By coinnews 
00:00 Speaker A
If you’re looking to sell your home, how you stage it could impact uh and how you have a big impact on how fast you can get an offer. More than half of buyers’ agents say that home staging had an effect on buyers’ view of the home according to a report from the National Association of Realtors. Here with the details, Jessica Lots, National Association of Realtors, Deputy Chief Economist and Vice President of Research. Great to have you here with us. Why is staging so important?
00:43 Jessica Lots
Well, it helps a buyer actually walk into a home, visualize a home. They’re scrolling through a lot of photos and they want to make sure that that home really clicks with them and that could actually get them off the fence and into that home.
01:05 Speaker A
And so what is the kind of monetary impact here of staging? How much more can your home sell for ultimately if you make an effort to stage it?
01:20 Jessica Lots
Well, buyers and sellers agents are in agreement. We actually surveyed them separately to make sure that we were getting an accurate measure on this. And what they both said is it could actually increase the offer by 1 to 5%. So that’s actually a really good return on value for home staging, which could be much lower than that.
01:46 Speaker A
So when it comes to staging, your report found some rooms had more of an impact than others. So what are the rooms that should be prioritized here?
02:00 Jessica Lots
Well, it’s the rooms that have the biggest impact on where you’re going to live. Um so thinking about the living room, the kitchen, the primary bedroom. Uh that’s where people spend the most time and really probably where they want to visualize, okay, how is this going to be when I’m cooking a holiday meal or helping my kids with my homework? Um how am I going to relax in the evening? And that’s really where people want to visualize walking into that home.
02:37 Speaker A
Your report also touched on the importance of home repairs before listing a home. What are some of the most common improvements that you see sellers make before putting their home up for sale?
02:54 Jessica Lots
Well, a deep clean, obviously, curb appeal means a lot. Uh painting the home, doing a refresh. All of the things that really could be an eyesore before you walk into that home, you want to make sure to tackle them. Even removing the pets before showing uh can really make a difference there to home buyers as they walk into that home.
03:24 Speaker A
When do you know not to take a project on if it’ll cost too much, if there’s just not the return on investment versus the impression that you’re trying to make in order to get the sale done?
03:45 Jessica Lots
Well, certainly. I mean you probably don’t want to tackle a big kitchen remodel uh before you put that home on the market. But perhaps that leaky faucet is something that you might want to tackle. Uh so really thinking about the return on value of how much that costs. But your local realtor is going to be the one who’s going to be able to tell you at your price point what makes sense to tackle within this home.
04:15 Speaker A
Are we seeing any impact from tariffs? Tariffs making some of the small projects just a little bit more expensive and then that factoring into if a seller is kind of willing to take on or start that project?
04:35 Jessica Lots
Well, yet to be seen at this point. Uh what we have seen is more inventory coming into the market. Uh so we know with more inventory that means that people are tackling these projects in different ways. Uh could it cost more? It’s possible. Um but I’m sure that there’s ways around that too creatively.
04:59 Speaker A
And certainly as we think through whether it’s something that you say, all right, you know, I’ll just do this project myself versus have a contractor, have someone who is a vocational expert come in and do that project. When do you know to pass it off to the person who is the pro?
05:22 Jessica Lots
Well, I think that’s probably going to be an internal decision. Um if you don’t know how to tackle that project, you probably shouldn’t be doing it before you put your home up for sale. Uh certainly uh call the experts when you when you are in need. Uh there’s a lot of DIY that obviously goes around. If you feel comfortable doing it, if you feel comfortable taking up that paintbrush, but perhaps not the electrical wiring if you’ve never done that before. I know that YouTube gets a lot of people out of trouble, but maybe that’s not the be all and all.