Home staging in Edmonton is one of the best ways to sell your house quickly and for more money. We have written many blog posts about why home staging is valuable and an immeasurable process when preparing to list your home. Still, we have never covered why the minimalist approach is excellent when it comes to staging to sell. While there is, of course, a place for luxurious staging furniture and decor, it is certainly not the norm. Staging your house minimally allows for your home to speak for itself, and we’re giving you 4 concrete reasons why you should lean into a minimalist approach when thinking about staging your home!
1. Less is always more.
Sometimes luxury staging can look like, well, a lot. There is usually an excess of decor, lamps, paintings, furniture, etc. While this can be really great if you have a massive home, it’s just not practical for most people! Excess of anything takes away from your home, and you want buyers to come into your home and feel like they can imagine themselves living there. By adding very tasteful and simple pieces intentionally throughout the house, you’re giving buyers this opportunity to envision their own decor and furniture in your home. For example, the photo above has everything you would need to see in a children’s room to understand the purpose; a bed for sleeping, a chair for sitting and reading a book, a nightstand with a lamp, and a plant for a simple way to bring life to the room.
2. Comparison is the thief of joy.
Luxury staging is great in theory, but most people can’t afford to fill their homes with those kinds of items. When someone comes across your listing on REALTOR.ca, they want to be captivated by the reality that your home could be their home. It’s very discouraging to walk into a home you love that is styled in an unattainable way, so much so that buyers will often walk away from a home because they can’t unsee such extravagant furniture in a home the way so badly. Comparing your own furniture to the luxury items in a home can be difficult, so it’s always best to use accessible and friendly furniture when staging your home. Buyers will connect with your home much more if they feel familiar with how it is staged.
3. The minor details are more important.
Often what we see with luxury staging is an excess of things that just aren’t necessary. A home filled with plenty of furniture, over-the-top decor, lamps, pillows, etc., is more challenging to connect with; the reality is that excess furniture and decor take away from the home itself. So much so that it becomes increasingly difficult for buyers to picture the house without everything inside. By minimally staging your home, you are adding tasteful details that allow potential buyers to appreciate how furniture could look in their home. Trust us, focusing on minor touches will go much further than adding extravagant details!
What we mean by minimal, tasteful details:
- 2-3 books on a coffee table
- Placing a few throw pillows on the couch
- Hanging a simple portrait behind the dining room table
- Putting a plant in an empty space
4. Home staging is a marketing strategy, not an interior design strategy.
Home staging is, at the end of the day, a marketing and selling strategy. Sure, some interior design companies will stage your home to look stunning, but that isn’t necessarily what will sell your home. We look at the community you’re in, what schools are nearby, what the list price of your house will be, comparables in the neighbourhood, etc. We have effectively staged homes on all ends of the pricing spectrum, from the lower end, higher end, and everything in between. It’s our job to determine who the most likely buyer would be of your home and to stage it that way! Once we have determined who will most likely be interested in buying your house (i.e. larger families, new parents, empty-nesters, retired folks, a student, etc.), we stage it to suit how they would most likely live in the house. Long story short, home staging in Edmonton comes down to marketing, not how expensive the couch is in your living room.
This is where Realty Unleashed shines!
Realty Unleashed is an independent real estate brokerage serving clients in Edmonton and Calgary. We offer free home staging, free listing cleaning, free yard maintenance, free eco-station and donation centre runs, and more because we value acts of service. We also have seen time and time again the proof that staging your home before you list it is the key to selling fast and for more money. If you are considering listing your house in Edmonton and are in the market for a REALTOR®, fill out the form below – someone from our team will get back to you shortly!
