Staging FAQ's

Home staging is the preparation of a home to sell.  Professional home staging is the process a professional who specializes in design and has been trained and certified on the art of home staging follows to prepare a home to sell.  Many definitions do not differentiate between the two, but the distinction is significant.  A professional home stager has the resources and expertise and can objectively view the home as a product and highlight its assets while downplaying its flaws in ways that homeowners and realtors can't.  HSR certified home stagers follow an 8-step process that is designed to use what is already owned to transform spaces to achieve top dollar.  

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HGTV and the internet are the simple answers.  HGTV has raised the expectations of home buyers.  Most are looking for those model home, magazine-worthy homes they see on their favorite HGTV shows.  Because of this, online photos become even more important than ever.  Gone are the days buyers would view only a few houses a day, in-person.  Today, buyers have access to all listings in your area at their fingertips online.  They are smarter about what's available in the market and can easily compare listings real-time.  If your home doesn't stand out, it will be left behind.    

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For a few hundred dollars, you will receive a detailed list of the actions to take to maximize the price of your home and for less than a thousand dollars, we will help you transform your space!  Either option is cheaper than a price reduction!

You have to spend money to make money.  If you don't, buyers will see that they must and will either pass on the home or reduce their offer to compensate, no matter how fair your list price is, costing you more in the end.  In the professional staging industry, we refer to these as price eroding factors and it's our goal to minimize them!

In any business transaction, you want your product to be superior to that of the competition.  Professionally staging will give you that edge.  Statistics show that in all markets professionally staged homes sell for more and faster.  

Not if you want to receive top dollar.  HGTV makes it look easy, but it's not.  Staging requires objectivity and understanding what appeals to the average buyer.  Most homeowners are unable to disconnect emotionally to see their houses as a prospective buyer would and, since they don't stage for a living, are not in tune with what sells.  That's the value a professional home stager adds to the real estate process, and, remember, those staging on HGTV are professionals!

Unfortunately, studies have shown that only 10% of buyers can visualize the potential of a home.  To make matters worse, given the digital world we live in, your listing photos are often times the buyer's first impression of your home.  Empty, cluttered, and outdated rooms that don't photograph well will be quickly passed over, never giving the home the chance to shine in person!

This is also why having a vacant home professionally staged is so important. Buyers cannot visualize size and scale.  Furniture helps to give them a frame of reference.