There seems to be some confusion on the part of the public, as well as Realtors, regarding what is decorating and what is home staging.
When the subject of home staging is approached a frequent comment is "Oh, thats decorating a house to sell it." Well, yes and no. Home staging is preparing a house to sell and may involve some accessorizing, but unless the house is vacant , in most cases, it is more like un-decorating.
DECORATING
- Personalizing a home to the owner's unique sense of style and taste
- Choosing a scheme to follow throughout the house from furniture to drapery, to carpeting, paint
- Gearing the house to a particular lifestyle such as seniors, young families, singles
- Making collections of memorabilia , or the owner's other treasured items prominent in everyday living such as sports awards, trophies, hunt rooms etc....
HOME STAGING
- De-personalizing a home and making it as universally appealing as possible and yet keep a sense of warmth and emotional connection that will make the buyer feel welcome and at home instantly
- If a decorating scheme is not what most people can relate to it needs to be reoriented to appeal to the broadest segment of the buying public
- When a house is approached by any buyer regardless of age, marital status, children or not, it should make the individual feel right at home regardless of who lives there
- Home staging seeks to minimize items(de-clutter) that would distract a buyer from seeing the house for sale
I don't like the word 'neutralize.' It is not indicative of what home staging seeks to accomplish. First, and foremost, home staging is about deep cleaning a house so that it is sparkling and fresh and move-in ready. Home staging makes a house more appealing by the use of widely desirable paint colors that would generally compliment anyone's home furnishings. Home staging uses placement of furniture to maximize the flow of a house not to accomodate the location of the TV. By removing items that distract from the house itself home staging seeks to enhance space, and therefore validate equity, in the mind of the buyer.
Most of the calls I've had recently from those wondering whether or not to get into home staging have been from decorators and they want to know what is it that they do that is different from home staging and how would the skills complement one another.
Being a decorator is a huge asset to being a home stager because a decorator already has an eye for design even if they may /may not yet have the ability to 'see' through the eyes of the general buying public in the real estate market. Some decorators are 'burned out' on decorating and want to try a new approach with their skill set. It is certainly a good fit, but the approach to the market is different and so are the goals.
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