Dramatic Spaces Home Staging and Design

Are you setting your home apart from the rest?

Home staging is making the news. In a down market it is very stressful selling a home. When there are a lot of houses on the market, there is a lot for the buyer to choose from. They can be picky about their choices.

This is the time that home owners have to step up their game. They have to do what they need to do to get their home noticed. Real estate agents are great at making recommendations on what changes you need to make in your home in order for it to compete.

So often we love our homes and we falsely believe it is ready to sell. The problem is the obvious suggestions from agents are ignored. These obvious changes can make the real difference in your home being sold.

It doesn’t matter where you live – HOME STAGING WORKS!

It doesn’t matter what your homes listing price is.

The good news is a home stager can help at any point in the home selling process. It is best to have a home stager do a consultation before the sign goes on the lawn, but it is never too late.

So, take some of the stress out of selling your home and consider hiring a home stager.

I have been reading the book Nothing Down for Women: The Smart Woman’s Quick-Start Guide to Real Estate Investing, which I highly recommend, and the author Karen Nelson Bell says “in real estate investing, we are not in the house business, we’re in the people business.” This is so true in the home staging business as well.

As a home stager our objective is to solve problems.  The problem or the goal for most homeowners is to sell their home quickly for as much as they can in order to get on with their life.  It just goes without saying that in doing this we are making their life easier and making the whole process simpler.

Statistics show that predominately women are the ones buying houses.  She is the one who decides where the family lives.   Karen Nelson Bell says that 18% of first time home buyers are single women.  The advantage that women have when selling a house or in staging a house is that we know what we are looking for in a home.  We don’t like cold, impersonal vacant homes, but homes that we can see our family living in, homes that have a warmth, welcoming and relaxing atmosphere.  We want that emotional connection to the home.

Sure we want everything on our logical list, but when a house feels right, it just is. The way you create this for the buyer, again the woman, is to show the homes warmth and potential.  The details are what seals the deal.  The majority of home stagers are women.  We know what to pay attention to, what really captures our heart within a home.  Anyone who tries to tell you that their is no emotion in buying a home is wrong.

If you are selling your home and thinking of hiring a home stager, remember that we want to help you solve your problem. Whatever your circumstances or your budget your home stager wants to help you as a person deal with the selling process as efficiently and as effectively as possible. Home staging is a people business, not a home staging business.

Karen Nelson Bell’s book, with co-author Robert G. Allen Nothing Down for Women: The Smart Woman’s Quick-Start Guide to Real Estate Investing has a lot of great information and ideas on how to become financially free. It is written in bite size chunks for easy reading. It is for those who don’t have a lot of time for reading, but who want to have more time in life for the important things.

Home staging works in any market. And this is why.

In a “buyers” market you are up against many more comparable homes for sale so this means you have to go above and beyond in order for your home to stand out. It is like putting on a red shirt in a crowd of people all wearing white. You get noticed. You have to work harder to get a competitive edge over similar homes that are being sold at the same time as yours. But your hard work will pay off by your home selling faster, for more money and you won’t have to experience the stress of endless days of your house on the market. Think of it as going for a job that 1500 other people are going for. You have to stand out not only to get an interview, but to get the job. It is no different in selling your home. I know you can relate to this with the recent recession.

In a “sellers” market where homes sell quickly you can create an increased demand for your home. Instead of a few people wanting your home you could have 10. And we all know what happens when something is in demand – the price goes up. Just imagine a bidding war going on over your home.

It doesn’t matter what kind of market we are in, selling your home is hard work. The result you get just depends on the effort you put into the process. A lot of work means a higher payoff. A little effort means mediocre results. A home stager can get you the results you want faster. Where do you want to see yourself?

Homeowners, do you have any stories of the hard work you put into preparing your home that has paid off? Maybe you are in the process of putting your home up for sale and are nervous about the competition that you are up against and you have some questions. Please feel free to leave your questions and comments below.

This is a common question that homeowners have when they are in the process of getting their house ready to sell and you may feel the same way. I did when I sold my first home. The problem is it is easy to feel that you are wasting your money on repairs, painting, deep cleaning among other things when you are leaving. You may think “why can’t the new homeowners take care of things, afterall they can do it the way they want it to look?” Bottom line is if it is work for the buyer it will COST YOU!
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