By Aleksandra Scepanovic, managing director for Ideal Properties Group
A home is a home regardless of the season. Still, when selling a home, an impactful marketing plan needs to include staging – a critical element in helping the home create a vision for the future homeowner and in the process, helping it achieve a higher sales price.
According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), “83% of buyers’ agents” say that “staging a home made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home.” As a broker and a stager, I concur.
How a home is staged translates into major wins or losses on the “must-buy-this-one” list of its prospects. Even a very slight change in furniture (scale, color, placement…), décor and the positioning as well as correlation of the myriad design elements can mean the difference between a successful sale and an altogether lack thereof.
Brokers with expertise in a specific geographic area will understand the nuances of staging a home in their respective field of expertise, but they will also account for variations presented by the seasons. In the wintertime, for instance, brokers rely on plush, thick, soft fabrics that radiate warmth and coziness as well as darker colors to create the home’s inviting feeling of comfort and warmth.
Summertime staging is very different and these layers of fabric are shed. Light, energy and color take over the stage – and speak a vibrant and brilliant language of the season.
Below are some of the key elements that are sure to result in a successful staging and sale of a home in the summer:
Embracing colors
The summer is a time for a mix of bright bold colors and crisp light neutrals. As in most seasons, we will often stage a home with a number of statement pieces. In summertime, this could be a colorful orange throw on a crisp white couch or a bold red couch in front of a full or partition painted wall in neutral tones. The use of solid colors conveys the summer’s most cherished feelings of confidence and energy.
Welcoming light
Light is another aspect that agents play up in the summer. Natural sunlight is critical and the longer daylight hours are very advantageous to a home stage. Agents can temporarily remove curtains that could be blocking off light, or furniture blocking the full view of windows. The interventions are aimed at creating a light and airy sense of space. Unobstructed light that brightens a room — also makes it feel more spacious.
Nature and the outdoors
Summer is also a time for the outdoors. If a home has any outdoor space, it should be curated perfectly. Bushes and trees should be trimmed, lawns manicured. The outdoors could also be brought inside, for example, with a large staple plant – a very green plant, which radiates and accentuates a sense of lushness. This is a simple way of reminding the homebuyer of the summer’s ties to the outdoors. Weaving plants into a successful home listing will help create a feeling of purity and nature within.
Whether the summertime or wintertime, my advice to brokers is to always work with local talent to enhance their staging projects. This can include a lineup of ceramicists, artists or furniture designers. People pick specific neighborhoods for a reason. By working with someone local, a bit of the neighborhood characteristic can be easily brought into a home.
Staging a home is an art project and the property is an agent’s canvas. Have fun during the process and create the vision you and your seller want for the future homeowner.
