What is Staging And Why Does My Home Need It?

When I meet with my clients to discuss selling their home, often times I'm asked what they need to do to get their home ready to sell.  They understand that usually the current state of the home will need some tweaks for photos and showing but they aren't sure where to start. Very rarely do I have a home that doesn't need staging done prior to photography.  It's just one of those things that we live a certain way in our homes and to sell them we need the home to look a little different so buyers can focus on the home and not on all the decor.

The Staging Appointment

I let them know that we have them covered and that after the appointment I'll be having my professional stager set up an appointment with them to go through their home with them room by room to determine what needs to be edited before photos are taken.

A lot of sellers aren't sure exactly what staging means and they ask me if she's bringing in furniture, what she'll have them do with their stuff, etc.

I always tell my clients is don't be offended. It has nothing to do with the way their home is decorated or arranged.   She may even tell you to arrange a room that doesn't make sense for you to live in it, but it looks to be really great for photos. Think of it like a model home. Sometimes you'll walk into a model home, everything was awesome, but then if you really stopped and look at how you would use the room, you may turn the sofa differently so you could actually watch TV.

So there's different ways that we're going to stage your home so that it's optimized for photography and ultimately showings.

Creating Space

Usually my stager doesn't bring in furniture because usually she's moving a lot of your things out of the home to make some room and create more space.  During this time, we let you know that you can absolutely use your garage for storage if you have some pieces to put in there.

Depersonalizing

She's also going to be depersonalizing rooms, so photographs, names on walls, etc will be asked to be taken down so the buyers can envision themselves in the home and not you and your family.  In addition to that it's a good practice considering your home will be on the internet to take photos down.

Decluttering

We do recommend taking things off the fridge for example,  if you have a lot of magnets on the fridge or you have a lot of decorations above your counter counter tops or on your counter tops usually we'll recommend that you take items down so buyers can actually get a sense for your home versus your decor. If you love country chic and your buyers like super modern with everything minimal we don't want them turning away from the home that could actually work for them but they couldn't get past the decor.

We really want to make sure homes as neutral as possible so that it doesn't turn anybody off.  We want to ensure the buyers are focusing on the home and not the decor.

Marketing Strategy

Staging is a really valuable piece of the puzzle from a marketing standpoint, the staging is something that's really, really important in a listing and that's something that I do on all of my listings so that we can maximize the way we market your home.

We look at saving, like if you were to take a tee shirt and go to a discount store and you take the same tee shirt and you go to a luxury boutique. If the tee shirt is merchandised really really well at the luxury boutique, a lot of times clients don't like paying a little bit more, but if they're digging it out of the sale bin and at the discount store and it's wrinkled and there's nothing special about it, then usually they're not going to be willing to pay top dollar.  We want buyers to want to pay top dollar for your home and the way we market your home online is key to making you more on your home.