Staging Your Home For The Vancouver Real Estate Market

One of the most important ones is staging your home for sale. Staging may seem like way too much work during a busy time, but how your property looks can make a major difference to how many people come to actually see it and on how much it ultimately sells for.

Not convinced? Consider this. How your house looks online is one of the biggest factors when it comes to buyers discovering your home, and 96% of buyers use the Internet to search for homes. 90% of buyers use the Internet to source information on specific properties.

Here are three steps to staging your home:

Step #1: Meet Staging Companies

While it may be tempting to stage your home on your own, engaging with a staging company can save you a lot of time and ensure the best possible result. Contact staging companies to get three quotes to start.

Depending on which company you engage there can be cost differences in the initial month of staging and the recurring furniture rental fee month over month should your house not sell in the first month. Your realtor should help facilitate this process for you. Once you decide which company you want to proceed with, you will sign a staging agreement and determine which date and time the house will be staged.

Step # 2: Stage Your Home

The staging company crew will arrive onsite for the installation. Depending on the extent of the staging, this may take a few hours or several days if painting or other cosmetic changes are needed. Remember, the goal of staging your home is to help increase buyer interest and help you get your asking price.

Once the staging company is done they’ll do a final walk through with the client and/or realtor.

Step # 3: Home is Sold/Renewal

Once your home is sold your realtor should contact the staging company to schedule the date (determined by the client) that the staging company can come in and remove the furniture. If your home doesn’t sell and you require a renewal you will need to notify the staging company within 72 hours to advise them of the continued rental of the staging furniture.

If you’re working on staging, it’s important to keep in mind that you’ll need to play a role in the process – it’s not just up to your realtor and staging company.

A few things to consider as you get ready:

• If necessary, you’ll need to contact your strata council to book the elevator for the staging company move in and out dates.
• You’ll need to set up property access for the staging company.
• Before staging can happen you’ll need to clean the home, perform general repairs, declutter your outdoor space, move furniture and remove personal items.

Home staging takes time and effort, but in our experience it is well worth it as it will pay for itself in many ways from increasing interest in your property to your asking price.

If you’re in the Vancouver area and need help finding staging companies or have general questions, we can help, better yet, book a coffee session if you’re preparing to sell and need a real estate team you can trust.