help me stage! how do i start? what kind of staging options do i have?
We’ve heard this plea a time or two. According to the National Association of Realtors, 82% of buyers find it easier to visualize a property as their future home when staged. It’s hard to imagine if their furniture will fit and if the home has enough room for their family when rooms are empty.
Here are some of the ways we help Baltimore area realtors and their sellers get top dollar by presenting their houses in a way that shows off their best features:
Occupied Consultation
What is it? If sellers will be living in the house while it’s for sale, we provide an objective room-by-room evaluation of what to delete and add with a detailed, 12-page written report.
Who needs this service? The more you can make your home look like a photo from a magazine, the more attention your house will receive. Everyone selling a home benefits from a consultation.
Pro: You get ideas that you can use to purchase items and present them in an appealing way so buyers feel an emotional attachment to the house and can visualize themselves living there.
Con: If you decide to use the report to DIY the staging, you could spend a lot of money on items you don’t want to keep. You won’t have the professional stager there in person to arrange items.
Occupied Staging
What is it? We provide this service to sellers who have had the consultation and don’t want to do the work themselves. The seller lives in the property while it’s for sale, using mostly their own furniture and accessories to stage. We help arrange furniture and accessories. Items are available to rent if seller doesn’t have time to go out and buy new items for staging.
Who needs this service? Sellers who will be living in the home while it’s for sale and would like a professional to get house photo ready.
Pros: The work is done for you. You can relax knowing our stagers are using proven techniques to highlight your home. You save time.
Cons: Living in a staged home—with staged furniture and accessories—can feel different. The goal is to sell faster with staging, so when your house sells faster, that’s less time to be living with multiple showings each day.
Vacant Staging
What is it? This service is for sellers who will move out before the house is on the market. We can bring in furniture, accessories, wall art, and everything you need to show off your house to buyers.
Who needs this service? Flippers, realtors, and sellers use this service often when the house will be empty.
Pros: Our stagers and movers bring the furniture and set it up with accessories to make your house photo ready. After the sale, we come back to pick up and remove the items, making it easy for the seller to provide a ready home to buyer.
Cons: Some sellers are concerned about the upfront cost of staging. One of our recent Towson sellers said it best when he said, “Staging cost me money, but it was a lot less money than having to lower my asking price.”
Virtual Staging
What is it? Virtual staging became popular during the pandemic because doing staging in person was harder. It quickly became known as “the catfish of real estate.” Sellers often feel like they are baited in with a certain look, and then when they open the door, they are met with emptiness.
Who needs this service? It was very popular during the pandemic when using real furniture was difficult. Because many buyers have told us it feels like a “bait and switch,” we don’t recommend this type of staging.
Pros: While virtual staging can make a house look welcoming in photos, buyers want to see in person what they saw online when they tour a house. Staging should have an emotional pull while buyers are inside of the house. To envision it as their future home.
Cons: If the online photos get them to the front door, you want to keep that emotion strong and keep the buyers’ attention, not let it fizzle once they get to the house. You need potential buyers to walk inside and be wowed.
Do you have questions about staging? Let us know in the comments and we’ll answer you!