Since creating the “to be continued” blog, I’ve been closing each post with the words “dwell in possibilities.” I must confess that I borrowed this phrase from the great poet, Emily Dickinson. I saw her quote and realized that it summed up what I am doing as a professional home stager and interior designer.

I am most grateful to Ms. Dickinson for her insightful and inspiring phrase.

Regardless of the size or price range of a house, my objective is to find the possibilities in that house. I am looking for those unique features of that house and finding possible ways to accentuate them for the potential buyer. I am analyzing those unusual spaces that buyers find difficult to understand upon first glance and finding possible functional uses for those spaces.

In the end, my mission is to help the potential buyer see how they could dwell in the possibilities of this house!


Friday, June 17, 2011

Frequently Asked Questions about Home Staging

Today we are going to start a conversation about questions that are frequently raised about home staging.  Since our goal with this blog is to share conversations that we have and to continue those conversations, it made sense to have this one and more about home staging frequently asked questions.

What is home staging?

Home staging is the art of preparing a home going on the market to show off its best features in the most positive light.  The goals of home staging are to make the house look as good as possible to as many potential buyers as possible and to increase the chances for a quicker sale at the highest price.

Is there a typical range of home staging activities?

There are typically three main categories of home staging activities:

Basic Home Staging Consultation (2-8 hours) -  advice and coaching on removing, simplifying and rearranging the seller's furniture and accessories as well as selecting interior and exterior paint colors, carpeting and kitchen upgrades.
Home Updating and Restyling (average of 4 -12 hours) ~ stage home with seller's furniture and accessories.
Full Scale Home Staging ~ (varies with size of house and home staging needs) professional home stager provides furniture and accessories to stage key areas of the seller's home to their full advantage.

Why should I spend money to have my house staged by a professional?

Quality home staging by an experienced trained stager costs money!  For most houses, the home staging cost range can be from an hourly rate for a staging consultation to $3500 or more for the full staging of a vacant house.  For the savvy seller, this home staging cost is an investment in selling their house quicker and for the best possible price.  They recognize that a professionally staged house appeals to as many buyers as possible. 

Will my house sell quicker if I have it professionally staged?

According to a recent RESA (Real Estate Staging Association) study, staged houses sold in about ¾ of the time as the same house when not staged.  This study supports my experience with staging over 175 houses.  I have a dozen or more examples of staged houses that sold within 2 weeks or less and many more examples of houses that sold within a month or two.  In some cases, the quick sales were for houses staged after being on the market.  In other cases, the quick sales were for houses staged before being listed. 

Professional staging sets the house apart from the competition for the right reasons.  It makes sense that a house that looks its absolute best will sell quicker than if it was not at its best. 


We encourage you to share questions you receive about home staging.  We can update this list of FAQs and continue the conversation.


Dwell in possibilities

Cindy

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