Have you ever noticed that HGTV remodeling shows always reveal staged properties? Yeah, us too.
What is staging?
Staging a property to sell is putting your best foot forward when entering the housing market. Our favorite analogy comes in the form of preparing for a job interview.
When you’re interviewing for a job, essentially you’re marketing yourself to your future employer. You carefully plan your first impression by preparing your outfit, your resume and you spend considerable amounts of time prepping ways to highlight your best strengths. (we all know you do, and we do too!)
So here’s a quick breakdown:
While you might be more comfortable and more “yourself” in your favorite t-shirt and most flattering jeans, you definitely wouldn’t want to meet your future boss for the first time that way. Instead, you’d opt for a professional, yet approachable, look that says “I’m a hard worker but I also am a nice and fun person.”
So while your home functions perfectly for you as it is — it’s comfortable and feels right to you, you might want to consider stepping away from what’s comfortable and personal to you and into something that says “I’m a good home that’s ready for a new owner and I’m nice and fun. And, ooh, look at how cool this fireplace is!”
We offer full services to help you sift through the personal aspects of your property and transition into a universally appealing aesthetic that highlights your property’s best features. We stage with the understanding that buyers will choose a property because that is the one that feels as if it could be their home.
We have our own inventory of furniture that’s been carefully selected to appeal to the masses and create impactful scenes
Our inventory of accessories are selected to be “highlighters” of home’s features
The in-house artwork we commission is designed to not distract but fill spaces intentionally
Our accredited team places furniture in a way that directs the eye to the property’s most highlightable features
We specifically select our photography and videography partners to ensure the best first impression and strategic marketing
Our decisions are very “house-centric”. In other words, the combined work of all of our various experiences, plus continuous study and updated research helps us identify what features a property has that will appeal to most buyers. After identifying those features we make sure that all our design placements set scenes that accentuate and highlight the best elements of the property.
For us, it’s all about setting the scenes that accentuate the positives aspects of a property.
Staging vs. Interior Design
It is important to understand the difference between “decorating” and “staging.”
Decorating is making a house feel like a home for a specific person or family. Staging is preparing a property for market by setting very specific scenes to create a feeling that appeals to most buyers.
Staging design is VERY different from traditional interior design because the choices we make have to walk the line between property enhancement and being forgettable. When a buyer tours a property, our goal is that the buyer walks away remembering the property, not the furniture.
Scenes in a property tell a story. We understand that when trying to sell a property you should never leave it up to the buyer to do the visual work. We do the visual work to create powerful, impactful moments and strive to set scenes of beauty, comfort and harmony.
Staging Vacant Homes
When a buyer walks into a vacant property, he or she has to spend time wondering “what goes here?” and “how does this room function?” As opposed to the experience a buyer has when touring an expertly and appropriately staged room, the scene is set for the buyer to imagine his or her life in that home. Additionally, staging helps buyers conceptualize the space and flow of a room because our scenes provide a visual frame of reference. Staged properties don’t echo with an emptiness the way a vacant property does.
We Specialize in the Whole Package
Our value is not only our experience but also our constant training, research, and market awareness.
We also offer a media package as an add-on option for properties we stage. We work very closely with the photographer and videographer to ensure that our staging, photos, and videos work in conjunction to create the most effective marketing package. Since 41% of buyers claim that their first step in the home purchase process was looking at online properties*, the staging and media coordination helps ensure that the property’s features are advantageously highlighted. *2019 Profile of Texas Homebuyers and Sellers.
All marketing pieces (staging, photography and videography) need to coordinate together to ensure the most impactful scene is produced for a property to sell at the highest price in the fastest time.
Contact us for a consultation. We can identify what messages your property is sending to a potential buyer and help ensure you are setting the scene for a successful sale.
Have more questions? Check out our FAQs!