You have found your dreamy commercial property, done all the hard work, and now are all set. You have added your property on the commercial real estate loan websites, put up the lease sign, and you have booked all your appointments.
But once your potential customers enter through the doors, how do you manage to keep them there interested in their property? How do you get them to visualize themselves living in that space, leading up to finally signing the contract?
This is where property staging comes into play. If done right, staging is the biggest game-changer that real estate industry has ever witnessed. It has helped you sign deals faster than other ongoing campaign has helped.
Commercial Property Staging: What is it?
Staging is driving all the efforts towards positioning your commercial property at its best, by ensuring that aligns with the taste of your potential buyers.
For instance, consider the ideal home that you see in suburbs, builders will highlight the most prominent features of the home, light up scented candles throughout the house, and immaculately decorate the whole house. A nicely done fireplace with comfortable couches surrounding it.
Before the tour of the house is over, buyers can completely imagine sitting on the couch and bringing their day to an end with the nice fireplace. This means that the staging was a huge success.
Take away all the comfort of the house and it is nothing but bricks and cement that no one would second glance at. In fact, if you notice the pattern, if a property is staged right, then buyers are more convinced to buy in spite of some shortcomings.
This is exactly what you should aim at achieving with your commercial property.
Commercial Property Staging: Does it expedite the selling/leasing process?
With staging, there is only one goal—renting or selling the space quickly. Right from when it takes to sign the actual contract to look into the quality of buyers/tenants you find, it is important to understand how staging will help expedite the whole process.
Staging:
- It helps your buyer see the actual product quality and reinstates their faith wanting to invest in that product by securing a deal because in today’s market good commercial properties are difficult to find.
- It gives a realistic visual appeal to the property, which in return only attracts quality tenants and buyers who are genuinely interested in making an offer towards your property.
- Makes your property stand out amongst the growing competition in the market with numerous properties on rent or sell.
- It helps the buyers or tenants visualize how the property will look with furniture in place, making it easier to imagine themselves in the space. A suggestion, when staging the property, offer to sell or lease the property with the staged furniture as well. This is an option that many would consider opting for.
When it comes to personal properties, staging is easier. However, when it comes to commercial properties, staging needs to cover the inside as well the outside aspects.
Commercial Property Staging: From inside out
The basic rule when it comes to commercial property staging is, extend your staging efforts to both outside and inside of your property.
Interior suggestion
The lobby is the first thing that the customer will see and also the first impression they will get about the property. Hoping that soon they will be the ones welcoming their customers into the property, therefore, pay extra attention to that area.
Every potential renter or buyer that enters your property, will imagine how their customers would feel when they enter this property. Right from the first step into the lobby to walking towards the storage room, follow these simple rules to nail the deal to make the interiors of your property more appealing:
- Add some indoor planters, to add a touch of greenery and warmth. These plants will add the much needed friendly touch to the entrance and brighten up the blank walls of the property as well.
- Choose furniture that is a mix of everything—economical, comfortable, useful, modern, and inviting. Also, colors play an important role when it comes to furniture. Therefore, choose bright yet soothing colors.
- Add the necessary peripherals such a beautiful executive’s desk, a round table in the boardroom with a whiteboard for jotting those minutes of the meeting, speakerphones in meeting rooms and more.
- Showcase modern meeting rooms right from a room that can accommodate 20 people to a room that can accommodate 5-7 people.
- Include a training room on the premises as well, with a projector, a white screen, and a comfortable chair for the attendees. This can be helpful for all the internal training that your renter or buyer wants to conduct.
And most importantly, always ensure that during staging your property is kept in pristine conditions and follows all the norms of cleanliness.
Exterior suggestion
People often overlook at maintaining the exterior of their commercial property. However, well and neatly kept is the interior of the property, the same attention should be paid to the exterior as well. If the exterior of the property looks run down, and the curb is shabby, then it is a big negative for all the potential buyers.
- Ensure that all the cracks in the driveaway and sidewalks have been repaired
- Ensure that there is proper parking demarcation for your property along with parking lines drawn
- Before the staging, wash and clean the exterior of the building and the sidewalks
- The landscape surrounding the property should always be clean, green, and freshly manicured
- Windows in the building should be clean—dust and grime free
- Add modern planters or furniture in the patio or porch giving it a nice welcome touch
- Strategically place trash can outside your property, encouraging visitors to keep your property clean and litter-free
- Ensure that your property follows a neutral color palette. Everyone wants to invest in your property will have their preferences and there is no way you can manage to please everyone. Therefore, ditch those bold colors and invest in subtle versions instead
- Keep in mind the seasonal consideration. Depending on the area your property is situated in, ensure that during spring, summer, autumn, winter, your property remains clean from the outside and inside as well.
Finally, whether it is the exterior or the interior of your property, add a fresh coat of paint for boosting the property appeal.
Commercial Property Staging: Stage it based on audience persona
If you have already have decided to what kind of industry you want to rent or sell your property too, then stage the property considering the audience persona in mind. You would want to create and help them visualize as closely as possible to their niche ‘ideal office space’. For instance, if the property is developed for a technology or software industry, ensuring that a reception area, with a waiting area, will be a plus.
If the property has a lobby area, you will have to pay extra attention to the actual working space as well. For instance, to make it more inviting as a quirky quote right in the lobby to set the tone of the business.
Commercial Property Staging: General Goals
There are some common goals for staging a commercial property. Following are some things that you should consider while staging your commercial property:
- You want people to imagine it like their own office and they need to feel that this space brings them the best quality and also is the best option in the market. The moment the potential buyers enter this mindset, your property will move off quickly from the market.
- When it comes to property selling, it is all about the visuals. Your property should have a visual appeal that caters to your myriad of audiences.
- You want not only your potential buyers’ imagining themselves working there but also their employees working there. They should be able to see their business thriving and growing there, and a place where their employees will be productive and happy.
Commercial Property Staging: Imagining the possibilities
When a commercial property is staged in the right way, visitors can easily picture themselves setting up their business there. today, commercial property staging has added the much needed ‘oomph’ to the properties. Now it is no longer about looking at massive open spaces and thinking what to do with it. Today the properties are ready to move in, making it easier for people to simply move in whenever they want and making it likely for people to consider your property over others.
When it comes to commercial property staging, there are a lot more details involved. For professional help, contact us and our experts will help you with property staging and more.
