6 Ways to Impress Home Buyers With Your Home Staging

Los Angeles brims with luxury appeal, and its most desirable destinations have the properties to match. Luxury homes are the norm in places like Manhattan Beach, Playa Vista, and Redondo Beach. Median sales prices throughout South Bay well exceed $1 million. Even amid extraneous factors like inflation and high interest rates, demand for existing luxury properties and new construction houses remains strong.

 

All the above is good news if you want to sell your home in South Bay. However, affluent buyers come to this elevated market with certain expectations. Online, they scroll through listing photos seeking beautifully appointed kitchens, perfectly arranged living rooms, and warm bedrooms and bathrooms. When buyers witness the thrill of a well-lived life, whether from afar or while touring your home in person, they are much more motivated to buy. And that’s why it pays to work with a trusted agent like Holly Danna.

 

Holly brings a powerful sense of inevitability to your sale: she knows who will buy your house. Read on to learn about home staging and how you can benefit from working with Holly.

Holly and her team have a mantra regarding luxury home sales. They don’t just put your home on the market — they create it. And they do this by physically improving your home, so it’s ready to be marketed.

 

Before you even begin to clean, walk through your property as if you are seeing it for the first time. Is your junk drawer brimming with random keys and batteries? Are your bathroom cabinets stuffed full? Is the linen closet moments away from an avalanche of blankets? Overflowing closets, cluttered vanities, and towers of boxes need to be moved out.

 

Besides empty space, you also want your home to have a blank slate regarding repairs. Even minor issues like loose door handles or flickering lightbulbs can wrong-foot buyers, many of whom are touring several luxury estates on the same day. Holly and her team can coordinate a pre-listing inspection to catch unknown problems.

 

Once your home is a blank slate empty of problems and personal touches, it should be cleaned until camera-ready, then staged.

When Holly and her team take on a new listing, the very first thing they do is formulate a plan. With their technology, Holly and her team can pinpoint buyers already searching online for homes in your area. These buyer classes or personas are ideal marks at this point in your sale. Experience shows at least one of them is likely to buy your house.

 

Lifestyle and ambiance are crucial components of staging, and architectural style is a critical variable. Once you’ve identified your probable buyers, you can tailor the staging of your house. For example, if Holly helps you determine your home is ideal for buyers in their 30s starting a family, your presentation should speak to them.

As you organize the interior of your home, Holly organizes specific contractors necessary for a successful sale. She acts as a general contractor and sources specific contractors like painters, carpenters, and other needed repair specialists. The range of services encompasses staging, cosmetic enhancements (like painting), major projects (like flooring), and more.

 

And with Compass Concierge, you get fronted for the cost of these home improvement services with no interest. Besides coordinating contractors, Holly works with you to tailor your specific instructions to each contractor. With each individual working from the same plan, the staging of your home unfolds smoothly.

Home sales benefit from both the art of staging and the science of marketing. In other words, a successful sale has physical and virtual components. As the term “staging” suggests, you want to set the stage for your buyer. Staging belongs to the physical realm, and the goal is for buyers to feel at home. This is their kitchen, their bedroom, their sanctuary. When you show your home, it should be a fresh canvas with hints of each room's purpose.

 

Expert home stagers are cosmetic virtuosos. They can paint any surface, clean windows, and recarpet floors. Remember the buyer personas your agent identified in step two? Through visual presentation, each room will speak specifically to the type of buyer most likely to buy your house. Versatility is one watchword in today’s market. For example, you could outfit a spare room with a desk and a day bed, telling buyers they can use it for a guest room, office, or both.

 

This is your opportunity to show off your home in its best light, so arrange the furniture to evoke the feel of each space. This is especially helpful with oddly-shaped or large rooms that may feel overwhelming. Bathroom staging ideas may include spa-inspired decor and strategically placed towels and baskets. Consider using extra throw pillows and a soft blanket on the bed for bedroom staging to create a cozy feel.

Any agent will tell you when buyers buy a house; they’re also buying a story.

 

The best interior designers use subtle accents as story cues. You need only the hint of life: a few glasses and pans, a small, neat stack of towels, and lots of blank space to highlight your home’s storage areas. Sometimes, a crib in a quiet room is enough to sway the sale in your favor.

 

To go the extra mile, draw inspiration from the latest design trends. These trends are often seasonal. If you’re selling in the fall, emphasize the coziness or homeyness of your home with a rustic aesthetic. Homes & Gardens recommends warm color schemes that harmonize with the landscaping surrounding your house. Mid-century modern is having a moment, as are vintage finds, natural finishes, and fall florals.

 

Visual storytelling is fundamental and also a fun way to make the sale your own.

Regarding luxury homes, if your stager knows what they’re doing — what buyers to target, which contractors to hire, what features to emphasize through staging — your house will sell faster than the average in your local market.

 

Holly’s listings sell 2-3x faster than other agents and routinely sell for higher prices than competing homes. Her process is smart, proven, and transparent. Expect any repairs you make before staging to recoup a positive return on investment. Holly is accessible so you can ask her questions at any point. Don’t be surprised if your home sells in less than a week or two.

 

Whether you’re selling a Redondo, Hermosa, or Manhattan Beach home – or anywhere in the South Bay – you want your space to look magazine-worthy! Contact Holly if you’re listing a home in South Bay and want to learn more about the difference she can make.

_{*Header photo courtesy of Shutterstock}