As a Stager and Realtor I am very delighted to see great featured posts about STAGING.
I started staging for a big company in Los Angeles years ago and know the power of it first hand.
Staging has been a booming business in Los Angeles for over a decade. Top producing agents don't even take on a seller who is not willing to stage. Why? Because a top producer wants to do just that: SELL quick for a good price.
My passion for polo made me move to Florida since there is really no good polo in LA. I bought a home in Wellington, Palm Beach County which is the epicenter for equestrians and I felt I was in horsy heaven.
In need of a way to make a living after the move and realising how "un-known" staging was in FL, I decided to start my own Staging company in 2007. This was the worst year for trying to get Staging popular. I felt like I was spinning my wheels since the RE market came to a standstill and that was the reason why I got my license to still stay in the RE business which I love.
Very, very rarely is a new listing ready for showings. Here a few before/after pix from some of my jobs:
They always suffer from far too much clutter:
Too personalized:
I have not yet seen any homes that are ready for the market it and I wish agents would start putting their foot down and not let the seller get away with the mentality:
Well, let's just try it the way it is....or just as bad: the buyer can do all those changes.
It will make or break the success of selling a home quick for good money.
Of course it has to be understood that a listing has to be priced realistically first. One can stage a home to perfection, but if the home is greatly overpriced, staging might not make a difference.
If a home is priced well however, it will give it the edge over other listings and it will have a great effect.
Especially in a buyers market we are in right now where buyers have a lot of choices it is even more critical to set your listing apart from your competition.
For now, I offer staging consultations for free as an extra marketing tool for my listings.Staging is so very important to me that I even go so far that I offer my time and help the seller getting the home ready for showings which can be back breaking.
Once again, I know the power of staging and I refuse to show a home that is not completely finished. When sellers get impatient and ask me to show it anyway, one saying always helps them understand: THERE IS NO SECOND CHANCE FOR A FIRST IMPRESSION!
Fellow agents, I am urging you: help yourself and your clients and don't just take a listing without getting it ready for the public...think of your commission you might not get if buyers walk into your listing and move on to the next. You want them to stay and feel it could be already their home but it need some work which is well worth while.
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