We walk through the home and work out what’s already doing a good job. Almost every home has pieces worth keeping. The bed, the dining table, the entertainment unit. Those usually stay exactly where they are.

What we bring in is the part that everyday family life wears down. Extra dining chairs so the setting matches. A newer sofa. Floor rugs. Then the soft furnishings, which is the layer that does most of the work in photos. Cushions, throws, bed linen, art, the styling on the shelves. Nobody lives with that much of it. Buyers respond to it anyway.

The point is that we only bring what the home needs. A room that already photographs well gets left alone.

A postwar home out in the Bayside suburbs listed a few weeks ago. The owners were on board with styling but wanted to keep the disruption low.

We used their beds in every bedroom. We used their sofa. We used their entertainment unit. We made recommendations on what to store, then brought in the soft furnishings and finished the rooms off. Total spend on styling was $3,900, which is our minimum for an integrated job with a truck on site.

It was under contract in 14 days after two open homes. The listing pulled 123% more views than any other property in the suburb: over 67,000 on realestate.com.au and more than 200,000 across social media. Forty-plus buyer enquiries. Thirty-plus buyer groups through in 10 days. Two offers.

That level of exposure is not available to a home that doesn’t present well. The portal spend is the same either way. What changes is whether people stop on it.

A second home we styled in the same suburb had a different problem. It had five bedrooms, and a sixth room set up as a bedroom that had been built as a living space.

Six bedrooms sounds like more house. It’s actually fewer buyers. A family shopping at that price wants somewhere to sit as much as they want another bedroom, and there are very few buyers actively looking for six. We took the bed out and put the living space back.

Those owners had told their agent they didn’t believe in styling. The home went under contract two days before its first open home, and they liked the sofa enough to buy it off us at the end.

We’ve styled more than 7,500 homes across Brisbane and the Gold Coast, and we still can’t tell you a return on investment figure. Nobody has their home valued before it’s styled, so there’s no before number to hold the sale price against.

What we can say is that both of those homes were booked for eight weeks and collected at week five. Both sold quickly in a month when the national news was telling everyone the market was falling apart. Both had a good agent who knew how to run a campaign. Styling was one part of that. It was the part that made the home worth looking at.

Integrated styling exists for exactly that situation. You keep living in the home, your own furniture stays in place, and we fill the gaps.

A Foxy stylist can walk the property with you and talk through what would make the strongest impression on buyers. You get a plan and a full quote back within 24 hours