Seeing past the styling and decorating

Gone are the days of vendors brewing coffee, baking cookies and buying a posie of flowers in preparation for opens. These days we have professional stylists, furniture hire companies, TV shows featuring property ‘flipping’, colour consultants, and agencies to make it all happen in a short stint of just a few days.

Engaging these services can cost a few thousand and when done well, can provide a very impressive return on investment.

Returns in excess of 1000% are not uncommon. 

It’s hard to quantify the additional incremental sales result from a $3,000-4,000 spend but comparable property sales results of un-styled properties often suggest that the investment return is well over $40,000.

While buyers like to think that they can see past the interior decorating and the on trend pieces, most people actually can’t. Aesthetic appeal is a huge driver for buyers, and while many like to envisage their own style is reflected by the stylist’s efforts, they often overlook practical elements while they are swept up by the presentation of the property.

There is nothing wrong with selecting a property adored by beautiful style and bespoke prints but there is something wrong with overpaying for a property based on the aesthetic appeal of the stylist’s selections. It’s a disappointment indeed for a buyer to return to the property for their final pre-settlement inspection only to find that the house they fell in love with is not as desireable as it was with all of the hire furniture set up.

In our travels we often find that a superbly styled and dressed property is the work of the Vendor too, not neccesarily a paid stylist.

Yesterday’s auction in Heidelberg Heights offered just this. The red brick 1960’s house had been tastefully renovated and the owner’s selected furnishings and pieces enhanced every single room. From handcrafted timber mirrors to well chosen indoor plants, their decorative style caught the attention of many buyers and placed their property into a high-demand category. We knew that we had competition and our clients who had identified the property themselves as a potential long term home braced themselves for the big day.

Quoted with a range in the nines our comparable sales suggested a price of around one million dollars was deserving, but we knew that the popularity of the property could take the bidding over the million dollar mark. 

Three emotional buyers fought it out above $1M and the hammer fell at $1,190,000.

The real questions we apply in situations like this where properties are dressed and presented so well are:

• Is the styling disguising any imperfections? Stylists are skilled at creating a feeling of space, light, freshness, and sometimes hiding issues. I recall a recent visit to a property in Albion where a rug had been strategically positioned over a rotted timber board. The common issue that buyers can overlook though is space. Some living spaces or bedroom spaces are tight and/or impractical and post-purchase regret could have been averted if they’d looked carefully at the floorplan and not the prints and furnishings

• What do the comparable sales of similar un-styled properties suggest about price and value?
• Is the projected cost of replicating the stylists efforts (or even conducting a cosmetic renovation on an equivalent un-styled property) significantly less than the likely selling price?
• Is the buyer competition stronger than usual? (Asking the agent about inspection numbers, checking page visits, and quizzing the agent about contract requests and building inspection enquiries can give some idea)
• At the likely selling price, could the buyer secure either a better quality dwelling, a bigger property or target a superior location?

If the answer to this last question is yes, the buyer’s willingness to fight hard for the property at a premium price needs to be reconsidered.

Many houses are styled well for the sales campaign and this should not be a detractor by any means, but buyers need to recognise when on trend styling is driving emotional competing buyers to pay well above a sensible appraised value. Not only is a valuation shortfall something to avoid, but buyer remorse when the house is cleaned and vacated is a sad outcome indeed.