Real Estate Home Staging verses Interior Design. Are you still decorating?
Excerpts, from an article written by Christine Rae, President of Certified Home Staging Professionals, International.
"Make Sure You’re Staging, Not Decorating!"
“Staging is about highlighting possibility. It’s about showing a prospective buyer the potential of the home. And it’s about making the home as appealing as possible to anyone, not one specific person. The reason should be obvious—it’s a mistake to stage a home with a particular style because not every prospective buyer will appreciate that style.
The goal of a good stager is to bring out the potential of a home while staying as neutral as possible—so that each prospective buyer can imagine the home as they would decorate it.”
There’s a world of difference between staging a home and decorating it. “- Christine Rae
Here at the Iridescent Chameleon, we offer four main types home staging services:
Walk and Talk Consultations
Written Consultations
Occupied Staging
Vacant Staging
"Designer for the Day" flat fee consultation program combines: The walk in talk, written and includes a mini occupied staging or redesign for your home.
Personally, I strongly think and feel that Home staging should be an integral part of a real state team, we are here for the agent as much as the seller, by enhancing your visual marketing strategies. While I see many lovely decorated homes during open house weekend , and they are lovely, but they are still not staged. The decor is still to that "taste" of the seller. Not that the decorating is in bad taste, or "tasteless", but it is still their "likes. When it comes to staging, the concepts of interior design are used differently. Sometimes, there is so much "stuff", its hard to see the house. The key concept here is we are selling the house, not the decor.
Vacant homes, the average buyer has a difficult time visualizing a space unless you can show them the purpose of each room. It is about creating an emotional connection and selling the lifestyle. The expense of staging a vacant property is less than the first markdown and the fees are also tax deductible with the sale of the home.
A huge advantage of bringing in a professional home stager early in the selling process is we are your extra pair of "buyers eyes". We are the extra member of the real estate team. A lot of stress and frustration can be avoided. We are there for the seller and the agent, sometimes having to say the "difficult statements" an agent would like to say, but not wanting to offend or lose the listing. This is also why I caution agents not do their own staging. One, it is just one more "to do" on an agents list. Two, it can put an agent in an awkward position. This is where our consultation program or home staging report is a plus. Even if the seller (or the agent) wants to DIY, at least they have a good working plan on how best to increase the maximum potential of the property. Let the stager be the one to gently let the seller know that the "small of fluffy" is not helping with the sale of the home. We act as a buffer between you and your seller. By bringing in one who has been trained not only in design, but one who has been trained in merchandising and the psychology "why people buy things" , a seller can relax knowing they have done all they can to ready their property for a successful sale: Maximizing the property to its full selling potential.
Another advantage of bringing in a home stager early in the process is that we can also assist the seller from "detaching" from the house. Whether the sale of the home is a happy event, or, not, the house is being sold. The seller is moving, let us be an extra pair of hands and adviser for this process. Moving is an emotional event in a person's life. Our company can assist the seller in the process of moving forward to the next step in their lives. Taking a bit of the stress of the move off their shoulders. If improvements or other services such as storage facilities, painters, minor repairs, etc..., are needed, we can even provide them with a list of vendors in the area.
I have personally been asked where I see the Professional Home Staging industry going. Home Staging has really been around since the early 2000’s and was an extra step or option in the selling process. Now it has almost become a necessity in the selling process. With so many potential buyers viewing on line before they even decide which properties to view, good photos are even more important. Visual marketing is now the new “curb appeal”. I eventually see home staging becoming so important that the larger real estate brokerages will begin to offer this service for their sellers for every one of their listings, especially if the home is still owner occupied, or at least there items on still on property.
Regardless , I don’t think we are going to go back to the days of marketing un-staged homes. There are too many design shows out there and home decorating blogs, idea boards, like Pinterest or Houzz. Buyers’ expectations are high. Another way to think about home staging, prime example, would be home inspections. Most people today would not buy a home without having it inspected first; the same premise goes for home staging. Potential buyers respond to a home on an emotional basis. Home staging is all about creating an emotional connection and selling the lifestyle.
We are looking forward to partnering with you and your sellers to make your listings just iridescently irresistible. -Lori Daniele, Owner/Principal/Designer
