4 Ways to Impress Home Buyers with Your Home Staging

 

If you’re ready to list Upper East Side, Tribeca, or other NYC real estate for sale, you’ll need to become familiar with the concept of home staging. Staging is when you prepare your home for buyers by styling and furnishing it to show off its best features, its floor plan, and its overall appeal.

Any experienced NYC realtor (and especially one who specializes in Upper East Side real estate) will be able to show you statistics that emphasize the importance of staging your Manhattan luxury home prior to listing it for sale. According to the National Association of REALTORS 2021 Profile of Home Staging, a whopping 82% of buyers’ agents report that staging helps their clients visualize a home as their own. Staging can make a strong first impression, which can encourage buyers to fall in love with Upper East Side, Tribeca, and other NYC condos and submit a strong offer. If buyers want it badly, they’re less likely to press for contingencies and may be willing to up their offer during negotiations.

Staging is an all-encompassing term that includes decluttering, depersonalizing, cleaning, and even painting the main rooms in your residence, including the living room, kitchen, dining room, and primary bedroom.

Staging is a vital step in the home selling process, and hiring the right professional help is critical. Like any other step in the selling process, staging can be done poorly. A home that hasn’t been staged (or has been staged poorly) can promptly dissuade buyers from submitting an offer.

For instance, not having a solid plan for how to make your Upper East Side, Tribeca, or other NYC real estate presentable or keeping outdated furniture and decor in the house are bad ideas. This is because the general goal of staging is to inspire buyers, not make them think about the previous owner. Other bad ideas include painting the interior in a non-neutral color or being lax about leaving your home messy and lived-in—as opposed to decluttered and crisply detailed.

Additionally, don’t put your living room furniture against the wall. You may think this makes the room appear bigger, but it doesn’t. If you have your home professionally staged, the stager may elect to bring in their own furniture, especially if your furniture pieces appear too large. A room that seems cold and uninviting can easily turn off buyers.

Upper East Side, Tribeca, and other NYC homes for sale that haven’t been staged will appear cluttered, crowded, and even dingy and dark compared to the work of a professional stager. If you haven’t bothered to put in the time to spruce up your home, buyers may suspect that the home has been poorly maintained over the years and that there may be problems with it beyond its appearance. A home that has been staged implies the opposite by being bright, warm, and accommodating. Most importantly, it will look well-maintained.

Additionally, regardless of whether your home is located in the Upper East Side, Tribeca, or another NYC borough or neighborhood, it will look much better once you’ve removed about half of your belongings. It will be more appealing to buyers once you’ve taken down personal touches like family photos, kid's toys, and your collection of knick-knacks. Buyers want to envision their family in the home, not be distracted by reminders of your family. 

Home styling is an advanced concept of staging that includes coming up with a unique color scheme, adding textures to a room, and placing lamps or other light fixtures to create an enhanced mood. It can also include adding area rugs, throw pillows and cushions, and even new curtains in warm, neutral colors to give Upper East Side, Tribeca, and other NYC homes an updated look that will remain in style. Many experts advise sellers to paint their homes in warm, neutral colors such as off-white, gray, beige, or even taupe. Depending on your property, you may vary a bit, as long as it will appeal to the largest number of buyers.

One of the key steps in staging Upper East Side, Tribeca, and other NYC homes for sale is to strategically arrange furniture. This will help give buyers a better sense of your home’s overall floor plan and will ease foot traffic throughout the space. Start by removing any extra chairs or end tables that are cluttering the room. Then, arrange your remaining furniture around a centerpiece such as a fireplace, an entertainment center, or a window—especially if you have a view of Central Park or other Manhattan attractions.

There’s a saying in real estate that “kitchens sell homes,” so pay particular attention to staging this important room in your Upper East Side, Tribeca, or other NYC home for sale. Give it a fresh coat of paint (including the fronts of the cabinets), clear the counters, straighten out the cupboards, drawers, and pantry, and clean the windows. If you have open shelving, you can stylishly arrange dishes, glassware, and a few pieces of decor.

You can easily make your bedrooms look fresh and stylish by clearing all surfaces of clutter, adding extra pillows to the bed, and making sure your bedding is clean and new. Adding a headboard if you don’t already have one and hanging a mirror on the wall will help round out the look.

If you don’t want to stage your Upper East Side, Tribeca, or other NYC real estate yourself, you can hire a professional. The average cost for professional stagers in NYC is $300-600 for an initial design consultation and $500-600 per month for each staged room. Renting furniture will add to the cost, and the final bill can be between $2,400-6,000, depending on how quickly the home sells.

Above and beyond professional guidance for staging, you’ll achieve the best results when listing an Upper East Side, Tribeca, or other NYC home for sale by partnering with Manhattan luxury realtor Chris Fry and the Fry Team. Chris is one of the top-producing agents in New York City and has deep, local knowledge and market analysis to offer each of his clients. If you’re ready to list Upper East Side, Tribeca, or other NYC real estate or have questions about getting ready for the competitive Manhattan real estate market, contact Chris and his team today.