STAGING SELLS

Are you a shopper? I know I am! Granted, a big part of what I do is shopping. My clients send me out into the sea of retailers to find the perfect things for the perfect spots in their homes because they simply don’t have the time, patience or know-how to do it.

If you’re a professional shopper, or maybe even if you aren’t, you begin to learn the tricks of the trade. You learn which stores have sales and when. You learn when stores get new merchandise. You learn how to stretch shopping dollars just that much further. And you recognize good merchandising when you see it.

In the simplest terms, (real estate) staging is all about merchandising. It’s showcasing the selling strengths of a property while disguising its weaknesses. People often buy things they don’t even really need simply because of how they were merchandised or marketed to them. Why wouldn’t the same concept apply to home buyers?

BEFORE

AFTER

We recently staged a wonderful, ranch home in a great location in Rockford, IL. The seller understood the importance of first impressions and putting her best foot forward. Since there are still pockets of real estate that aren’t performing as well one might hope and she felt like hers might be one of them, she decided that staging was the key to make her property stand out as a YES in a sea of Maybes!

BEFORE

AFTER

After our initial consult, my client had plenty of homework. She had to go ahead and begin the moving process by sorting through things to keep and by getting rid of things she no longer needed. While she was busy with that, we went to work finding the few key things she needed to pull her staged look together and wow prospective buyers.

BEFORE

AFTER

As you can see, the Before and After pictures of this job prove that the key to getting offers and even getting buyers in the door is marketing! The most impactful new additions were inexpensive but colorful window treatments in the main living areas. The majority of the rest we were able to do using what she already had once the unnecessary furniture and clutter were edited out.