What Staging Is Not
- Staging is NØT a condemnation of your taste or life style. The way we live in our homes and the way we sell a house are two different things. Buyers only know what they see—not what the room could be.
- Staging is NØT decorating! Decorating personalizes your space; staging de-personalizes and neutralizes the space so that the buyers can see themselves in it.
- Staging is NØT expensive! The investment in staging is usually less than the first list price reduction and the return in “Staging Dollars” is huge. Stastics show that 95% of ASP Staged Homes sell in 35 days or less!
What Staging Is
Staging is a room-by-room plan prepared by a professional Stager™, trained to assess the strengths and challenge areas of each room. This usually includes:
- Communicating the plan
- Commitment by the seller to detach from the space
- Clearing and packing away personal items and valuables that may distract buyers from the house itself, leaving a few decorative items
- Cleaning and organizing all components of the house
- Correcting or minimizing any challenge areas
- Creating an inviting atmosphere
A successful marketing plan has three prongs:
- Preparation Today’s sellers must address the current buyers’ market. Frankly, the best marketing plan in the world will fail if buyers do not like what they see when they arrive on scene. Sellers must display the house like high end retailers! All rooms and components that make up the house will be for sale and should be ready for inspection. Every square foot should have identity and purpose. Buyers should be able to visualize themselves living in the house. Buyers agents allot only about twenty minutes inside each house. When agents sense that buyers are disenchanted with a selection, they quickly move on to the next candidate. Staged homes compel buyers to linger in each room.
- Pricing Buyers usually see ten or more houses in a price range before making a decision. An over-priced house is easily detected. Buyers who must make a decision in a few days do not want waste time negotiating. Even if the buyers were willing to pay an inflated price, current lending guidelines are much tighter than in the past. The majority of today’s buyers are restricted to paying what lenders allow. Staged homes that are competitively priced attract more buyers and sell quicker.
- Presentation Marketing resale property has drastically changed in the last few years. Once only the agents knew where the available houses were and the agents chose the houses for the buyers to see. Now the situation is reversed; buyers start shopping for houses on the Internet about two weeks before calling an agent. Their number one demand is multiple pictures of both the exterior and interior. Today’s buyers present their agents with the list of houses they wish to see. Staged photos on multiple web sites are mandatory for competitive sellers!
