The Benefits of Home Staging-Not just for vacant homes!
Home Staging has come a long way to becoming a household word since I started my own Home Staging business in 2006. However, there continues to be so much confusion regarding just what Home Staging means. Home staging is merchandising a home for sale. Most savvy home sellers and Realtors recognize the benefits of "staging" a vacant home. Particularly now that more than 80% of buyers start their search on the Internet, it has become all important how listings are viewed and the benefits of vacant Home Staging is obvious. But what of the owner occupied homes? Most Home Stagers offer very reasonably priced 2 or 3 hour consultations for owner occupied homes.
In my professional past in the DC area I had a substantial and loyal following of Realtors who utilized this service very effectively. As part of their listing package they would include a two hour consultation with me, Styled and Sold Home Staging. (members may view a past post by Debbie Cook, Realtor extraordinaire from Long and Foster in Silver Spring MD and her post regarding my services, "Stagers are worth their weight in Gold" http://activerain.com/blogsview/73307/Agents-Stagers-are-Worth-Their-Weight-in-Gold-Lots-of-Gold-Fabulous-Active-Rain-Story)
I am now in a new market, in "The Hamptons", LI, NY and I find this is a largely untapped service. To most people here staging means vacant staging or simply de-cluttering. So I have stepped up on my soapbox letting people know about this resource. If you have a home for sale in this competive market there is help! A two hour consultation is a minimal investment with a substantial return.
I offer a two to three hour working consultation for owner occupied homes. This involves walking through a home with the home owner and generating a "punch list" or a "To Do" list, helping them prioritise (what will give you the most bang for your buck) I make recommendations regarding rearrangement of furniture, I select paint colors when needed, I recommend new lighting, flooring, fixtures, hardware, window treatments and even curb appeal. And yes, I offer advise on de-cluttering and de-personalizing but that is just the tip of the ice berg, a good professional Home Stager will have a unique perspective and depths of knowledge on the psychology of designing to sell and resources on everything from sub contractors to who has the best price on drapery hardware, to how to paint kitchen cabinets.
Here is what one Realtor had to say about my two hour consultations:“Allegra is the best addition to my resource list. She is now the first call I make when I get a listing. Her expertise in staging has made all my seller's home have the benefits of looking like a model home. Using Allegra frees me from having to tell my sellers the changes that are necessary and allows me to focus on selling their home. She is very sensitive to my client's feelings and is never pushy. I highly recommend Allegra to anyone who wants to get the model home look for their clients.”
-Lauren Hatten Long and Foster Realtors, Bethesda, MD
I would love to hear some collaboration from other Stagers and Realtor on how valuable this service is.
I humbly offer some random before and afters from two hour consultations. They will not win me any design awards (lol) but they speak volumes and I offer them up. The homeowners and or the Realtor invested a few hundred dollars in my services. These photos show only one room- a consultation covers the whole house.
Allegra Dioguardi
Styled and Sold Home Staging LLC
www.styledandsold.com
Author of Styled by Design, a home staging guide to the principles of designing to sell www.styledbydesign.com
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