Why home-staging works to sell your home faster & for top euro?

Buying a home is exciting but can be stressful as well. It is a huge amount of money, and you don’t want to make the wrong decision. Seeing ugly kitchens, awkward layouts, awful decors make you wonder if it is possible to find the right place in your price range.

Then suddenly it happens! You see the great curb appeal, step in and within mnutes decide “This is my home!”. It just hits you at an emotinal level.

People believe that they can look past ugly decor or empty rooms and see that potential, but the truth is that most can’t!

Home-staging works because people buy on emotion

Once a buyer falls in love, forget logic. Suddenly the must-haves on their real estate list don’t seem so necessary.

This townhouse needed updating. It had been on the market for a while without any interest. Even though it looked bright outside, it needed some fixing there as well.

The aim number one was to make it light, airy and cheerful - not just white & grey. We are in Costa del Sol so bring some colours. Bright yellow facade with blue trimmings already creates expectations that the inside will be happy and colourful.

Upstairs it was an easy peacy task - just needed to buy new bedlinen & plenty of cushions for the existing beds in all four bedrooms.

Downstairs needed a bit more fixing. Mainly to make it more functional and bring some Andalusian light inside.

The old kitchen had to go, and a couple of walls needed to be demolished. No glossy white kitchen to this Spanish style house but a shaker kitchen type one in neutral grey. I find a light grey always a good option as it makes a perfect combo to any colour.

There’s a sauna downstairs but no shower. Demolished the old toilet and made a nice bathroom with a shower there. The pool outside is near so now there’s an easy access from the pool to the shower.

Staging a home with existing furniture can be a challenge.

This house was built in the late 70s. It was in a pretty good condition as the owners have been taken an extremely good care of it over the past years.

No renovation was wanted, so had to go on without painting any walls or renovating the kitchen and bathrooms. So the name of the game was to emphasise the retro vibes. That was no hard at all, because all the original pieces of furniture and decoration was already there. Just needed a lot of decluttering and reorganising to give a clear view of the space.

As mentioned nothing was bought, all the items already were there although in different places. Even the flowers were free - I picked them up in the huge garden and surrounding areas nearby.

There was no sense to do a minor makeover. For sure the potential buyer will either make a total renovation according to their own taste or if the buyer is looking for a retro gem, they will just adjust it to fit better to their needs.

Studio flat in Budapest, 53m2

Sketches and plans done! Waiting for green light to start this fascinating project - hopefully very soon!

You can see here the moodboard, the before pics and the most recent after pics.

Now painting is done, new kitchen units are installed. Still some wallpapering, cleaning and then the decoration!

Now the back of the wardrobe has a nice leafy wallpaper. Had a few other options but chose this green pattern Fuji Emerald from Romo's Oxygen collection.

Also the photos has been printed and framed.

Finally the staging is done and the photos taken! How do you like it?

I'll let you what it is the asking price and how the selling is going!

2 bedroom flat in Budapest, 107m2

With this big and light apartment in the central area of Budapest I started with de-cluttering and tidying up. I packed the small personal items into boxes and placed them in the storage room behind the bathroom.

As the space was not empty it was cost-wisely better to use the existing pieces of furniture. The main colour was picked up from the color of the red couch and armchair. All the walls were repainted in white to give a clean, fresh and light atmosphere. 

There was no need to change the layout of the rooms. The three main rooms facing the street were kept as a master bedroom, living room and  study/guestroom.

I always like to make the beds as inviting as possible with thick duvets, nice sheets and duvet covers, plankets and loads of cushions. White always looks fresh. This time I kept the red colour in the guest room as there was already a red bedspread, just added some iconic 'Unikko' duvet covers by a Finnish brand called Marimekko to cheer up the room a bit more.

Red is a pretty strong colour and might be a deal breaker to someone. So I decided to downshift the hue by adding crispy white which makes the space feel airy and fresh and by a hint of black to sharpen the overall look. All the time keeping in mind the potential target group, which was a young/young-ish couple who wanted to live in a hectic part of the city. 

It was no use starting a costly reno in the kitchen as the meaning of staging is to create an illusion what can be done and what fits to the space. Anyway, the flat was move-in ready and everything was functioning. Same thing with the bathroom. 

My aim was to highlight the flat's assets while downplaying its flaws.

The average price of similar size flats in the area was 32 million forints. After the staging was done the owner had courage to put a new price tag of 42 million forints. The price for staging was 350.000ft.

After three weeks the flat was sold with the new asking price! 

3 bedroom flat in Budapest, 134m2

This big home mainly needed uncluttering, so packing was the first step. After that a couple of walls were painted. The rooms were reorganised and some of their functions were changed. In the original home there were 4 bedrooms, but I decreased it to 3 and staged the room which was their main bedroom as a dining room. 

I brought some textiles, paintings and pieces of furniture to create cosyness and comfort. Added lamps and a few design pieces like Nelson's Coconut chair and Le Corbusier's Lounge Chaise. Changed the curtains to lighter ones to bring in as much light as possible.

The real estate agency's estimate selling price for the original flat was 60 million Hungarian forints. After staging the new price tag was 82 millions and the flat was sold in 79 millions. That makes 19 million forints more. The total cost of home-staging was 0,5 million, so it was worth to use home-staging services. 

2 bedroom flat in Helsinki, 100m2

A modern 2-bedroom apartment was put for sale with a price tag of 375.000€. An agent was selling it for 6 months without any luck. The owner wasn’t happy with the situation… Better later than never, she realized that a key word would be home-staging.

I was happy to start this project by using pieces of furniture of her relatives to minimize expenses, renting some and buying the rest, which she could easily use in her new home. The apartment was in a good condition, so no renovation was needed at all. I decided to paint a couple of walls in shades of grey to give a bit more character to the space.

Bedroom should always be cosy and fresh, so that a potential buyer would want to jump into that bed and have a good night sleep there. Relaxing neutral colour scheme is pretty essetial. Blue is a much more calming colour than red.

The second bedroom is staged as a guestroom showing what can be fitted there – a bed and a desk. It could have been styled as a chldren’s room, but the target group wasn’t a family with children, but rather for a couple, whose children have already moved out.

In staging it’s important to find out who is the target group, and style the apartment according to that.

Also the living room is staged with neutral shades like grey, beige and crispy white  with a splash of colours in small decorative items like teacandle holders and flowers. Note how the curtains softens the look even if they are just plain white ones.

First impression is always important, and you can make it only once. Inviting, clean & cosy apartment without any extra clutter always gives a homely feeling.

Among neutral shades a splash of colour in form of flowers and small items gives that wanted cosy feeling. Fresh flowers definitely make wonders!

Kitchen is the heart of almost any home, so it should look clean, functional and as a place where a potential buyer would love to cook and be having dinner. A nicely set table looks much better than an empty one, doesn’t it?

How did I start this project? By collecting pictures and making moodboards to find the right atmosphere of the apartment.

A layout with furnished rooms gives a good sense of the apartment, and a buyer can see straight away the most ideal way how to use the space.

Below you can find also pictures of the apartment before staging. It was nice & tidy, but had a bit old-fashion look, and too many personal items. It’s good to remember that you are not selling your home, but an apartment which a potential buyer could see as his/her future home.

And finally the most important part – the apartment was sold in 2 months for 420.000€!!!  Price for the home-staging in this case was 2.500€ including all the work and purchases.

So putting 2.500€ for home-staging gave for the client 42.500€ more!

Profit: 420.000-375.000=45.000-2.500=42.500€ 

1 bedroom flat in Helsinki

This one bedroom apartment with an open layout of kitchen and living room was without any pieces of furniture except a massive wardrobe in smallish bedroom. Some of the walls had quite an aggressive shade of orange.

Brought all the furniture, added some wallpaper and paint on some of the walls. Wanted to make the place harmonious and inviting - so that the potential buyer would feel it like home. Also wanted to show the space and what and how to place the furniture, so the buyer doesn't need to imagine everything in her/his head, but can see the functionality of the space at one look.

Asking price was €295.000, highest offer was €250.000, after staging  this property was sold in 2 days with €310.000. Was the client happy? No need to ask!

FLOWER POWER

Nothing beats a bunch of fresh flowers. They are beautiful, of course, but they also give a caring, cosy and fresh feeling to a space. 

At FlowerMe you can order a beautiful, organic bunch and it will be delivered straight to your address.

Here are some simple tips to do before showing your home to a potential buyer:

De-clutter and organize

Fresh air is better than an unpleasant smell

Keep it simple

Art, paintings and photos shouldn't be devastating 

No personal photos, children's drawings

Lots of natural light or enough lamps

Fresh plants and flowers

Fix the doorhandles, running taps etc

Every space should look functonal

Close the lid of the toilet seat

Let the rooms be airy, not too full

Cosy atmosphere - a cup of coffee, an open book, a scented candle, a scented soap etc

Neutral colours

I love to make moodboards! They help me to create the right atmosphere in a place.

Home-staging is not just de-cluttering but also adding elements which make potential buyers feeling good.

Hope you will get some inspirations from these moodboards!

A) Consultation fee 50€ - I give you advice & suggestions

B) Re-arranging existing furniture & decluttering fee starting from 400€

- adding soft furbishing such as rugs, cushions, curtains, bedspreads, blankets will cost according to the budget

C) Home-staging fee for an empty space starting from 800€

- adding furniture & textiles according to the budget

I am sure we will find the perfect soluton for your home and budget and you will get a better price for your place!