Can property styling increase returns on investment?
Good investment returns have been the main reason why real estate agents nowadays are starting to recommend professional property styling to their clients.
According to Savills’ sales executive William Chan, about 90 per cent of the properties he’s tasked to sell has had some styling done — whether it’s partial styling or complete furnishing of an empty property — and vendors who opt to style their property almost always get more value for it. After all, property stylists are not only committed to merely making a house more pleasing to the eyes of potential buyers.
“Our job is to achieve the highest price possible for the client,” Evolve Styling’s Tanya Giuffre told Smart Property Investment.
Potential buyers tend to establish a connection with well-presented properties, making them more eager to purchase it because of how much they can visualize themselves living their ideal lifestyle.
Tanya’s partner Edward Giuffree explained: "If you sell an empty apartment and somebody walks in there, they walk out in a few minutes. If you sell something that's styled, they'll sit there and they connect with the property.”
“What we do is we create a look that attracts a maximum interest for the target market … You're not actually selling a property—you're ... selling a lifestyle … You've got to sell the dream,” he added.
Added value
While there is a whole range of factors in play, a majority of Evolve Styling’s clients get “20 [times] return on their investment”, according to Edward.
He shared further: “We see it range from five [times] all the way up to 70 [times]. We had a property only about six weeks ago in Drummoyne—they spent $10,000 on it and they get $700,000 more than their expectation.”
Styled properties also take only about four to six weeks before they are sold as opposed to 10 to 12 weeks for bare properties. The property styling duo believes that no matter how much money you spend for property styling, and whether or not the market is hot, high returns are almost always guaranteed.
“It is a big spread, and the average is about 20 [times, and] we've seen some amazing results. You won't get that unless you ... put some money into it. It's like selling a car. Would you sell a nice car and not detail it … ? Of course, you would,” Edward said.
Their final reminder for property investors: Property styling is always worth its weight in gold—sometimes even so much more.
According to Tanya: “The reason that real estate agents recommend it to their clients now ... is because it actually works. It gets them a higher price for their client [and] the property sells quicker, so everybody is in a win-win situation.”
“Real estate agents are not going to recommend something that costs money to their client unless it's actually really going to work [and] it does work. That's why there are so many property styling companies and all the agents recommend it now,” she concluded.
Tune in to Tanya Giuffre, Edward Giuffre and William Chan’s episode on The Smart Property Investment Show to know more about the secrets to creating a connection between the property and potential buyers by selling them a “lifestyle and a dream”, as well as the importance of logistics, demographics, and target markets.
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