Naked. It was the first thought that crossed my mind. The floors, windows and walls
were naked down to the skirts of the windows missing. Mozart played in the background
and glaring white carpeting lay at my feet. I took my shoes off. There was nothing
homey about the house, just white wash. And I knew the buyer visiting the home would
think the same. The house had all the charm of a brand new sanitarium. The only way I
could think of to redeem the home and reverse the white sterility were the words,
'Home staging.'
And what I mean by 'staging a home' is NOT having a rental company come by and
deposit a truck load of furniture and set it about in a Hodge podge manner. That is not
staging!
Staging a house means going beyond efforts to just make it look tidy.
Just as stagehands set the stage for a production, you can do the same for a home. It
can be made to look cozy, colorful and inviting, with a personalized look to make it
stand out from the rest of the other houses on the market. If you have ever visited a
new home development and walked through the models you've seen what staging a
home to sell ought to be. You walk through a model and as you look around you hear
yourself say, 'Wow, this is some place!'
You leave with a positive impression created by properly placed furniture, color
coordinated accessories, beautiful rich linens and table settings, everything there
evoking a feeling that the model home is cozy and inviting. Easily you pictured yourself
living in that comfortable space, putting your own personal belongings in the home,
lighting those candles on the dinner table, having friends visit in the homey setting...
And that's exactly what potential buyers want when they visit the house you're selling.
They want that same instant coziness and comfort in the home they'll choose. Most
people are visual oriented and cannot mentally remodel a home that needs TLC in their
head, nor to be honest, do they want to have to spend thousands of dollars renovating.
So, as a result, what the potential buyers see is usually what they want..
The good news is that to stage a home to sell you don't have to spend thousands of
dollars to do this remodeling. It will be the little things you do that will make the magic
happen. The accessories, the colorful chintz fabric on the tables, the fresh bouquet of
flowers in a vase, the scented candles on the fireplace mantel, and the manner in which
the furniture is set around an area rug, that is where the difference will be made.
Do you begin to understand that we will not be spending oodles of time and money
redoing a home in this process? There won't be any need. In these chapters will be
discussed how to stage a home to sell without needing a professional designer. By
using the simple staging to sell methods in this book you'll learn how to makeover any
house you're selling yourself.
Most of the time there isn't a need to use such traditional makeover ploys on a
house, just some home staging to sell know how. And the end result of a sold
sign tells the rest of the story, that this method works.
Who can use this method?
Anyone, who wants to improve the look of a home.
And that list includes:
Realtors, Home sellers, present/future homestagers, and present homeowners.
Many people complain they don't have time to stage a Home!
Home staging to sell setups can be done quickly. It doesn't take all day to set up and
stage a home. You won't have to despair anymore when a client comes to you with an
old house with a labyrinth puzzle of a floor plan.
And if you're the homeowner selling your own house, or renting it, this will make it
easier to do without having to do many costly repairs. It will work by simply taking the
time to assess the home's strong and weak points and giving it the home staging to sell
magic necessary for your potential buyers to dream themselves into making an offer.
How did you get started? Were you professionally trained?.
These are common questions people ask me all the time.
Home staging to sell began out of a need my husband Paul and I had in our own realty
business. I'd worked previously in retail and in particular furniture outlets such as
Nordstroms, and had had some formal study of design.
In retail I frequently noticed how merchandise set out and displayed in the front
windows sold quickly the items. Department store managers I worked with explained to
me that if the merchandise was not brought out and showcased it would not sell. For
instance, a bedspread staged on a bed with matching pillows and headboard sells
faster than one that is simply left folded neatly on the shelf.
'Staging to Sell,' I quickly learned moves your merchandise . This can also be
said of selling homes!
I started to experiment with decor by remodeling my own home. People would come by
and say to me, 'You ought to become an interior designer.' But at the time we were
raising four small children and as a stay-at-home mother I didn't see how this could
happen. That is until I became involved in my husband Paul's real estate business.
The first home I staged to sell was a vacant townhouse in San Jose, California. The
townhouse had been on the market for a while and not receiving any interest from
potential buyers. Paul and I sat and watched as people walked in and walked out. And
as this happened I came up with what I consider today to be a God inspired idea of
staging the home to sell. ( And it has been truly from the very beginning a wonderful
gift from above to have this talent to stage homes to sell).
I asked myself, Why not take some of the decor accessories from home and set
them up just as if it were being staged in a showroom?
And that's just what I did. A vignette was setup in the kitchen of the townhouse, using
some linens and dishes. I hung pictures on the wall and staged some furnishings and
plants about the rooms. And then, to our delight, it sold almost immediately after the
staging.
We realized that this home staging to sell could change the manner in which homes
were sold. From then on, if a house wasn't selling, I'd ask myself, why isn't this house
selling? What's wrong with it? How can I stage it to make it look its best? And try to
come up with a solution that would solve the problem.
Paul and I have now staged and sold hundreds of homes in the last five years,
and the number keeps growing... Out of those houses 70% percent had been
sitting on the market already three months to two years. After being staged
to sell they sold within an average of 18 days, some within 24 hours! And of
those homes sold less than 20% percent were re-carpeted and only 25%
percent completely repainted.
Did home staging make a difference in our business?
You please a client and that person recommends you to a friend or neighbor. That is
why Realtors often ask clients to recommend them to others, and this is what
happened in our own business.
Word of mouth is one of the best ways to build a list of clientele.
Soon word about our home staging to sell was spread around on the grapevine and
people began calling after hearing from friends how successful we had been at selling
their homes. Often they would request my home staging to sell services, but I would
take them on as clients if they promised to list with us, only then would I use my special
decorating know how. After building up our clientele I started buying objects, which I
call 'props', to stage homes.
One time I was buying a chair at an antique store and told the lady owner how I
planned to use the furniture. The woman's eyes lit up, her own house had been on the
market for a long time and she'd been told by her Realtor to go ahead and find another
agent , because he couldn't sell her home. I was hired right there on the spot and had
a listing for that very afternoon to stage her house.
When I went home and told Paul my story about how I'd gotten another listing, he said,
'From now on Ginger your job is to go shopping at least once a week!'
No problem. Now I have accumulated a garage full of props for our home staging to
sell business. And Paul and I have taken on many more listings, which many other
agents had given up on, thinking that they'd never sell.
In this book is outlined in several chapters how color, furniture,
accessories, focal point, curb appeal, are all part of home staging to
sell.
In the Chapter: 'How To Start Your Own Business' explained in detail is how to
enhance your own realty business and sell that house everyone else believes is an
unsold white elephant. If home staging to sell brings out the amateur decorator in you
this creative business could develop into a full-time lucrative occupation that is your
very own business....
Home staging can be creatively used on any home without requiring a lot of expensive
repairs, so that homeowners can make use of this method as well. The best part about
this method is that you don't have to be a professional designer or Realtor to stage a
home to sell.
