For me, staging a vacant listing is stressful! While I love the opportunity to choose the "look" I also drive myself nuts over trying to find the perfect "thing" or making it look "perfect". I spend way too much time thinking and worrying about it and in the end, there is always something that throws you a curve ball. That's why I love occupied listings. I can make any home look better, no matter what the furnishing are! I suppose I don't get stressed because I have no "control' over what I have to work with.
Well, recently I had a client who's house was sitting vacant since last fall. Oh no! Another vacant! And to top it off, her husband didn't want to spend any money and thought staging was a waste. Talk about adding stress to the situation! Luckily, the wife was persistent and we came up with a very affordable plan to add a little zing to her vacant, lonely house. I thought - since I can stage an occupied home with the homeowners own furnishings (and not worry about the furnishings being "perfect") then why can't I stage a vacant the same way when necessary? The homeowner brought over some of her own furnishings. Her husband wasn't keen on that idea either, but she was able to round up some odd chairs and furnishings from her attic. However, I still had a dilemma...I needed a sofa and dining room table. Both of which I didn't have in my inventory. We do have an American Furniture Rental available here with nice staging furnishings, but I've found their prices to be way too expensive for home sellers in my area to use them. So we thought we'd give Aaron Rents a try. We rented a sofa and dining set from them (very inexpensive) and I brought in some extra accessories. I was a little nervous about the outcome and afraid it would just look like someone used up a bunch of excess stuff to decorate with (which we did!) but it turned out fine. The homeowners were pleased and the husband wished he had staged it several months ago, Most importantly, within the first week they received two offers, and that's the ultimate goal!
I guess the point of this story is that it doesn't have to be expensive to stage a house and it doesn't have to look like a model home to evoke a warmer feeling and add life to an empty space. Sometimes you just have to think outside the box.
Comments(21)