How interior design impacts the value of your home

Pricing a home isn't an exact science. Property values are subject to the whims of buyers and sellers, who each have their motivation for the transaction. Market conditions play a role in the price your home can fetch on the market. However, the selling price depends on a buyer's interpretation of those conditions, tastes, and perspectives. You can influence and reshape these perspectives to achieve your pricing goals. 

The secret to reshaping a buyer's perspective is investing in interior design - the stylistic arrangement of furniture and decor.

It's natural to wonder how furniture - since it's not on sale - can impact your home's price. The answer lies in the psychology behind buying a home and the buyer's decision-making process. 

How Interior Design Leverages Psychology to Influence a Buyers Decision Making

Interior design influences the four decision-making elements of buying property: the buyer's emotions, impressions, perception, and lifestyle. These psychological factors directly impact whether or not a buyer decides to make an offer. 

Emotion

Buying a home is an emotional feat. The average buyer wants to feel connected to a property before deciding to purchase. While buyers can form an emotional attachment to the property's appearance - especially the exterior, landscaping, and layout - most emotional decisions will develop because of the home's story conveyed through the interior design. Storytelling is a compelling component of advertising. Advertisers create stories to convince consumers that buying their product is the best choice. 

You can achieve the same effect with your home by engaging in storytelling through your home's interior styling. Your interior relays to a buyer the type of person who would own the property, helping them determine if that reflects the person, they believe they are. 

First Impressions

Buyers tend to lean a lot on their initial impression of a property when deciding whether or not to buy. If a property is welcoming and inviting in the first few minutes of touring, a buyer makes a lasting positive impression. If the home doesn't have an overwhelming positive imprint in those first few minutes, prospective buyers will be ready to move on to another property that does create a good impression. 

Perception

Buyers often say they don't mind purchasing a home with "good bones," a property that may not be as modern but is built with bygone-era quality. However, they often opt for more modern homes that have either recently been renovated or are new builds. That's because the perception of quality is as powerful as practical quality. For that reason, designing your home's interior to elevate the appearance of features allows prospective buyers to observe the quality of the house - the small design touches, mouldings, flooring, and finishes. When they compare the home to others they've viewed, your property could stand out because of these differences. 

Lifestyle

Buyers - especially those buying on the Atlantic Seaboard, City Centre, and Southern Suburbs - are searching for an idyllic lifestyle. They want to know they're buying a home that suits their ambitions and lifestyle. A coffee station, fully- equipped entertainment area, and home office are just some of the interior design choices you can make to convince buyers your home offers the lifestyle they want. But there are also other design touches like artwork, lighting, and decor that can relay to buyers that your property is the property that will ensure they live the lifestyle they desire. 

How Interior Design Can Help You Achieve Asking Price

Interior design also has practical benefits, which will assist you in attaining your asking price. Most homeowners are oblivious to how their furnishing choices may be off-putting for buyers as it is unlikely their preferences for the space. 

The typical homeowner's design choices can also make the home feel smaller because years of living in a space often lead to acquiring lots of "stuff." A third party with an eye for trends can help declutter the house in a meaningful way. A way that ultimately means you walk away with more money from the sale. 

Here's how professionally designed interiors will get you asking price:

Showcase Real-World Use of Space

Buyers will examine dimensions, space, and rooms when deciding whether or not to view a home. 

But 90 square metres can look very different depending on how the space is furnished. Some furniture can make the property feel large and spacious, whereas other placement makes the home feel cramped. 

Homes may also have odd rooms, angles, or features that buyers may have a tough time overlooking when determining if your home is right for them. They may feel the only way to use these spaces is to remodel, requiring them to spend more to make the space livable. But with a professionally staged interior, you can highlight how to leverage these spaces, reducing misgivings and persuading them to put in an offer. 

Attract Buyers Through Engaging Pictures

Pictures attract buyers to your home, but it's not the quality of the photographs that convince buyers to view the property but its contents. Some sellers wonder why they aren't getting much interest in their home even if it's priced accordingly, and it often boils down to pictures that aren't very flattering. In sought-after suburbs, dozens of properties - within a similar price range to yours - will leverage professional staging or take advice from their real estate agent to make the home more appealing to a large pool of buyers. By attracting more buyers, you can demand the asking price or higher, as the competition - or threat thereof - prompts prospective buyers to act. 

Enable Buyers to Visualise Living in the Space

Since buying a home is often an emotional decision, it requires a buyer to visualise what life would be like in the home, if their belongings can fit in the space and whether they'll be comfortable living there. When a home has dozens of keepsakes and personal touches, a buyer can feel more like an intruder than the property's future owner. 

Furthermore, the arrangement of furniture, while it may be practical for your use, can also hinder a buyer's ability to ascertain how they would design the space. 

Professionally designed interiors overcome this by making the home a visual aid to buyers while maintaining the warmth that enables buyers to make a personal connection to the property. The result is persuading more buyers that your property is their "dream" home. 

Highlight the Property's Features

Professionally decorated interiors can draw a potential buyer's attention to aspects of the home that they may otherwise overlook. If, for example, you want them to appreciate the home's ample storage space, wide entrances, high ceilings, large windows, and generous entertainment areas, your real estate agent can add those details to the property's description, without a design that emphasizes the details a buyer will lose sight of the features. Professionally staged spaces use colour, placement, and decor to draw the buyer's attention to the areas you want them to focus on, increasing the likelihood you'll get an offer on the property. 

The difference between staged homes and professionally designed interiors can be as much as six figures. A home that lacks these essentials will not only sell for less but will take longer to gain a serious buyer.