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

Homeowners of the Week – Young Family with Exciting New Future

It is always rewarding to help spiff up a house and make it the best it can be through staging.  I really enjoy working with my clients but there are times when I connect with the sellers on a special level.  And that is the case with our latest Homeowners of the Week.

They are a cute, young professional family with an exciting future in another city.  Being a parent and grandparent, this little family reminded me of my daughter and her family as they are all about the same age.  I really wanted to help them move on to the next chapter of their life together.

The call came on Memorial Day from their trusted Realtor.  She apologized for calling me on a holiday, but, 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.  Time was of the essence!  Life was moving on in two months! 

We met at the home on Tuesday.  I gave a list of homework, a staging plan and a proposal.  This energetic young couple accepted my plan and proposal and dove into doing their homework.  Then, I did my staging and the house went on the market the next week.  It was a sprint to get everything done but we did it because we worked as a team!  Whew!  What a week it was!

The staging turned this home from a functioning home for new parents into a really pretty house that would appeal to many different buyers.  You can see from the dramatic before and after pictures that we all really worked hard and it made a huge difference.

As is the case in such a dramatic transformation, the big reveal of the fully staged home was really fun!  My “homeowners of the week” were happy, the Realtor was happy and hopefully a buyer will soon be happy.  And yes, I was happy too because it all came together into something special.

What made this darling young couple so special?  They did everything I told them to do and let me do everything I wanted to do.  And they really appreciated the value that home staging did for their house.  Our team went all out!  And for that they are my Homeowners of the Week.

Dwell in possibilities

Cindy

Friday Treat - Great Thoughts about Homes

Like my Realtor partners, I love homes. 

I love decorating them.  I love staging them.  I love visiting them.  I love talking about them. 

Most of all, I love living in my home!  I could probably draw the floor plan of every home I’ve lived in.  Home is the space where I belong and which belongs to me.  For Walt and me, our home is the best place on earth.

I also love collecting great thoughts about homes.  My Friday Treat is to share a few of my favorites.

Home is always open arms.

~ John Anthony

It is not the size of the house, but the love that dwells within.

~ Patricia Burlin Kennedy

I loved the house the way you would any new house, because it is populated by your future, the family of children, friends, neighbors who will fill it with noise or chaos and satisfying pleasures.

~ Jane Smiley

Home is the one place in all this world where hearts are sure of each other.

~ Frederick W. Robertson

Having a place to go – is a home.  Having someone to love – is a family.  Having both – is a blessing.

~ Donna Hedges

Your home is the one dream you can actually walk into.

~ John Tuck

Remember to live your dreams and dwell in possibilities

Cindy

Same Old Online Photos

One of the most amazing developments in the buying and selling of a house has to be the online photos and visual tours.  With a few clicks, potential buyers can narrow the MLS search to their general price range and identify houses they think they want to visit.  Sources claim that between 75-90% of home buyers start their search online and then work with their Realtor.

If the online sites are the first impressions a buyer makes, I am surprised that some Realtors do not invest the time, effort and resources to present the best possible photos of their listings.  It is the equivalent of using a driver’s license photo on your online dating profile.

In many cases, my Realtor partners engage me in the front end of their listing process.  We work together to have the house staged before the photos are taken.  Some realtors use professional photographers to take their house photos and to create their visual tours.  In those cases, I work with the photographer to make sure that the best possible shots are taken for this house (emphasizing the focal points and house strengths).  The result is a win-win for the seller, listing Realtor and buyers’ Realtors – each is working with the best information about this house.

In other cases, my Realtor partners engage me after the house has been on the market for weeks or months.  My job is often to help minimize the negatives identified by Realtor and prospective buyer comments (for example - “we were not sure what to do with that small room off of the kitchen” or “help us make sense of the bookshelves in the master bedroom”).  Of course, I also stage the house to emphasize the focal points.

In most cases, the Realtor has new photos taken of the house after it has been staged and they update their online site to show off the staged house.  The new photos point out that there has been a change and this house may be worth a second look. 

In other cases, the Realtor does not invest the time, effort or resources to have new photos taken after the house has been staged.  Their online photos of this house are the old ones taken before the staging (the ultimate example of a driver’s license photo).  As a result, they have diminished the full impact of the newly staged house.  They failed to give other Realtors a good reason to come back for a second look. 

It is really confusing to me why the Realtor would convince their sellers to invest in professional home staging but expect the same old photos to suffice for the initial online search.  But then there are many things in life and real estate that confuse me. 

Remember to dwell in possibilities

Cindy

The Continuing Story of a Labor of Love

A few weeks ago, I shared the story of updating and staging Walt’s mom’s house.  We painted her house with spectacular colors; updated the bathroom light fixture; changed out all of the cabinet pulls and staged vignettes in key rooms of the house.  For about $500 and a good bit of sweat equity from my husband, me and his sister’s family, we made Mary’s house look fresh and almost like new.  It was truly a Labor of Love.

The next chapter in this continuing story is remarkable and worth sharing.  Mary lived in a 55-plus retirement community in suburban Chicago where the real estate market has been stagnant.  The comps for her model townhome showed a few models that have been on the market for over 300 days and a few more for over 90 days.  In those cases, the sellers priced their homes at the amount they paid and not at the market price.

After consulting with multiple realtors who they interviewed for this listing, Walt and his sister decided to price Mary’s house to sell – at a loss from what she paid but not a dramatic reduction.  They were prepared for the long haul – expecting it to take 4-6 months.  Hedging her bets on the upgrades, staging and pricing, Mary also buried a statue of St. Joseph in the backyard!

In spite of all of the gloomy forecasts of the suburban Chicago real estate market, I am quite pleased to tell you that Mary sold her house in a little more than 2 weeks!!!  Even more amazing, she had multiple offers with the cash offer being the one selected.  Walt’s sister spoke with a relative of the buyer who told her that he liked the floor plan and really liked the fresh paint job and the kitchen cabinets that looked like new.

I preach the benefits of home staging on a regular basis in this blog and in conversations with sellers and realtors.  We did not preach home staging to Walt’s family – we just did it.  I am so happy and proud that the updating and staging helped Mary sell her house quickly and for the price the family hoped to get out of the house in this tight market.  She gave me a great real life example about how professional home staging can make a huge difference. 

It was a Labor of Love with a very happy ending.  Now Mary can focus on the possibilities of the next chapter of her life in the assisted living center.  And I am thinking about buying a case of St. Joseph statues too!?!?!

Dwell in possibilities

Cindy