How COVID-19 Will Change Staging and Real Estate
Updated: Sep 29, 2021
The world has certainly changed and with the Spring/Summer real estate season in full-swing it’s interesting to look at how the pandemic is affecting how people sell and buy homes. We have taken for granted the ability to walk through a stranger’s house to decide if they like it enough to make it our home and sellers have accepted this foot traffic as necessary. So what do we do when this is considered risky behavior? VIRTUAL STAGING Some sellers have embraced virtual staging especially for a vacant property. It provides the seller with compelling pictures for their listing and no one has to enter the house to set up furniture, art and accessories. Some Realtors are expanding their use of virtual tours and 3-d imaging so that buyers can get a more accurate sense of the spaces and how they connect to each other. These are all excellent tools and work for some properties.
ACTUAL STAGING
However, eventually a buyer will want to see the property in person and if a property has been staged virtually, the walk-through experience can be disappointing. There is still a strong need for properties to be staged with real furniture, art and accessories in order to have the emotional appeal that a buyer needs. Additionally, when they see these rooms empty, they focus on condition and flaws and may become confused about furniture placement in real life.
WORK FROM HOME/LEARN FROM HOME
Another change we have seen is the need to show buyers how they can create functional work-from-home and learn-from-home environments. It may be a dedicated room that lacked an obvious function or it could be a space carved out of a larger room like a family room or bedroom. The ability to show buyers that they can live comfortably under today’s stressful conditions is extremely important.
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