A Peek Behind the Curtain

I’m sure you’ve wondered, how does staging actually work? Is it just moving a bunch of furniture in and out of homes all day every day? Does staging make that much of a difference? People don’t reaaaaalllly care how a home looks when they’re in the market for a new one, right? They can see the potential and know my couch won’t be here when they move in, of course. Today, we’re going to give you a sneak peek into just how exciting and effective staging a home can be!

Preparing for a stage is a multi-week process. We hear from a realtor that a client is looking for our support. We begin the process with a staging consult — up to two hours walking through a client’s home and prioritizing together the work that should be done and that changes to be made for the seller to receive the maximum price for the sale of their home. We take pictures so we can get to work designing and packing all the furniture and décor needed to impress buyers. After the consult, the seller gets to work cleaning, repairing and packing.

While the buyers are working hard at home, we are busy buzzing around our warehouse selecting furniture, bedding, lighting, art and décor that we strategically pack and ready for staging day!

Once the home is vacant, the selling family moved out, and everything spick and span, it’s time for us to bring our design to life with the help of our very beloved movers! We bring a big moving truck, full of beautiful items, and two amazing movers who help us thoughtfully and carefully curate homes. We place furniture, hang artwork, toss throws and do our absolute best to highlight the home’s best features and greatest potential. Again, our goal is to help you gross the most profit.

Here’s the best part — the final product! There is no higher compliment that a seller returning to their staged home and saying, “gosh, it’s so beautiful I’m not sure I want to leave anymore. I wish I had you come design our home years ago!” Check out these before and after photos from a recent stage!

Dining room before

 

Dining room after

Eat-in Kitchen Before

Eat-in kitchen after

Office before

Office after

Primary bedroom before

Primary bedroom after

Livingroom before

Livingroom after

A little paint, some updated, neutral décor, and voila! You have yourself a top-notch home for sale! Check out this beautiful home’s listing photos, and who knows, maybe its your next dream home!

Speaking of dream homes, you don’t have to wait until you’re moving to have us come to your home for design help! We offer design services, in addition to staging. We love helping clients fall in love with their homes all over again, so don’t hesitate to reach out, we are here to support you!

 

Guest Blogger: Katya Larsen, Stager, A Home Revival

 

The Hidden Costs of NOT Staging Your Home

We offer a variety of staging services at A Home Revival and Rooms with Style: staging consults, occupied stages, and the most inclusive service — the vacant stage. Here’s a peek at what each service entails:

Staging Consult – Home walk-through to develop a prioritized To Do List. Homeowner chooses which items on To Do List to complete and executes these items themselves.

Occupied Stage – Homeowners live in the home with their own furnishings; furniture placement may be changed, and accessories and artwork may be brought in for staging.

Vacant Staging – Homeowners have moved out and the home is empty; furniture, artwork and accessories are brought in for staging.

All of these services are incredibly helpful during the moving process, and clients are sometimes intimidated by the process and cost of staging. Our goal is to explain why it can be more costly to not invest in staging services during the moving process, and why these services are pivotal to getting the most revenue from the sale of your home.

Did you know, the majority of home buyers do not have the ability to walk into a home and imagine themselves living there? Its based on how our brains are built, like color blindness or handedness! A realtor once shared with me that a client wasn’t interested in a home they visited because he really didn’t like the blue couch. The realtor had to gently remind him that the couch didn’t come with the home! We hear examples like this a lot : “I don’t like the paint colors.” “I don’t like their style, it’s outdated.” “We don’t need a nursery.” “I didn’t like how it smelled in the home.” According to the National Association of Realtors, 82% of buyers find it easier to visualize a property as a future home when staged.

During the staging process, we are able to come to your home for a consult, prioritize with you the work you are willing and able to do to ready your home for sale, and then decide together how we can assist you with the process. Our hope is to neutralize the home, and create beautiful spaces that would appeal to anyone and everyone. We show how each room is intended to be used and come up with creative uses for spaces that are awkward or oddly shaped. We help buyers see just how great the home is, highlight it’s best features, and give them a head start at imagining their new life in their new home! According to realtor.com, staged homes sell 88% faster and for 20% more. We often stage homes that have sat on the market for weeks, or even months, without a sale, and see them sell in just days!

As we mentioned, staging services are flexible and meant to serve the seller’s needs. We prioritize the work together because we know there is often not enough time and resources to do everything possible to sell the “perfect” home. That said, the National Association of Realtors says more than a quarter of buyers (27%) are more willing to overlook property faults in a staged home. That means we can take on making your home appealing to buyers and save you the cost and efforts of major updates to your home. We show how great your home can look as is, and modernize it with our stunning décor. 

We know staging is an additional investment, something that can feel “extra” or “unnecessary” with all the other costs and to-dos during the moving process. We can confidently say that the majority of our clients do save time and money by inviting us to walk with them throughout the selling process. We love partnering with realtors to serve their clients, and it is our hope to make the moving process a little more palatable. And if you like our work, we can even come to your new home and help you create your dream space! We’re here to serve and support you!

 

 

Guest Blogger: Katya Larsen, Stager, A Home Revival

Ready, Set….SELL!

Spring is here and that means the housing market is warming up and getting ready for busy season! If you are thinking of putting your home on the market this season, consider these top tips for readying your home:

Clean, clean, clean! I’ll say it again, clean! We cannot emphasize enough the importance of a pristine home when putting your house up for sale. That means windows, bathroom drawers, appliances, porch webs and debris, and every other nook and cranny you can think of. We even encourage sellers to dust their basement appliances like water heaters and softeners, as well as furnaces.

Depersonalize and neutralize your space. Pre-pack all family photos, anything with your name on it, calendars, and other items that are very meaningful to you. Imagine you are creating a blank slate for a buyer to tour your home and be able to imagine their life there. I often tell clients, “no signs of life in your house! People know you are living here but they don’t want to know you’re living here.” That means taking laundry hampers and garbage cans with you when you leave or out to the garage, tucking away toilet brushes and plungers, removing any dish towels, rags, soap and accessories — even the cute, just-for-decoration, dish towels!

Repair is essential to preparing your home for market. The goal is for buyers to feel like your home is truly move-in-ready and that they can’t find a single project they must do. Improvements that make a difference, but sometimes get overlooked, can include:

  • professionally cleaned carpets
  • freshly painted front door (no chips or signs of ware)
  • closet doors that open easily and quietly, and shut correctly
  • walls and closet interiors free of scuff marks
  • demineralized faucets and shower heads
  • conditioned wood, especially in areas of high use or next to water sources such as railings and bathroom and kitchen cabinets
  • working lightbulbs with matching hues in all fixtures
  • patched and painted walls as needed

Refresh your home before taking photos or offering open houses. Add crisp, new white bath towels and hand towels to bathrooms. Pick up a few house plants from Trader Joe’s (or fake one’s from Ikea!) to add some life to your space. Toss lemons and limes in a wooden or ceramic serving bowl and set it on your dinner table, they’ll last for weeks! Pick out a fresh, colorful bouquet for picture day and display it on your kitchen island. Perhaps you want new bedding for your next home, buy it early and make your primary bedroom look extravagant for showings. Updating or adding hardware throughout the home can make oak cabinets look new again, and replace yellow-gold fixtures with black or oil rubbed metals. Small, less expensive changes such as updating light fixtures or replacing outlet covers, can make all the difference in the end!

It’s reasonable that preparing to sell your home feels overwhelming. You’ve built a whole life in your home and it can be a lot of work, both physically and emotionally, to prepare to let it go. I find it can be helpful to imagine you are setting up your home to bless the next family to live there. What can you do to make your home the best it can be for them? Or imagine you are a buyer for your home. What would you want to see or not see? What would feel like projects if you were just moving into the property? Put yourself in the buyers’ shoes and you’ll know just what you need to do. Of course, if all else fails, just clean, clean, clean!

 

Guest Blogger: Katya Larsen, Stager, A Home Revival