The Power of Home Styling

Selling your home can be a very stressful time for anyone, and when you take into account all of the various things that you need to have organised in order to be able to secure the best price, it’s a lot to consider. For anyone who has ever sold their home, (and even for those who haven’t) you may have heard of a little thing called property styling. Property styling is where you decorate and organise your home in such a way so that it looks like your house is lived in or inhabited – but it’s done with hired furniture and by a professional decorator. Real estate agents have been surveyed and it’s been found that your final sale price will actually be boosted from 7.5 per cent to a whopping 12.5 per cent with the addition of property styling for your home. This was according to a survey done on top selling agents in the LJ Hooker network of agents in Australia. However, the agents were less convinced of the efficacy of styling a rental home, with only 22 per cent of agents thinking it was a worthwhile thing to do.

While it is possible to style your home yourself with furniture, the real estate agents who were surveyed, believed that it was better to hire a professional stylist in. You need someone who has plenty of experience working with a variety of interior styles, whether it is antique, retro or scandinavian style furnishings.

Some of the major benefits of property styling include:

• potentially, a higher sale price.
• potentially, a quicker sale due to the attractiveness and ‘livability’ of the property.
• more bidders, offers or people interested in the property (which means more competition)

From the survey of the estate agents at LJ Hooker, 87 per cent of top estate agents believed that a higher price would be achieved with property styling, and about half of the agents believed that you would be getting more offers on the property.

When is it a good time to style a property? When your property is empty, messy, dirty, crowded or poorly decorated, it makes sense to style your property as it will add appeal to the premises. As you would expect, it makes very little sense to style an inexpensive property as there’s very little return on the investment. While it’s a common belief that the smell of freshly baked biscuits, bread or brewing coffee adds appeal to a property, it’s actually the case that potential buyers might be suspicious of the presence of these scents and wonder what the smells are designed to distract them from!

For any potential buyer, there will be a higher level of attraction to a property if they can imagine themselves living in a property and relaxing in a lounge room or kitchen, for example. A well styled property is going to be neutral enough to suit anyone’s style or decoration, but will be homely and comfortable enough to appeal to a wide range of people. Speak to a range of decorators or designers, and jump online to look at the property styling photo gallery from a range of potential home stylists. Your real estate agent may also be able to recommend a potential decorator if you are completely stuck.

I hope that these tips about the benefits of home styling have been helpful to you, and that you manage to achieve a great sale price for your home. Don’t forget that you can always ask questions of your estate agent and get a second opinion if you want one. Happy selling, and good luck with your house price!