20 Lessons from a Professional Home Stager – Part 1.

Home staging (or ‘property styling' as it's sometimes called, depending on where you live in the world), is the process of getting a ‘for sale' property to sparkle and really stand out for potential buyers. Despite the concept of professionally ‘staging to sell' being developed in the 70's, it's still a relatively new concept to the real estate scene in many areas.

So what can you learn from a professional home stager, like me? Well, it's more than about baking cookies and playing soft music during inspections. Today, thanks to the internet, home buyers are much savvier, and what once spoke volumes to house hunters is now tired and obvious. Think of house hunters as customers in a store. And as they say in sales - "the customer is king".

In this 2 part series I'll fill you in on 20 lessons an expert home stager can teach you about attracting more potential buyers customers to your property store.

1. Give you the secret to the kind of kerb appeal that gets buyers in the door, not just driving past it.
2. The best home stagers don't just understand where to place your sofa; they have an excellent understanding of house hunters and their buying expectations. For example, I help my clients narrow their property's target market down from 7 different types of home buyers. Then we get to work on meeting the expecactions of those types of buyers.
3. A stager will point out your home's most saleable features (chances are, you have more than you realise), and show you what to do to bring them out for your buyers to see.
4. Is your property's architectural style classic or contemporary? Be careful. There's a fine line between a true classic style, and a look that is simply outdated. A home stager can help you find out what your home's style is and then show you how to make it a real selling feature with 'low' cost, or perhaps even ‘no cost' fixes.  
5. Show you how to place your existing furniture to make each room look and feel larger, as well as being a very useable space.
6. Stagers can pull your existing furniture together to make for a harmonious sellable look.
7. How to take those smaller decorator items and use them to focus a buyer's attention on a feature of your house.
8. Home stagers understand that any established home suffers wear and tear, but some of it can't be passed over when you're selling. You'll learn which repairs and updates give you the biggest bang for your buck.
9. Would you believe it is possible to use some of the kid's gear to help you sell your house? I kid not! ("pun intended - hope you don't mind"). A home stager will know just what to do.
10. A professional stager or re-designer often has plenty of contacts. Just ask, and they can probably point you in the direction of a sharp real estate agent, plumber, electrician, gardener, painter, storage facility, moving company, homewares store. 
11. Most stagers are happy to make suggestions on which marketing photos show your property in the best possible light for buyers (it's a crucial part of your marketing plan). Having 1^st class property marketing photos is a bit of a personal obsession for me, and I think most stagers tend to feel the same way.
12. Some wall colours work very well when you're selling, others can scare your buyers off. And no - it doesn't all have to be beige, beige, beige. A professional home stager will help you understand what will work for your place to give it more of a wow factor.

This is a start. I've still got more up my sleeve as I'm sure my home stager friends have. Would you be willing to share some home staging lessons of your own?

Donna Ross

Great Impressions Real Estate Staging

"I love helping Sydney home owners and real estate agents catch the eye of choosy buyers with their 'for sale' listings, with fast, simple and inexpensive decorating fixes."