What is Home Staging and why its worthwhile?

UNIKAT is delighted to be working with Elwira Zwolińska in the field of Home Staging. Within the scope of cooperation with UNIKAT’s clients, Elwira will undertake home staging projects and interior metamorphoses. In her projects, she loves to play with colours and different structures. In her projects, she pays special attention to functionality, without which any place can become a trap. In her work as a home stager, she always tries to bring out the potential of a property to light, to positively surprise. She helps owners to prepare an interior that will not only delight a potential customer but also increase the value of the property.

What is Home Staging?

Home Staging refers to the professional preparation of a property for rental or for a quick sale. This is its simplest definition.

A home stager has to prepare the property in such a way that it becomes an attractive product on the real estate market and brings the owner the intended profit. For this to happen, it is necessary to bring out its strengths and to show potential customers that it is worth the price. First impressions count. We decide whether we like a property or not within the first 90 seconds.

Home Staging combines many elements

Home staging combines many elements that make up the final effect, because home staging is not only interior design and a photo session. The home stager has a very good knowledge of the real estate market, knows how to estimate the costs of increasing the value of the property and how to prepare the entire home staging process for a specific target client. Home staging of a flat for rent and for sale is different. The home stager will also advise you on whether it is worth choosing the service at all or to what extent.

Home Staging is becoming increasingly popular in the Polish real estate market

The home staging service is becoming increasingly well-known on the Polish market, although it is still underestimated. Data shows that flats and houses after home staging sell faster, are more attractive to the target customer and do not sell below the offer price. They usually increase the offer price by some 10%. In contrast, the experience of Home Stagers shows that when a property owner does not opt for Home Staging, the first reduction in the price of the property is usually higher than the proposed investment in Home Staging.

The value of a well-prepared interior is invaluable and requires specialist knowledge and experience. It is not a trivial task of laying down a few extras, but often a very elaborate process that turns a property into a product, and an attractive product at that. It is also very rarely mentioned that Home Staging also serves buyers. Firstly, it improves the quality of offers on the property market, but it also fully shows the value and potential of the property, so that the client does not buy the unknown.

The impact of Home Staging on the transaction?

Data from western real estate markets show that home staging is profitable, but such research will soon be carried out on the Polish market. Here are some figures that give a good indication of the scale of the impact of the home staging service on a transaction. They come from the US market and, in principle, are the only ones available:

• Home Staging accelerates the sales process by 40%

• 78% of real estate agents admit that Home Staging has increased the sale price of a property by up to 10% of the value of the home;

• 88% of properties after Home Staging sell for the offer price or higher;

• 100% of real estate agents admit that flats that had professional photos taken had more visits than flats with poor photos;

• 86% of real estate agents declare that flats after Home Staging sell up to 3 x faster than others;

• 83% of real estate agents said that Home Staging helps homebuyers to imagine the property as their own home;

• 66% of real estate agents recommend carrying out Home Staging at the very beginning of marketing a property.

These figures are taken from US market surveys from previous years. However, according to the NAR report: ‘2021 Profile of Home Staging’ conducted among US real estate agents:

• 82% of agents serving buyers believe that home staging makes it easier for buyers to visualise a flat or house as their future home;

• 47% of agents serving sellers believe that home staging has had an impact on most buyers’ perceptions of the property;

• over 50% of agents believe that home staging has increased the price of the property – with nearly 30% believing that the price increase has been 6% or more;

• 54% of estate agents believe that home staging has reduced the time it takes to sell a property.

Elwira Zwolińska

Home Stager
Interior designer
Interior decorator
Member of IHASP Europe
Vice President of the Polish Association of Home Stagers