Selling a house first and at the best price with an innovative strategy

We are in the era of the image, surrounded by perfect XXL-sized images, screens with 4K resolutions, advertising where elegance, design and style reign in all its forms. Yet, when we put a property up for sale, we do not worry at all about its appearance, much less the photographs that we often find on the portals: dark, sparse, shaky and not even in sufficient numbers to make it clear how the hell the apartment is made.

Car salespeople have known this for a long time! The car market has different rules, on average in Quattroruote magazines you will find the evaluation on the vehicle you are interested in, divided according to the type and year of registration. It is really difficult to find a used car for sale that has not first undergone a more or less important make-up: of course washing but also polishing, replacement of the mats, recovery of the damaged bodywork and so on. A value that the dealer systematically deducts from the figure indicated by the magazine: up to 10% of the value of the car.

For a real estate investor, the enhancement aspect is not new, on the contrary it is often the basis on which his business is based: acquisition of assets at a good price and often in poor condition, more or less invasive restructuring and new placing on the market at a price that takes into account not only the real value of the work carried out and the various costs incurred, but also an additional value that will be the investor's earnings.

It is precisely in this phase that it is necessary to give a great impulse to the operation, creating the conditions for the property to remain on the market as soon as possible is the first rule: returning the investment made early is the only way to continue your own activities and obtain credibility and reliability from financial institutions. Home staging can give a great impetus to accelerate this path. It is a real estate marketing technique that is still too little widespread in Italy, but this can actually be a determining differentiating factor for innovators. And in the luxury market it becomes necessary, indeed essential.

Maybe you've heard of Home Staging before or maybe you haven't. You are in the right place to discover the details of this effective marketing strategy widely spread in overseas and Anglo-Saxon countries that we know well to be always ahead in terms of innovation. Let's see together how the intervention of a professional home stager develops.

1. Inspection phase and target evaluation. This preliminary phase is essential to define the potential of the property and establish the target audience, that is, the customer potentially interested in the purchase. Often this phase is the most neglected, not because it is not evaluated at all, on the contrary because it is faced in the wrong way. The seller believes that the "smartest" thing is to make sure that the property is of interest to a large public. This illusion has also often been fueled by the generalist messages of alleged home stagers, who have communicated how it is necessary to depersonalize the apartments, use neutral colors and make sure that they can please "as many people as possible". Nothing more wrong! The reality is that it is necessary to identify the specific target audience for that particular property and use a style that is “neutral” for that particular target. I mean choices of elements and materials that that target considers neutral because it falls within the range of expectations dictated by the cultural fabric in which it lives. To give an easy example, let's think of a loft, inside it will be "neutral" to insert COR-TEN steel furniture and wooden pallets: the same elements inserted in a 70s apartment will look like scrap metal and tools left over from the move. Clear isn't it? Only on the basis of the study of the target audience and the identification of the buyer person (the potential buyer customer) is it possible to move on to the next phase.

2. Preliminary and preventive design phase. Only after the home stager has collected the necessary information and identified the target audience can it define a preliminary design and make a quote for the potentially most effective proposal. Here the streets can be many depending on the conditions of the property itself. It can be interesting to take advantage of the advice of a home stager even only in the preliminary phase of the purchase, his talent often helps the investor to evaluate what will be the correct and necessary intervention for the restyling: sometimes a painting and small restyling is enough, other times just the bathroom renovation, up to complete renovations. Of course, in some cases it will be necessary to be accompanied by a competent qualified technician.

3. Virtual home staging phase. If medium-long times are expected for renovation works, a first step may involve the creation of photorealistic renderings: a renderer creates 3D images of the various environments in pixels following the stylistic guidelines dictated by the home stager with whom he works in close contact. The costs are around a few hundred euros for each view to be produced. If the market is particularly active, often the use of virtual home staging attached to the real estate ad, manages to sell the property before the completion of the works! But this is not always the case and if the property is accessible and can be visited, do not waste time creating renderings that risk creating high expectations and then obtain the effect of disappointment when the customer arrives at home: laymen often do not have the an imagination that seems obvious to real estate developers and home stagers.

4. Real home staging phase. If the restyling works are short, it makes no sense to make renderings, the most correct strategic choice is to prepare the property with real home staging. First of all, the activation of the electric light and the insertion of lighting fixtures and warm light lamps is a must, and of course a thorough cleaning of the rooms, bathrooms and windows. The project developed by the professional home stager will cover various interventions: any decorations / paintings for the walls, insertion of furniture, objects and accessories that will be left in the property only for the period necessary for the sale and a specific photo shoot that will produce captivating images and attractive to the identified target. Nothing is left to chance, each object creates a subliminal message that only the professional and experienced home stager is capable of producing. There are numerous simulations of those who improvise home stagers with candles and pillows placed everywhere that arouse very different reactions: hilarity, sadness, confusion up to funereal images of dozens of candles on the beds…! Even a particularly good photographer will not be able to produce acceptable photos if the property has not been properly prepared first. The costs of real home staging vary not only according to the size of the asset to be sold, but also its value. It is clear that a high spending target will have completely different expectations than a more modest target, this affects the value of the material but also of the entire design. The overall operation, also always including the professional photo shoot and often also an emotional real estate video, ranges between 1-2% of the property's value, even reaching 3% or more in particularly depressed markets.

5. Complementary phase of additional services. Many home stagers offer numerous other complementary services that can greatly enrich sales opportunities. Creation of virtual tours, real estate videos, furnished floor plans, real estate ads, promotional postcards, coordinated graphics, sales assistance as a show agent, and numerous visual activities, but also the appropriate communication strategy for each property. There is no exact rule on the services and activities to be done because everything must be preceded by a correct marketing plan with which the most effective strategy to be implemented for the sale is identified
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