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Virtual Department StoreSetting the Stage for a Sale
Shakespeare was right. All the world’s a stage—especially when you’re selling a home. But whether your production has a happy ending or a tragic one depends on what buyers see when they walk in the door.
Professional stagers prepare your house for the performance of a lifetime: a quick sale at the highest possible price. They do it by evaluating your home with a trained eye, seeing the things you don’t—whether you’re blinded by habit, emotions or, heaven forbid, bad taste.
“When we live with our things, we don’t see and we don’t respond to them the way a buyer is going to when they walk through the door,” says Jennie Norris, owner of We Stage Sacramento and president of the Sacramento chapter of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals.
Making a house appeal to the masses is the goal. “Probably the biggest misconception people have about staging is that we’re going to come out and decorate their house,” says Norris. “But decorating is personalizing; staging is depersonalizing.”
This often means removing personal items from display, including family photographs, religious icons and collector’s items to make it look like anyone who walks in could envision themselves living there
Stagers begin tackling a job by running through an extensive checklist that takes them from the curb to the back fence. From there, they make recommendations on what to change and who will do what work. Repainting a room or the entire house is a common recommendation. In occupied homes, stagers also may suggest boxing up books and clothing, bringing in new plants, adding or moving artwork, modifying the lighting and rearranging furniture.
For vacant homes, stagers rent and arrange furnishings and accessories to give the home a finished feel and the buyers a better sense of how their furnishings might look in the space. A home can be lightly, moderately or fully furnished, depending on your budget.
Sellers may try their own hand at staging, but results are often mixed because of objectivity and lack of a sense of scale and balance.
If you’re serious about getting top dollar for your home, it’s probably best to let a pro handle the job.
Basic staging starts at $500 to $600 for an occupied house and $800 to $1,000 for a vacant house, Norris says. While that’s a small bundle to some, she insists that people can’t afford not to stage because staged homes sell faster and for more money.
Some information obtained by Sacramento Magazine, September 2006 issue.
Here is where Wine Valley Photography can help
Stagers: Please see the collection of Wine Valley landscapes in the "Gallery" and feel free to contact us for that much desired wine theme in homes today.
Sellers: Contact us for a recommendation on a good quality home stager in your area to help sell your investment faster. Please make sure to keep in mind that you will need to decorate the new home you are purchasing as well. There are endless possibilities where wine valley photography can be placed in your new home.