Front Door Entrance

Staging is the new catch phrase for faster sales

Today, especially when the real estate market is contracting, it is important to take advantage of every trick in the book to get your home sold as fast as possible and for top dollar.

One of those tricks is called staging.

Staging is the processing of making your house seem bigger, brighter, cleaner and ideal dwelling for almost any prospect that inspects your property. Staging helps prospects visualize themselves in this house and allows them to mentally make it their home.

Staging is not designed to make your house more livable for you and your family. In fact, it is a bit of hardship to live in a staged house during the selling process.

You and your family will literally be out of your comfort zone. Everything that makes your house your home will for the most part be gone. But remember: this is only temporary. Believe me, having your house on the market is a real drag anyway. Your agent will give you short notice that a "hot prospect" wants to see it RIGHT NOW! Not when you're comfortable, but now. So anything that shortens that "on the market" time will be worth it, even if it means a little more temporary discomfort.

Staging is more than just cleaning,
painting, and making repairs.

Staging Dining Room Table

Once your house has been cleaned, painted, and repaired, and before it is ready to be shown to the public, this is when staging is implemented. Staging is all about the details of how the house is presented.

Staging is NOT decorating. Decorating means personalizing your house to your tastes and whims. Staging is about getting your house sold.

In a nutshell, staging is reducing the furnishings to bare minimums and creating vignettes inside each room and perhaps multiple vignettes for certain rooms. A completely empty room has no life.

A room filled with personal photos, hobby items, etc. is filled with so much homeowner personality that prospects feel they are intruding into someone's private life. This is not what a house seller wants. HOUSE SELLERS WANT PROSPECTS TO SEE THEMSELVES IN THE HOUSE, NOT HOW SOMEONE ELSE LIVES.

Common accessories might include:

  • Mirrors

  • Cut flowers in attractive vases

  • Fresh fruit

  • Up lights, table lamps and floor lights

  • Ottomans

  • Pillows & baskets

  • Scented soap bars

  • Fresh towels

  • Ironed crisp bed sheets

You might be tempted to feel that since you're selling your house and moving to a new one, that you don't want to invest anymore money into this property and save that money for your new home. As Ben Franklin once said: "Don't be penny wise and pound foolish." Staging is investing a small amount for the most important investment you'll probably ever make: your house!

If your house doesn't have that certain appeal, that lacks attention to detail, then real estate agents will be less inclined to show the property, simply because they know what the your competition is doing and their time and their buyer's time is valuable-- why waste it on a property they know most buyers will pass on?

Read more about staging: