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, August 5, 2011

Home Staging Does Make a Big Difference

If you follow “to be continued” with any frequency, you know that we use these posting to educate and inform Realtors and Sellers about the benefits of professional home staging.  One point we make consistently is that home staging does make a huge difference.  We have cited studies loaded with data but I find that actual stories of home staging successes are the most effective way to make my point.   

Today, I share two recent and real examples of how staging does make a big difference. 

EXAMPLE #1 - One example would be our Homeowners of the Week in June (see June 6, 2011 posting for more details).  This couple really needed to sell their home in a short period of time and were willing to do what they needed to do in order to make it happen.  He accepted a faculty position at a major state university (ranked #1 in pre-season football polling).  They set a goal of selling their house in two months or less.  They did everything I told them to do and let me do everything I wanted to do.  It was a challenging but rewarding project because home staging made this place “pop”.   

I am quite proud to report that this house sold in 6 weeks!  The professor, his wife and their baby moved out last week - beginning their new life a lot “Sooner” (pun intended) than they planned.   

EXAMPLE # 2 – We featured this Indian Springs house in the July 13th blog posting (Entertaining Tonight).  This house had not sold in spite of its beautiful qualities.  The feedback from potential buyers was all about the open floor plan - “that room is huge; “we would need a ton of furniture to live here”; “how would we arrange our furniture”; and, finally “where is the dining room?”   

My new Realtor partner brought me in after having this house on the market for over 5 months.  My assignment was to stage this house in a way that would answer these questions and concerns as well as to make this house come alive with possibilities.  With my professional home staging, the open floor plan went from lots of questions to lots of possibilities for parties, dinners, entertainment, family and friends.  Interestingly, it also retained a warm and cozy feeling. 

I am pleased to share that after being on the market for over 5 months, this house sold 5 weeks after it was staged!  You can see why by checking out the Indian Springs “Before” and “After” photos on the Transitions web site at http://www.transitions-home-staging.com/Indian-Springs.html  

In addition, we “unstaged” two other success stories in the past two weeks in which the houses sold and my Realtor partners believe that home staging made a big difference.   

My goal is always to help Realtors and their clients sell their houses in the quickest amount of time and for the best possible price.  It is a wonderful feeling for all concerned when that happens as it did in these recent examples.

Dwell in possibilities 


Cindy
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