Home staging: tips for staging your property

Home staging is an important part of marketing your property for sale. Comparis explains what it involves and provides tips on how to achieve the best results.

Magdalena Soll Foto
Magdalena Soll

22.08.2023

How do I stage my home for the sales process?

iStock/KatarzynaBialasiewicz

1.What is home staging?
2.Home staging: what costs can I expect?
3.Who can I hire for home staging?
4.Why is professional home staging worthwhile?
5.Adding value through home staging: tips and tricks

1. What is home staging?

Home staging can improve the look of your home. It helps the sales process and increases the chances of success in many cases.

Home staging is simply preparing and styling your house or apartment to attract buyers. It involves arranging furniture and using lighting and colour to showcase the interior rooms of a property. After all: during the property viewing first impressions count.

Virtual home staging

A home can also be staged virtually, for example with a 360-degree tour, drone shots or real estate videos. Such methods allow interested buyers to view the apartment or house interactively from the comfort of their homes. Ideally, this may reduce the time and effort required for physical property viewings.

Tip: discover what a virtual tour might look like. You can do that with Matterport for example (link in German).

2. Home staging: what costs can I expect?

The cost of home staging mainly depends on:

  • the property

  • the scope of services

  • the billing of services (e.g. price per square metre or fixed price per room)

  • and the provider

As a rule of thumb: you can expect to pay between 2,500 and 20,000 francs depending on the size of the property. If you hire an estate agent, home staging may already be included in the service.

You can save money by decluttering the rooms yourself and leaving the finishing touches to a professional stager. The cheapest option: do all the staging work yourself.

What is the value of my property?

Do you know how much your property is worth? With Comparis, you can have your property valued quickly and easily online. This will give you a first indication of the valuations by a real estate expert.

Get your property valued

3. Who can I hire for home staging?

Home staging is not a regulated profession in Switzerland. This means you don’t need particular qualifications to operate a home staging business. Consequently, people offering home staging services typically have a wide range of professional backgrounds. In Switzerland, the following professionals usually offer these services:

  • Home stagers

  • Estate agents with a home staging service

  • Photographers

  • Interior designers

Good to know: there is a Swiss Association for Home Staging and Redesign (SVHR) (link only available in German). The association has a directory of providers who adhere to established quality criteria.

4. Why is professional home staging worthwhile?

It is possible to do home staging yourself. However, it can involve a lot of hard work and costs – and you will need to invest in furniture and decorative items. Professional home stagers can do the work for you. Other advantages of professional home staging include:

  • Faster sale: more interested buyers increase your chances of a sale. Professional home staging may speed up the sale and prevent the property from standing empty.

  • Increase in selling price: an expertly presented property will appear to be of better quality. Home staging can therefore have a positive effect on price negotiations.

If you have opted for professional home staging: find out which home staging offers are free and request several from different providers.

5. Adding value through home staging: tips and tricks

Home staging should give prospective buyers a positive impression of your property. The main aim is to create a warm and inviting space that will appeal to buyers whether they are just looking at photos or viewing the property in person. These tips will help you present your property in its best light:

Go through your home room by room and dispose of items you no longer need. Make the place look neat and tidy. Arranging temporary storage can make sense.

Give your home a thorough clean. A pristine property makes a good impression on potential buyers.

Potential buyers want to be able to imagine themselves living in the property. This is more difficult if they are surrounded by your family photos, personal belongings and mementos.

So walk through your home and remove any decorative items that are more personal in nature.

Open all curtains and blinds before a viewing. This will make the property appear lighter and more welcoming.

Floor lamps and spotlights can also add to the ambience of a space.

Although you may love your cat or dog, prospective buyers may not share your sentiment. Make sure everywhere is spotlessly clean. Put away toys, food and water bowls.

Never leave any rooms empty. Turn any unused space into an office or hobby room.

Once your home is looking its best, you should take photos for the sales brochure and online listing. Good-quality photos attract the interest of potential buyers. Try to use the right equipment, such as a camera with a wide-angle lens and a tripod, and ensure you have good lighting with as much natural light as possible.

If you want really impressive pictures, drone photography is a good option. These images provide a more realistic impression of the building and surroundings compared to traditional photos. These additional tips will help you create professional photos for your property listing.

This article was first published on 08.05.2019

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