Conventional staging wisdom dictates neutralizing the palette to appeal to the widest range of buyers. We wholeheartedly agree! It is a delicate balancing act, but at the same time, BY Design will profile the potential buyer in San Antonio and design with that specific person in mind to get you rock star results!

Staging is about creating an emotional connection with the house for the buyer.

For staging to be at its most effective, it requires a bit of sleuthing to identify who the target buyer is in order to know how to tug at their heartstrings. At BY Design, we want to make the home appealing to every buyer, but at the same time, we want to zero in on the profile of who the most likely buyer is. 

BY Design Does Online Research

These days, the answer to every question begins online. There is a wealth of information at our fingertips to help us narrow in on the target buyer’s profile.

• Real estate websites like Redfin, Zillow, and Trulia are of course well known and very useful. There is a great resource on Home Gain where we can input a zip code and come up with all kinds of useful information. 
• Demographic websites like citydata.com show the most common industries and occupations in a certain area. We can also learn the average home value price range by being an affiliate member with SABOR. Zipwho.com can reveal the median income, the cost of living index, and so many other variables.
• We check out the area’s profile. What does the area have to offer? Attractions? Culture? Is it rural or urban? What is the average income of local residents? Education level? What does the area profile tell us about who likes to live there?

BY Design Focuses on the Neighborhood

• We identify the kinds of amenities the neighborhood has. Is there a golf course, basketball court, or playground? These could point to the target age of the buyer and helps us stage to their specific desires. 

• Is it a gated community or on a cul-de-sac? If so, a feeling of safety and security might be important to this buyer.  
• Are there theaters, galleries, museums, local attractions near the home? This gives us a sense of the buyer’s hobbies and interests. Recently, we used one of the shoes of basketball All-Star and San Antonio legend, Tim Duncan. It was a pretty safe bet that anyone who bought the home would be a loyal Spurs fan.

We are sensitive to cultural differences and social cues. Our goal is never to stereotype or create any sort of bias. At BY Design, we want any and every buyer to feel welcomed and at home, but we want to make sure that we are doing nothing that could be a turn-off to the most likely buyer. 

BY Design thinks carefully about the design of the home.

• One story or more? How many bedrooms or bathrooms? A multi-story home with many bedrooms will be seen as having plenty of space for a growing family, but an older buyer would be more interested in a home with no stairs and less up-keep. 
• How many living areas? Maybe the home appeals to a buyer who enjoys entertaining and a bar cart would be a good lifestyle moment.

BY Design identifies the lifestyle of the buyer.

• What hobbies might they be interested in? Pets, gardening, fishing? This influences the art in the home. We stage a lot of properties that have barns and acreage. We may add a painting of a horse in the study. For homes on golf courses, we might lean a putter up against a wall with a bucket of golf balls.

• What life phase are they in? Are they students or retirees? If we identify that the buyer is most likely a retiree, staging with a more traditional style would probably be appropriate. If the target buyer is a millennial, we will want to incorporate some of the latest trends and get rid of anything that might make them feel as though they are in their parent’s home.

• With so many working from home, it is a good idea to show some office space even if they do not have a dedicated study.

BY Design knows when to break the rules.

Normally, we would never recommend any taxidermy be left in a home. However, when staging hunting ranches, we naturally make exceptions.  

BY Design considers the generational preferences/needs of the buyer.

A good place to gauge the probable age and life stage of our target is to consider the age and life stage of the current owners when they originally purchased the property. If they were first time home buyers, our potential buyer probably is as well.  If the current owners had young children when they bought the home, the people most likely to be interested are young families with kids.

The sellers are almost always going to be older than the buyers.

This presents an issue that many sellers have difficulty understanding. If they bought the house when they were 30 years old with young kids and have lived in it for 30 years, it no longer has the proper appeal to today’s 30-year-old. It looks like the home of a 60-year-old. However, it is unlikely to appeal to a 60-year-old who does not want to maintain a large yard and no longer needs so many bedrooms.

Staging should make the home attractive to the generation who is most likely to be the right fit.

BY Design tells them a story through our design.

To help us visualize how to design for the target buyer, we sometimes create an ‘avatar’ for them. Give them a name, an occupation, ages, and interests.  For example, Miles and Kristen have two young children. She is a doctor at the hospital around the corner and he works from home on his tech start-up. With every selection, we ask, “would this appeal to Miles and Kristen?”

BY Design tells them a story that connects with them emotionally through our staging design. We create lifestyle moments and set the stage for magical memories. Buyers need to feel something to take action and staging is a psychological motivator.

BY Design Reviews Target Buyers with the Listing Agent

We are honored to have wonderful relationships with our Realtor clients.  We request their expertise on who the target buyer will be for their listing.  The agents we work with are the finest in the industry!  They understand how to get first-rate results for their clients by recommending staging on all of their listings.  

BY Design Home Staging has a team of highly trained Staging Design Professionals™ that will expertly select furniture and accessories from our warehouse to increase the perceived value of your listing.

Source: https://www.bydesignsa.com/blog/how-appealing-to-the-target-buyer-gets-homes-sold-in-san-antonio