Staging a home is a time-consuming process. Many homeowners and real estate investors often ask if this is really worth it in the long run, and they’re totally justified in making this observation about the relationship between time and money. Staging the home that you’re hoping to sell can take away precious days as you finalize the preparation for listing the property. Yet, a staged home makes up for it by generating interest during its time on the open market. In truth, every investor will have to weigh the option to stage a home against the unique market conditions of the location that they are trading in, but homes that are staged—regardless of locale—often perform much better when it comes to timeline and eventual sale price.
Staging the home is an active measure designed to improve resale value.
The first thing that you have to understand about home staging is that this is a time-consuming, active measure that is targeting greater market penetration for the real estate “product” that you are trying to sell. Real estate is a versatile investment opportunity that millions of people engage with on a regular basis. Investors in the property space often tout these investments as their most successful over the long run and wouldn’t trade their real estate holdings for any other investment asset class. Yet there is a lot of work that can be required of you as the owner—depending on the approach you take while engaging with the market.
Direct owners, or those who purchase a home and manage it themselves, are forced to take an active role in the health of the property in order to maintain a path to success. This is true whether you choose to invest in properties strictly to flip them for a profit or want to buy homes in order to create dividend income in the form of monthly rent checks from tenants. Staging any home that you are exerting direct control over is simply a must because it increases the potential for expanded foot traffic. As a result, more interested buyers or potential tenants will be in the discussion when it comes time to finalize a financial arrangement that pays you: the investor.
Alternatives in real estate investing are nearly as lucrative.
There are a number of alternatives when it comes to real estate investing though. These are nearly as profitable, yet reduce the hands-on nature of ownership that comes through direct investment.
Many real estate investors get into the marketplace through the use of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) before eventually arriving at the real estate syndication model that many tout as a highly lucrative, best-of-both-worlds scenario. An REIT is an investment asset that can be purchased on the stock market and acts as an index fund (although it represents real property rather than a collection of stock assets). But the real estate syndicate option is where many investors really find their groove. In a syndicate, you act in concert with other, like-minded investors in order to collectively act as passive investors in real property (or multiple, in many cases). Just like an REIT, you are able to sit back and collect the profits and enjoy the asset growth. Yet you also can leverage ownership over a physical property rather than a stock market asset that gives you indirect ownership over shares of properties. With a syndicate, you elect an investor or hire an outside company as part of the fee structure to manage the property, meaning that it will be staged for you!
With the syndicate model, you can act as a passive investor while taking in all the benefits of a direct buyer.
