Submitted. What do emotion, smell and optical illusion have in common? All three can sell your home faster and higher!
Buying a home is an important decision. It can be said the more significant a purchase the more convincing emotions and their triggers become in a buyers decision making process.
For anyone who has sold a home, you know it is a stressful process. Professional presentation can shorten the selling duration, often by half what an un-staged home will be on the market for. Most would agree an early sale usually goes along with the best price. The longer a house sits on the market, the less likely it will sell for the asking price.
It’s usually counter-productive to start high and plan for price reductions. A ‘reduced’ sign suggests something is wrong, or buyers figure they will wait for it to reduce again. It’s better to position your house positively, using emotion, smell and optics right from the beginning.
Staging is not just about removing family photos and making the beds. It has science behind it. In this article, we’ll look at the first of three in our series – emotion.
Psychologists and neuroscientists have discovered that it is the connection of emotions (feelings) to reasons (thoughts) that causes behaviour.
General price range is dictated by the location and features of a property. However, to obtain the top of that range is controlled by how well you make your home connect to the emotion of the buyer so they walk away from the viewing saying it ‘felt right’. Price, square footage and location can all be trumped by visceral reaction.
Research in advertising indicates that emotion can be twice as important as knowledge in buying decisions. It varies by individual and circumstance, but there’s no doubt it’s a critical factor.
Before a viewer becomes a buyer, they need to go through a process that includes both logical thought (reasons) and emotions (feelings). Knowing this, a professional staging company will encourage the buying process by presenting not only logical reasons to buy a house, but also, emotional ones.
Home browsers start with a list of must-have features; the logical things like number of bedrooms, square footage, and location to schools. A professional stager will ensure the features of the home will be showcased to their best advantage.
After the logical search, buyer’s shortlist the houses they want to visit. As they review MLS, pictures catch their attention; your first chance to involve their emotions. Excellent photos of a professionally arranged room give you an edge in getting viewers to your open house.
When asked about their buying decision, buyers say the photos on the internet are where they fell in love with the house. When they visited, it was as expected. The online pictures were of warm and welcoming rooms they could picture themselves in, versus photos of someone’s possessions, initiated the emotional connection.
About Upstage
Upstage may not have a degree in psychology, but our 20+ years of experience working with people and their homes has brought us to appreciate the deep emotional connection sellers have to their property, and buyers have to purchasing.
Upstage uses furniture that the homeowner already has instead of pricey rental furniture. We have an accessible price point for all clients. Upstage will provide a free quote after a 20 minute meeting the homeowner. For more information about us, you can visit us at www.upstagenow.ca or contact us at 604 845 0861 or info@upstagenow.ca.
Julie and Juanita share a love of all things balanced and organized. Together they create a duo who makes your house the one on the block that sells!
Julia
Juanita