Hi Kathy, if you have any neutral decorative elements like vases or make small sculptures that might help add some visual appeal to the unit. Just remember to de personalize it so no family photos.

Hey Patty, I hear you loud and clear! The first version of this article was admittedly for Realtors with big budgets, but we have an update coming out soon that offers practicle tips, as well as a shopping guide to get furniture and decor for staging at rock bottom prices.

This article works for major metropolitan regions but is primarily useless for the majority of individuals living in other less populated (and confused) regions.

Wow, this is very detailed, thanks!

1. Leave it to a professional at all times.
Many times sellers and brokers make the mistake that DIY preparations to take a property to market are cost savings actions. This is counter intuitive. As a broker you would never recommend a seller to try and sell their home alone. The legal pitfalls could be extremely costly in the end. The same mistakes staging can cost far more than the aid of a professional staging designer. Use a pro always.

2. Sellers (Unfortunately) are the worst option to prepare a home for market when it comes to making a property appeal to the target buying audience. It does not matter if you have sold one home or two or three or 10. The style trends change, home marketing strategies evolve and buyer expectations change. You should always default to your professional broker and staging designer for the best result.

3. It is a team effort and Seller, Broker and Staging designer need to be in lock step to bring a property to market. The seller needs direction on what they need to prepare in advance this always started with;
a. Pack it away – you are moving. If you don’t need it in the next 90 days put it in a box and get ready for your movers.

b. Clean it, Polish it, Repair it and Paint it. No buyer today is looking for a full scale renovation project. They want to buy it, decorate it and live in it. Personal buyer style choices today are different than the 90’s diy home trend. Most buyers looking for a renovation project will not be looking at your home as a candidate for their flip and sell.

c. Staging Designer and Broker – plan a strategy call to discuss this listing BEFORE meeting with the seller. The staging designer is your best support when it comes to delivering the bad news. As a professional responsible for making a property buyer ready. You can not hold back the need for change. Be professional, polite and respectful. But buyers need the truth and be ready to explain WHY. This will position any broker to be the emotional support for a buyer and will move these changes forward.

d. If you as a professional home stager cannot answer in one sentence why a seller needs to do the things needed to prepare their home. You need to step back and do some sole searching on how to manage your message. This is your single biggest point of a seller meeting and should be at the ready at all times with this message in a positive way.

I will close with one last recommendation for needing a better term than Staging. I agree the expansion of the services provided are not consolidated into one word. The word Staging is an action defining statement for the process very much the same as Painting, Cleaning and Eating. That is why our team uses the term “Make Ready Services For Real Estate Sales”. Because all the services we provide are far more than furniture installation and decor styling.

I am sure you have all read enough at this point to know that all advise is good information but not all advise is applicable to all situation. Geographic markets demand different tactics and strategy and no two are the same. Just as no two styles fit every listing you work on. I hope these elements that make our team successful will help you in growing your business and selling your homes.

Best of luck in your designs and making the world more beautiful one home at a time.