Home staging is very beneficial no matter when it is done, but here are some things to think about:

The best time is before it even goes up for sale.  If you are selling, the first 30 days on the market, and the all-important photos are extremely important and can make the difference of whether or not a buyer will even come to see your home.    Many people say, “I will just wait and THEN if it does not sell, I will get it staged.”    Why not get the buyers the first time around instead of waiting and taking the risk of losing a good buyer?   Think of all of the houses that are your competition on the market and the attraction of  new construction and then decide if it is worth it to be unprepared.   If cost is a factor, at least have a stager come out and do a short written report.  A walk-through is not expensive at all and will help you know how to make it show it’s best right from the beginning.  Is it really worth it to lose even one potential buyer because your home is not prepared?

Think of Home Staging as an investment towards higher earnings at the closing table.  Unprepared homes give buyers a “discount” mentality and they will expect a deal.  Conversely, a well prepared home creates a desire to buy the home without a focus on getting a reduced price if it is priced right to start with.  Pricing + Staging = Success.

Is your home already on the market?  The second best time to stage, is as soon as you realize there is something wrong.  There are many, many stories of houses that were on the market with no activity that sold quickly after staging.  To determine if you may need a professional, consider this question:   Are you getting plenty of showings with no offers even though your home is priced right?   If so, it is time to take action before taking initial or further price reductions.  When considering the cost of staging, remember that you will pay for not having a well prepared home one way or another.  Even a full home staging of a vacant home costs far less than most FIRST price reductions.   Staging an occupied home is so reasonable (sometimes only a half day at under $500.00) , that there really is no good reason to not stage.   The benefits far outweigh the small investment.   Of course, when staging a home already on the market, be sure to have your agent retake the photos to make the listing “fresh” again.

The bottom line is that the best time to stage a home is….anytime.  Home Staging Works.

Please email me at cynthia@simplistate.com if you have any questions.

As a professional Home Stager and Realtor, I have seen my clients benefit from understanding this concept:  There is a way we live and a way we sell.  Often, these ways are very different.  Understanding this before putting your home on the market can help you tremendously by making your home selling experience less stressful and quite possibly, more profitable.  If you are thinking about selling your home, this article is for you.  In the next few months, I will provide helpful tips for every room of the house, but for now this foundational concept is important.

We live how we want:

As Seen Here...Having Kids Can Affect the Way You Live

One of the many privileges of home ownership is having the freedom to choose how our homes will look and function.  We are all able to express our individual personalities through our own design style and furniture placement.  Certainly, this is the way it should be.  Our homes should be an expression of who we are as individuals.  What works for me may not work for you and vice versa.  Some of us are very sentimental and hold onto everything, giving the home a more full accessorized look.  Others of us can’t wait to clean out our closets of anything we haven’t used that year.  A traditional style may be your preference while your neighbor may have a modern style in their home.  Having a colorful home may not be a big deal to you, but you may notice other people have painted almost every room of their house a different color.  Some of you find great joy in displaying family photos throughout your home and sharing the stories with friends and families when they visit.  Others of us have no personal photos at all.  We are all unique in “the way we live.”  Perhaps our unique way of living needs to be put on the shelf temporarily when we put our home on the market.  In general, a less unique and more neutral look may be helpful for marketing which brings me to my second point….

The way we sell may be different than the way we live because the home’s purpose has changed:

In looking at the second part of this concept, it is important to remember that just as there is a “way we live,” there is also a “way we sell.”  The purpose of your home changes as it goes on the market.  It becomes a commodity and it is extremely important to view and treat it as such.  It may mean you need to change your home’s personal style to reflect what most buyers are looking for.  It might involve painting a room.  Perhaps you might have to pack up some things earlier than you had originally planned.  This may be difficult, but if you can separate yourself emotionally from the home by reminding yourself that it is no longer yours and that you are moving to a new place, it will be easier.  Life will be back to normal soon enough and the more prepared you are, the greater chance your home will sell fast.  It is a given that the home must also be priced well, which is where a good Realtor comes in…

Consider getting help:

It is in your best interest as a home seller to hire a Realtor who understands the value of properly preparing your house for the market.  If you are already working with a Realtor, staging services are still available to you and are not as expensive as you might think.  People, who don’t mind doing some work themselves, can have a Staging Report done.  Mine start at only $99.00. Keep in mind that staging is not decorating and stagers are trained to know what changes are necessary to help sell the home and how to create important emotional connections with buyers.  As a Simplistate Realtor, when people list their homes with me, they will benefit from both intensive marketing strategies AND hands-on staging experience.  Every one of my listings gets the added bonus of free staging services and professional quality photos to help bring buyers to the home.  Stagers can make a move less stressful, assist in the packing process and help set up and decorate the new home.  For example, I staged one of my client’s homes in Mt. Pleasant that sold in about 30 days.  Afterwards, we drove to their new home in Columbia and set up and decorated it using the artwork and accessories we had purchased for the old home.  They are still very happy with the whole process.  They reaped the benefits of a faster sale and more money at closing.   It may be helpful for you to know that statistically, staged homes sell faster and for more money than non-staged homes.

Getting back to the way we live:

In conclusion, “the way we sell” is by viewing and treating our existing home as a commodity by preparing it properly for the real estate market.  Separating ourselves emotionally from the existing home by focusing on our new home can help relieve stress.  Our existing homes become simply a tool to help us get back to “the way we live” in our new

abode, which will become uniquely, ours.  A great Realtor and a well prepared house can help you move faster and make more money at the closing table.

Please look for my staging tips in upcoming articles.  Meanwhile, if you have any questions, feel free to email me at cynthia@simplistate.com.