According to the National Real Estate Association, 90% of people can't visualize a house beyond what they see. Staging helps people see the potential.
Potential home buyers today typically start, with a search online for their perfect new home. If the photos on the listings portray clutter, cramped spaces, or the rooms look dark, the chances of that buyer wanting to view your home will be rather slim. In fact, 90% of people can't visualize a house beyond what they see. This is where staging comes in.
Staging a vacant home is relatively easy in comparison to staging an occupied home where people must continue to live their lives between viewings. Either way, vacant or occupied, the fact remains people can't visualize.
As a Certified Staging Professional® we learn how to set your home for what the buyer wants to see and give them the ability to visualize what your home could be, how much space there really is, how easy the flow of the home is and so much more. When you listen to people talk, they think staging is decluttering and depersonalizing the rooms. And while this is true to a point, there are other factors to take into consideration. By hiring a professional stager, your home will look great in the photos, it will look better in person and give that buyer a true sense of what living in it would be like.
And yes, you're right. Staging is not regulated, no certification is required to start a home staging business. But as Christine Rae, President of CSP International™ Staging Business Training Academy and best-selling author says, "having their skills and abilities measured when it isn't officially required, is a measure of a person's integrity; a foundation for wanting to be the very best they can be, bringing amazing service to their client. You wouldn't hire an unlicensed real estate agent, so why trust your equity to a stager who isn't certified?"
If you're considering selling your home, or you are a real estate agent with what you think is a particularly difficult home to sell, ask around -- you'll find those homes that sell fast and for asking price or higher are staged!
Recently, we were chatting with a friend looking to buy a new home. She looked at quite a few homes. The one that friend fell in love with had everything she wanted in a home, but what sold it, was the staging. In fact, that friend put an offer in above asking so she could have the furniture and accessories to keep it the way it was staged... It was a new home and the model home for the development, so it had all the bells and whistles. Unfortunately, my friend didn't get the home as several other offers were placed for more than the asking price, without including the furnishings.
So, to stage or not to stage, that is the question!
