After all the years you’ve lived in your beautiful home, it’s time to move on. Sure, it’s looking tired and your furniture could do with a freshen up, but those home stylists are super-expensive, right? Do they even make a difference at the end of the day? Can’t you just borrow some furniture for a bit and see if that does the trick? Can I just DIY style my home? No.
Well, yes – but you don’t want to.
DIY? D-I- Don’t!
What’s the big deal with just grabbing a few bits and pieces – you can hire them these days – and subbing them in for your old stuff? Just style my home myself?
Because it looks like you’ve just grabbed a few bits and pieces and subbed them in for your old stuff, that’s why. You might think you have a flair for these things and you probably do, but a professional stylist does this for a living. They live and breathe not only what looks nice, but also a deep knowledge of buying trends, the current market, what sold recently, and how it was styled.
On top of all that, you’d end up spending a fortune (in money and time) hiring or buying the finishings and furniture one-by-one on your own.
The other option where you need a little extra help from a professional eye is virtual styling. It’s exactly what it sounds like: you design the style on a computer and then buyers show up to an empty home. Yes, empty. They see the virtual look on a screen instead. Very hard for buyers to develop that critical emotional connection that ends up in dollars in your bank when they’re bouncing around a bare room. The emotion of instant disappointment is NOT the one you are going for.
”I know someone”
Yeah look, we all do but getting Terry the Truck Driver to deliver a load of stocko furniture they’ve picked and packed at the local furniture hire place is not going to grab you that bump in sale price you’re so looking for. You may even end up hiring a stylist after all that and then you’ve paid twice.
So maybe you go one step further and budget for a “cheap and cheerful” stylist. The only problem is, her stock is all the latest Instagram trends from Kmart and your property screams “Kmart prices” – giving the buyer the indication that you can be bargained down for I styled my home with Kmart so I am selling it at Kmart price (or worse- that you have terrible taste in home furnishings).
Shitty DIY styling is bad and cheap styling is a red flag – if you are being quoted $2000 to style a four-bedroom, two-storey house, something is wrong.
What are your options if you want a house styled to sell, and sell well?
Do it right. Yes it costs more but experts say it’s becoming the absolute standard when it comes to a house sale. Honestly, the ROI can be tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands in profit above what you’d be expecting without it. For example, see the ROI for some of the clients of Stagency – The Styling Agency
Lunn Street, Sandgate – sold at first open house with a price over $1 Million.
Twenty Second Avenue, Brighton – under offer before first open, multiple offers thereafter.
Benson Street, Scarborough – sold at first open above asking price.
Wharf Street, Shorncliffe – originally valued at $880,000 with four weeks of work and styling – sold for $1.145 million, making a $265,000 price difference and a massive 3421% return on styling cost.
Dillon Road, The Gap – Sold $60,000 above asking price after having failed to sell with another stylist – 677% ROI in styling.
Eaton Place, Wishart – Sold $256,000 above asking in a very strong market place and made a 5001% ROI in styling.
A legit property stylist or interior stylist in Brisbane is in the business and can make the vital connections for you that end up in these kinds of sale prices. They’re working for you, care about you and your property, have connections to real estate, local tradespeople, other interior stylists, and people who you wouldn’t normally have access to, giving you a better chance of making a better sale.
At the end of the day, investing in making your home the showpiece it has the potential to be instead of trying to cut all the corners winds up money in your pocket. It’s a no-brainer.
Don’t get caught up in the do-it-yourself or the I-know-a-guy house staging scenario: organise your property styling consultation now