To Stage or Not to Stage

Posted by Michelle Bouchet in Selling Tips on June 8th, 2011 No Comments

Trophy Room

It takes mere seconds for buyers to decide whether or not they like your home.  Almost everything after that is simply justifying their initial first impression.

Hence all the discussions agents have with their sellers about curb appeal and staging, and why they do things like bake cookies during open houses. It makes a difference.

Sellers often balk at some of the things agents suggest they do to their home to prepare it for sale.  Remodeling a bathroom, changing landscaping, swapping out appliances, painting inside and out – that can run into multiple thousands of dollars.  You may not be able, or willing, to spend that much.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t many things you can do to improve your home prior to putting it on the market. Cleaning your home until it’s spotless is the easiest and most obvious. Getting rid of clutter and editing your belongings, putting everything that isn’t absolutely essential into storage and making minor repairs to anything that’s broken are also, in my opinion, must-dos.

Once all that is done, it’s time to consider staging.  Staging can range from the complete furnishing of a vacant home to simply rearranging your own belongings to show off the features of the home more readily.  And that’s what staging is about – showing off the home. It’s about allowing the buyers to see the best your home has to offer and to be able to imagine themselves living there. A buyer shouldn’t walk into your home and have their attention immediately grabbed by your stuff.  You aren’t selling your stuff; you’re selling your home.

To get more ideas for staging your home, please come to the staging seminar I’m hosting this Saturday, June 11, with stager Peggy Hughes of PHA/Peggy Hughes and Associates. It will be from 10 – 11 a.m. at the Paragon office on 1400 Van Ness Avenue. Email me at mbouchet@paragon-re.com or call 415.609.9496 to RSVP.