What is Home Staging?

Home Staging is simply “Showcasing” your home to make it more marketable to the average buyer by creating spacious, balanced rooms.  Showcasing your home highlights architectural features and space, allowing the buyer to connect emotionally and visualize living there.

What showcasing is not: a critique of your personal style or decorating ability.

Selling a home is different than living in it.  When putting your house on the market, it is important to emphasize the features of the home more than the personalities of the owners. The goal is to allow potential buyers to visualize it as their home, not yours. 

Showcasing your home highlights architectural features and space.   It's important that furnishings and accessories complement the home instead of compete for attention.  Buyers are shown the potential for the home, without being overwhelmed by too much decoration.

The home is made more marketable to the average buyer by creating spacious, balanced rooms that impact buyers to focus on the best features of the home. When a home is professionally styled for the market, potential buyers can more easily see themselves and their furnishings fitting beautifully into the house being considered. Overcoming this hurdle puts the potential buyer well on the road to making an offer on your house.

Selling is all about merchandising; therefore, home presentation is merchandising to sell your home.  Would you try to sell your car without having it detailed?  Take the weekend and check out all the houses for sale in your neighbourhood and decide how yours will stack up against them.

Why Home Staging works:

Real estate agents recognize your property as ready to buy. Your home will look better than competing properties in the same market, which results in selling faster for top dollar.

Most buyers can't look past unattractive or disorganized rooms or figure out how their furniture might look in your home. Home staging creates the "dream home" environment for buyers so they don't have to use their own imagination and can immediately fall in love and say "this is home!"

It's incredibly difficult to view your own home with the eyes of a highly critical buyer. A professional Home Stager can objectively assess how best to use what you already have and determine if anything else needs to be added.

You're emotionally involved in your home and the contents so it's hard to be completely objective. You don't necessarily have the designer's eye that a Home Stager will.

You may not have the time or patience to deal with all the details the way a professional Home Stager will. Home staging usually goes beyond cleaning and decluttering and into decorating and rearranging furniture, art and accessories.

How it Works:

Detailed Consultation

Using a set of guidelines, we will evaluate your property, inside and out, and make recommendations for improvements that will create the best possible showing condition.  Consultations generally take about an hour (depending on the size and condition of the property) and result in a detailed and prioritized list of recommendations. This comprehensive list of tasks will outline exactly what is required to effectively prepare the home for sale. With the recommendations in hand, you can choose to implement some or all of the changes depending on your time frame and budget.

ReDesign for Staging
Some homeowners feel that the evaluation is all they need to get them started; others feel more comfortable having us perform a full Interior ReDesign for Staging to highlight and enhance the home’s architectural features.  The process is the same as an Interior ReDesign, keeping in mind we will focus on editing and neutralizing the space to appeal to the buyer’s critical eye.  Most homes can be ReDesigned for Staging in one day, however times may vary depending on size and scope of the project. Home Staging will help to present the home in its best possible condition. Structural problems such as plumbing, electrical, mold/mildew are beyond the scope of staging.

Staging Vacant Homes:

Typically, one would think a vacant home would be easy to sell since there is no clutter, collections and/or furnishings to distract the buyer from the home.  However, the reverse is true - when a home is vacant there is no place for the eye rest and buyers often walk through and go on to the next house. When a house is empty there is nothing to connect with and buyers move on.

When staging vacant properties it is our goal to create a place for the eye to rest and for buyers to begin connecting emotionally with the space.  When staging vacant properties it our job to show how buyers can use the space and to help them mentally begin moving into the home.

You don't need to add as much furniture to the vacant property to encourage buyers to visualize their own furniture in the home. That's the key - to make the home FEEL like the buyer's dream home.

• Using a few props to dress up the vacant house can add perspective with visual depth -- vacant rooms look flat.
• Props create focal points for buyers to imagine their own furnishings in the home and get them thinking about living in the space.
• Props are chosen with your target buyer in mind help reinforce the desired emotions.
• Props soften hollow echo sounds.

Making It Home can arrange for furniture rental and props to meet any size or budget.

Move-In Services:

Let us help you make the move-in a smooth one.

On moving day, simply have your furniture, accessories and artwork placed in the areas where you think they'll remain. At a pre-agreed time, we'll arrive and arrange your furnishings into a warm and welcoming space you'll soon call home.

Fees:

Consultations are $75.00 per hour and generally take one to two hours. This of course depends on the size and condition of your home.
Should you desire a ReDesign for Staging, the fees range from $300 for a half day and $500 for a full day.  Fees are quoted based on the number of rooms to be done and the scope of each project.
Vacant home packages are quoted based on the number of rooms to be staged and furnishings and accessories required.   Homes can be completely furnished or “vignettes” can be designed to give definition to the rooms.
Additional services such as painting or any general contract work required are not included in the quote.