Did you know home staging is more than just putting flowers on a table?  It’s also more than prepacking a few things.   It’s about presenting a home in its best light to entice buyers.  In essence, it is a marketing strategy.

Today’s blog gets more into depth about what staging is, what it isn’t, but also how it works and whether or not you need to hire a stager.

What is Home Staging?

Home staging is defined as the act of preparing a home for sale in the real estate market.  The purpose of it is to sell faster with a higher return.  Ultimately, it’s about protecting the equity on what is generally your largest investment.  When you think that over 95% of buyers begin their search online, it is imperative that your home is attractive enough to warrant a viewing.   You will want to make sure that the MLS photos do your home justice to ensure that yours is a “must see” for your prospective buyer.  Staging is more about marketing and merchandising than it is about decorating.  While design principles are shared, staging is targeted at the buyer; decorating is geared toward the home owner’s personal wants, tastes and needs.

Who Can Benefit from Home Staging?

Think because your home is beautifully decorated, that you don’t need or can’t benefit from a stager?  Think again.  Depending on level of services you need, a stager will give you the appropriate recommendations to make your home more marketable, to appeal to the greatest amount of buyers and highlighting your home’s best features.  Everyone can benefit from this.  Your stager will come in with a fresh pair of eyes, addressing things that you’ve become blind to.  He or she will guide in terms of what improvements that yield the greatest return, improve overall traffic flow, and come up with some creative solutions to present your home in its best light

How Does Home Staging Work?

Home Staging Consultation

The first step to preparing your home for sale begins with a consultation.    Your stager will come in,  tour your home from top to bottom, front to back and make a list of recommendations.   Typically these recommendations are about what to prepack, how to arrange furniture to ensure the best traffic flow as well as suggesting paint colours.  A pre-listing consultation usually lasts about 2 hours, give or take depending on the size of the home etc.   When you hire Simple Elements, we not only provide you with a written report on the spot (this means you are not required to take notes, nor do you have to wait for it) but we also provide you with our Client Care package which provides valuable tips and tricks, answers any questions you may have and gives you a greater idea of what to expect.

Occupied Home Staging

An occupied home staging is working with what the home owner already has in terms of furniture and accessories.  Depending on the wear or condition of the furniture, items may need to removed, repairied or replaced.  Our goal is to make your home sellable in the most cost effective manner possible.  I will shop my client’s home prior to making suggestions as to what to purchase or rent.  The usually means moving furniture or décor to other rooms.

Vacant Home Staging

Did you know that vacant homes tend stay on the market longer, or that the longer a home stays on the market, the less it sells for? Did you also know that only 1 out of 10 people can properly visualize a space and its potential?  When you learn this statistic, it’s easy to understand why a vacant home is harder to sell.  For this reason, it’s important to make sure a vacant is staged and merchandised properly.  Having a home stager as part of your home selling team will make this happen.   They will create a plan, source the furniture and accessories, arrange for delivery and set up and showcase your home in to a masterpiece for you.

As a stager, my goal is to help my clients sell their home faster and for more money.  Every home owner wants their home to be easy to sell, so I help them make it easy to buy.

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Until next time,