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The importance of home staging – it works!

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First of all, let me say I only became a firm believer of home staging a few years ago.  I, like many out there was very skeptical as to whether this really does make a difference.  Well let me tell you. If you are selling your home and hope to earn top dollar, it’s smart to invest in the services of a home staging company.  There were no home staging companies in the North Georgia area, so I partnered with a home stager and started offering services in the North Georgia Mountains.  All I can say is I wish I would have done this years ago. I know I would have sold more homes, for a higher price, quicker! Truly, it works. Just to give you a little information about home staging.  Home staging is a type of decorating that essentially sets the stage so your potential buyers can envision themselves living in your home. Home staging, when done well, emphasizes your home’s assets and plays down its quirkier elements. After your home has been staged it should look brighter, bigger, cleaner and generally more attractive. It’s important that the home is staged to fit the style home it is such as rustic, traditional, craftsman, farmhouse, etc.  So many homes have the wrong type and style of décor in them and it throws home buyers off from the home completely. Home staging can be done when a home is empty, or while you (or the current residents) are living there. Also, sometimes looking at your home every day you don’t see things other people do. It gives you another pair of eyes to objectively assess and then organize your home so it is appealing to prospective buyers when they search for houses online or do walk-throughs with their real estate agents.

As homeowners, we are too biased toward our own personal taste to create a space that other people could imagine living in. Unless your buyers are interior designers or have a good sense of home decorating, seeing your personal taste heavily represented in the space can make it hard to see themselves living there, which can discourage them from buying. Having no home decor at all isn’t a good alternative; an empty home can also be hard for potential buyers to imagine living in. This is why a home stager is so crucial. A study of 1,081 homes by the Real Estate Staging Association found that unstaged homes spent an average of 184 days on the market before staging. After staging, those same homes sold within an average of 41 days. In comparison, homes in the study that were staged before going on the market sold within an average of 23 days — a difference of 90 percent. Although it is an investment, home staging typically much cheaper than lowering the asking price for your home.

Home stagers may have an interior design or similar design background or perhaps a real estate background such as mine. Many also take home staging courses and obtain certifications, although there is no single regulatory body that standardizes education or licensing. Most home staging professionals offer a variety of services that help the home seller ready their house for the market. These services can include decluttering, rearranging, or bringing in and staging furniture and decor in a home. Typically people hire professionals to help with home staging in preparation to sell a home or to rent a home out, but it’s also possible to hire a stager simply as a way to get fresh, objective suggestions for how to restyle a home. Some clients choose to have their entire home staged and others focus only on certain rooms and again much of this depends on the house.  Many times the main bedrooms are staged and then the family room, dining rooms, kitchen, recreation or game room and an outdoor living area if the home offers that feature. Obviously, the larger the home staging project, the more you will end up paying. Usually it costs more to stage a home that is completely vacant than one that has furnishings in it.

Here are the cost considerations for staging a home.

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Occupied vs. vacant

The most significant cost factor for staging a home is whether that home is vacant or occupied. Vacant homes generally cost more to stage because the professional must provide furnishings and decor to create a welcoming environment for potential buyers or spark the interest of online shoppers. You may have the best house on the block, but if it’s vacant and doesn’t look good on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) online real estate portal, buyers may just click right past your listing. Think of your real estate photos as you would your online dating photos — you want to put your best foot forward. Some home staging professionals have warehouses with stock furniture and decor they use to stage houses. They can pull traditional, transitional, modern, or rustic furnishings and decorations depending on the target demographic and the architecture of the home. Typically, home stagers use neutral color palettes to appeal to a range of tastes and styles. If the professional doesn’t already have furnishings and decor items on hand, they will select and rent the necessary furniture and pass the cost on to you. If movers are hired to transport heavier items such as beds, dinner tables, large rugs and couches, the cost of that labor will also be factored into the home stager’s quote.

When a home is occupied, the home stager will typically work with the buyer to plan how to stage as many rooms in the home the buyer desires, or as their real estate agent or the home stager recommends. The home stager may consult with you and offer recommendations that you then implement, or — for a higher fee — the home stager and their crew can work on-site to physically do the work for you, moving furniture, packing up excess decor and artwork, and rearranging items as needed.

 

Consultation

Whether a home is vacant or occupied, most staging begins with a consultation. After you and the home stager have agreed upon a fee, the stager will visit your home, assess what needs to be done, and work with you to create an action plan. You can then either work to execute the plan on your own or hire the home stager to complete it for you. The consultation could include everything from guidance on home decor and furniture arrangement to recommendations on home improvements like painting the front door or repairing broken blinds that you didn’t even remember were broken because you see them every day.  

Staged 2 Sell Properties, LLC offers options for home staging and design.  References of success stories of home sellers who can verify their home sold immediately after it was staged after it had been on the market for sale for some time with little to no activity.  Also, the showing activity from real estate agents picked up dramatically once the home was staged and pictures were updated online. If you don’t have good pictures you won’t attract buyers and having a home that looks warm and cozy that buyers can picture themselves living in.  

 

Contact Staged 2 Sell Properties:   706-553-4560

Nathan Fitts 706-455-9968

Paige Earles 404-219-1393

www.staged2sellproperties.com

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