Staging a home for sale is not a new concept, but it is a practice that has gained steam with our more challenging market. I have used this in my proven marketing package for 10 years…and it WORKS! I see many home of my sellers confuse staging with decorating and consequently resisting the process and the recommendations of myself or the staging professional. But the reality is that the moment you commit to marketing your home for sale, you need to commit to transforming your home into a place that potential buyers can easily picture as their home. This means that you need to be prepared to emotionally detach. Let your home speak to buyers. Most sellers I encounter tend to take the staging process personally, and this is precisely the point. Our homes are personal, yet how we live is not how we sell. Our homes represent who we are; they are life-sized memory books of our travels, they trumpet our likes, our dislikes and our beliefs. They showcase our stuff — all that stuff we have accumulated over time that speaks to us. The goal of staging is to make the home speak to everyone else, in a compelling and positive way.
And, as far as clutter, most of us, if honest, will admit that our daily lives involve a certain amount of clutter. True, clutter is just another perpetrator of distraction. More importantly, though, your clutter may be sending a message that you don’t have enough space. My own kitchen counter top is at this moment permanent home to a toaster, a toaster oven, a coffee pot, a butcher block of knives, a canister of utensils and a bowl of random items of fruit origin, the latter living out their golden years in a decorative bowl. This arrangement (except for the brown bananas) is functional, but to another person it might suggest I lack the cabinet space to properly store these everyday items. And, if I’m hoping that this other person will buy my home, I need to clean up my act. So, don’t shoot your agent or stager! The primary goal of staging is not to transform your home into the eighth wonder of the world. For most of us, this simply isn’t realistic. Rather, the best Realtors and stagers will work with what you have, rearranging and reallocating all of your belongings, in order to present the property in its best light. Sometimes this means reallocating some of those belongings to the garage.
Too often the tendency is take the process personally, but you shouldn’t. Staging is not a do-it-yourself sport, and only a third party specialist can bring the neutrality and objectivity needed to accomplish the goal. Make no mistake — professional staging is an inconvenience. Your daily routine will be turned, at least temporarily, on its head. And it can be unsettling as you watch your life rearranged to suit the tastes of others. But if selling your home in the shortest amount of time and for the most money is your goal, it is precisely those “others” who should be your focus.
KC Concepts, Katie Coughlan, has a boutique of services to help my clients and homeowners sell for top dollar. Their first-rate staging services can transform any home into a masterpiece to sell.
It is proven that staged homes sell faster than vacant or un-prepared homes. Combined with top notch, high end marketing, I will get your home sold. We have the same goal and I know what it takes to sell a home. I will, personally, offer staging services as part of my listing package (on ME!) Check out my most recently staged listing… What a difference!
