting good feedback from your showing feedback system, use this information to encourage your seller to stage their home. You may discover it’s worth making home staging a regular part of your marketing plan.