Staging Your Home

 So, what is “Staging” anyway, and how does it work? 

In 2006, I decided to learn more about staging and earned the designation of Accredited Staging Professional Ô (ASPÔ). 

Staging is the very best proven way to get top dollar for your home as you prepare it for sale because the process sets the scene throughout the house to create immediate buyer interest in your property.

This could then lead to your home selling for the highest possible price in today's market.

Remember, "The way you live in your home, and the way you market and sell your house are two different things."

What’s the difference between a “house” and a “home?” 

A clear understanding of these fairly simple definitions and terms can make the difference between a quick sale or a tiresome and extensive marketing period.  But the change in mindset doesn’t stop there.

Your home is where you live…a place which is uniquely ‘you.’  However, a house is a product…a product for sale, and as a product, it must appeal to a wide range of consumers in order to be sold. 

There are certain steps a homeowner can take to enhance the attractiveness of their property, and it has nothing to do with interior design or decorating.  Staging is the process of marketing and selling a home.  Decorating is about personalizing your home to suit your individual tastes.  When you’re selling your house, it’s all about making the property appealing to the widest possible audience…the buyers—that’s where staging comes into play. 

"An important distinction between staging and decorating a home is that the goal of decorating is to personalize a space, whereas the goal of staging is to depersonalize it. The smart real estate professional understands that staging a home before placing it on the market will help sellers fetch top dollar," says Barb Schwarz, the self-proclaimed founder of the home staging industry, in her latest book. 

I took Barb's course, read the book, and have really found the elements preached to be exceptionally valid!

When a homeowner has too much furniture, too much clutter, and too much of their unique tastes and interests on display all over the house, potential buyers have a hard time looking past all that and envisioning themselves living there.  

A practical way to remember this fact is:  CLUTTER EATS EQUITY!  A home that’s packed with knick knacks and “stuff” will appear less spacious.  And everyone loves space! 

There are three elements to Staging®:

CLEAN: Everything must be spotless, including floors, walls, drapes and windows.

CLUTTER-FREE: Remove a lot of furniture and knickknacks. In some cases, a few new pieces of furniture can be brought in, but not too many because it can create a sterile look.  Too many homes that I preview, as a REALTOR® are "cluttered to death!"  Pack away your stuff!  As far as I'm concerned, once your home is listed with me, you're well on your way to moving.  PACK YOUR STUFF!

COLOR: Paint the house in soothing natural tones (ask me for paint chips) and have carpets, countertops and cabinets impecabbly clean!  If you don't have shutters, consider installing them. A nice touch is placing cone-shaped shrubs (arbor vitae) around the door...but the shrubs should be in scale with the entrance.  Nothing too huge or overpowering.  Another beautiful touch are hanging flower baskets.  Vibrant fushia in an attractive basket can really make the exterior "pop" with color.  Another trick is to bring some of the outdoors in by putting high quality silk flowers or greenery in vases.

Do the sniff test. If you have dogs, cats, hamsters, old carpeting, mildew problems, or if you smoke or cook foods with a pungent odor — and you can smell it, chances are that buyers will, too.

Ventilate the home and invest in an air-cleaning and deodorizing machine or products to remove pet odors. Another option is a cleaning product with living enzymes that consume the odor-causing agents and remove the smell permanently. 

IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU STOP SMOKING INSIDE YOUR HOME! 

Nothing turns off people faster than the smell of cigarette smoke!  I've been asked by my buyers many a time after showing a home..."we love the house...but can we ever get rid of that cigarette smell?"

Pack up early.  You should pack up several large pieces of furniture and as much of the clutter in each room as possible.  An alternate strategy is to shift the stuff to the garage — if you can afford it, rent a storage space and get it out of the house before showing. “The way you live in your home and the way you sell your house are two different things!"

Stick with beige or "contemporary neutrals". Carpeting shouldn’t look like a Crayola box — in a shade of purple, brown, wild yellow, shocking blue, black or white — or be shaggy or patterned. If you have loud carpet in your homes, I recommend that you replace it with plain, “real estate” beige, or offer a credit to the buyer for new carpeting. Don’t assume that buyers will be able to look past the bad carpeting. Most buyers will keep looking for a house with fresh carpeting or request a credit anyway.

Use the rule of three. Three items are pleasing to the eye. Whether it’s artwork, figurines on a shelf, a magazine stack, pillows, afghans, or candles, arrange them in threes for a pleasing display as accents in any room.

Staging as an accompaniment to strategic pricing can be an exceptionally effective tool.  Now that the market has made a complete turn to a ‘buyer’s market,’ it’s essential to make your house stand out over the competition, which is plentiful.  Also, the days of testing the market with aggressive asking prices are over. That tactic translates to wasting your most productive time on the market, which is the first 20 days.

To contact me for a complimentary staging consultation

or a comparative market analysis,

call me directly at (201) 240-8699.