Home Staging Report

To Stage or Not to Stage? Perhaps this question is incorrect.

It's not a question to stage or not. Rather it's a question of what kind of home staging to apply to your individual situation. This perhaps is the most overlooked reason why home staging fails, or is applied incorrectly.

SUMMARY

There are several types of staging that can be used which can result in significant savings for the home seller, while achieving the same desired results – fast sale and highest sale price.

Once you, the home seller, understands these alternatives and home staging tips and in which situations to apply them, you can then be confident in selecting the best type of staging and home staging companies.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I have over 28 years experience with staging, pre-listing home preparation for Sellers, and my own real estate flips and investments. Even with my large renovations and new builds, each home needed to be considered individually for the proper level of staging. Many times, I found it unnecessary to employ home staging companies, saving thousands each time.

Throughout the years, I've taken numerous Certified Accredited Staging Professionals (ASP) staging courses and obtained an ASP accredited designation. However, my greatest understanding of how to apply staging has been through hands on experience.

I provide free consulting on home staging when I list a home – and in most cases, everything that is needed for staging your home to sell is right in your home. All the home owner needs to do is simply listen to my advice – this saves the home seller money and helps them get the most money back in their pocket!

FOREWARD

It takes a lot of experience to understand subtleties in the market place and to then select the best type of staging to use. The focus on this report explains how and what factors affect the types/levels of staging and based on that, how you can select the best types/levels of staging. Since you are learning this part of the staging process, this article won't get into how to place your potpourri, or bake cookies when someone views the home – that is discussed in one of my blogs.

This article will show you two very important parts of staging:

1. Factors that affect the types/levels of staging;
2. The different types/levels of staging available.

If you understand these two concepts, you'll have the best insight into how to recognize the factors affecting the types of staging to use, and then you can more confidently select the types of staging available, and apply those to save the most money and to make the most money!

DETAILED REPORT

Every home that is posted for sale should have real estate staging – that's very obvious. Home sellers fail by not understating the type of staging necessary to prepare your home for sale.

What is staging? Staging is the act of preparing a home for sale in the real estate market with the goal of appealing to the highest number of buyers, thereby selling the home faster and for more money. This does NOT mean you necessarily have to hire a stager and rent furniture! Later in this article, I'll get into some other ways to prepare your home for sale, opposed to hiring a stager and renting furniture.

For a homeowner to understand the type of staging necessary, you need to have a greater picture of what staging really is, and how it works within certain types of homes and real estate markets. This includes knowing that many homes fail to sell even when staged – which no one likes to speak of.

Your budget will have a lot to do with your decision to stage or not. Remember, if you have a budget (meaning that you are limited by funds, OR, you have consciously chosen to limit your expenditures in this area), then you better fully understand your home's requirements and circumstances before dropping money into unnecessary staging.

THE HAPPY STORY OF STAGING – that we are all told...

You hired a stager, and rented the furniture. You sold for $500,000 over asking and there were no conditions. The buyers are now stuck in a firm purchase, have over paid by $300,000 on the real value of the home (it was listed for $200,000 under market value), you made a killing and walk out like a champ! I think most home owners have visualized something like this, as that is what most news reports purport.

The above example is real and has happened many times, over and over again and is – or I should say – was our real estate market. I know this because I represented many sellers as their listing agent and achieved these wonderful results for them, including doing the same on my own personal flips and real estate joint ventures with investors.

Staging did play a role in the above example – to some degree. Can staging get you an extra $300,000 over the market value – most likely not. What made the above possible would have been: buyer stupidity; perhaps a buyer agent who gave poor advice or gave excellent professional advice which was not headed by the buyer; an irresponsible banking preapproval and appraisal system that allowed buyers to greatly over pay and thus take on unnecessary large mortgages; and the fact that no conditions were in the offer rendering it a firm deal without any escape by the buyer. But hey, I'm a listing agent and specialize in working with Sellers and you are a Seller, so kudos to us!

THE EQUILIZER – THE HOME INSPECTION

In my honest opinion: To the seller, a home inspector is much like a giant bird that flies throughout your home, sh***ing all over the place. Basically, bad news for the seller. In other words, no matter how pretty your place is staged or looks now, it won't after he or she flies around for 3 hours!

Considering the above example, if at least one condition was present, the outcome may have been quite different in the selling example above.

The Home inspector can easily pull all your staging apart in one bad home inspection report, and as it is with most buyers who overpay – they will usually end up with buyer's remorse and a chance to get out of that transaction!

If I asked home owners if staging a home for sale with high end rented furniture was worth it, most home sellers would respond with "absolutely!". Then, when they receive a bill for $6,000 for the staging services and rental of said furniture for several months, AND their home has still not sold, they will be left scratching their head - disillusioned and understandably upset. This example has happened to many home owners, over and over. Don't let it happen to you.

TYPES OF STAGING

We can separate staging a home to sell into several categories. We can then simply employ one category to work/stage with, or combine some, or all of them together. Remember, your budget has a lot to do with this, along with your home's attributes and market behavior.

Types of staging:

1. De-clutter, and remove excess furniture or all of it, and then clean up.
2. Paint walls and trim, repair and bring up to date all appliances and mechanical HVAC systems so that they run well and look as though they have been well taken care of. Make any necessary upgrades – broken faucets, etc.
3. Use the furniture that you have to "stage".
4. Hire a stager who will use your furniture, or will rent and bring in furniture and arrange it as they see fit. Ensure you are abundantly aware of the home staging cost involved.

FACTORS AFFECTING TYPE OF STAGING TO USE?

1. Your budget.
2. The state that your home is in – mainly referring to its up keep and physical state.
3. Time frame to work in and your time availability.
4. End use or type of buyer for your home: family vs. contractor vs. builder.
5. How hot your market is – will there be a good chance of no conditions in the offer?
6. Are you under pricing and hoping for multiple offers, or planning to price high and wait? This will really make an impact on whether or not to stage.

HOW TO DECIDE ON THE BEST STAGING OPTION

This is where it gets more difficult for the home seller to make a good decision. You really need to know and have a feel for what affects staging the home for sale and the consideration of the best staging companies, if warranted. There are at least three or four factors that must be considered – at the same time – which makes the decision more difficult. These points are mentioned below:1. Your budget: This is obviously a consideration that will limit your staging plan.

• a. Perhaps you can only afford to de-clutter and use your own furniture for staging.
• b. You may also feel that spending three or four thousand just isn't going to bring in that extra money. Your home may already be well maintained and shows very well on its own – as it is.
• c. Perhaps your budget only allows you to do bathroom staging, or bedroom staging. Perhaps you only want to do living room and dining room staging. Condo staging of 500 sq ft is very different than staging a home that is 4,000 sq ft.

2. The state of your home:

• a. House staging will help you little if you have real issues with the home, and your competitors don't. For example, if you have a wet and damp basement and major structural issues, staging isn't going to make those issues go away. In this case, you would be better off to put that staging money into repairs of those issues, otherwise, if your price is similar to those non-leaky homes, those homes will sell first.
• b. If your home has had hundreds of thousands of upgrades, it will speak for itself. Staging would definitely finish off the home and may help you get several times what you paid for the staging. Just keep in mind that it will be the major improvements and renos that will drive a significantly higher sale price, not the staging
• c. Wonky floors, little or no insulation, repairs needed in the hundreds of thousands, termites, etc, may sell like hot cakes and regardless of staging, you'll get top dollar no matter what. Such is the case of many Toronto neighborhoods. In cases like this, some areas are in such high demand that the location and property alone will fetch an outrageous price, so staging isn't the driving force and not necessary
• d. Newly built homes speak for themselves. These homes can easily sell for many millions and some may take up to a year or more to sell. To stage a home such as this isn't practical nor economical. The home ends up a poor candidate for staging as the costs for such a large home and the length of time on the market would simply not be cost effective.

3. Time frame to work in and your time availability. This can go both ways:

• a. You have time and can stage your own home using the furniture you have, and you may even choose to invest in some interesting and visually pleasing home decor items from Home Sense or Michaels.
• b. You are too busy at work and will need to hire someone to take care of organizing and planning the furniture. A staging professional can easily take this task on and use your furniture to achieve good results. They can then supplement where needed any paintings or small staging items – reducing your staging cost. This stager can also bring in the perfect furniture, with the only caveat being the cost of rental.

4. If your property will be sold to:

• a. a builder for a new build won't care about house staging, so don't stage anything, as it won't matter to this buyer.
• b. It gets a bit more tricky when you have a home that a could sell to a typical buyer who would slowly improve the home over time yet can still live in it comfortably with a family, compared to a contractor who would buy that same home and renovate it and then flip it.

5. How hot your market is – in a hot market, the Seller is king. You can demand and get condition free offers and get the highest prices. The biggest question would be, if I staged would I get even more money. The answer is you may or may not. When buyers go crazy in such a demanding market, it's hard to say what drove those buyers to pay so much over the market value.

In reality – there is a lot more to homes selling like crazy and getting top price than simply due to staging. Much of this is buying frenzy and demand are directly linked to location, new government regulations that will be introduced and buyers trying to get in before it's too late, niche neighborhoods, speculation and investors, etc. You will most likely need to consider several , if not all of the above factors before deciding what type of staging is realistic when staging a house for sale.

WHAT CAN GO WRONG WTIH STAGING?

Here are some real life examples:

1. In 2018, I had a seller call me who was stuck in an agreement with another agent. That agent suggested that they stage their townhouse in Oakville. The home was on the market for 90 days and still did not sell. They are paying about $1,500 a month plus the initial staging. The home hadn't been painted and was tired. It really was a waste of money as the Seller ended up simply reducing the price to sell. These sellers would have been better to use this money to refresh this home by painting it from top to bottom.

GET UNBIASED ADVICE ON STAGING

As this title indicates, unbiased advice is worth a lot to you. The problem with consulting a stager is that, most likely, that stager will want to go all out on your home. Good business practice for them, not so much for your pocket book. They may give you home staging ideas, but their main goal is to sell you on staging your whole home. Again, get an unbiased opinion on tips for staging your house to sell.

Most agents don't understand staging nor the costs involved especially if the listing takes longer to sell. I'd also say that many realtors won't be able to competently weigh the advantages of putting money into the home by way of improvement (fixing leaky faucets, painting the home, installing new floors to hide waves and "wonkiness", etc) versus staging the home with a stager and furnishings.

WHY IS THE RENTAL COST SO HIGH ON FURNITURE?

I have an awesome and fair priced home stager. As she explained to me, it's very difficult to keep furniture looking perfect – as that is what is expected. You walk into a home and expect to see flawless furniture that will invoke the idea of perfection in the mind of the buyer. Every time that furniture is moved in and out of a home, it gets damaged. Consider that it's not cost effective to hire the most expensive movers or pack up the items as a moving company would if they were moving your belongings. Because of this, furniture gets damaged and needs to be either fixed/mended or replaced with new furniture. This really is an issue as the costs must be passed onto the seller otherwise the stager simply goes out of business.

I have actually been in a situation where the company that leased out the furniture to my stager went belly up – and the furniture in the house was simply not collected. The stager took it away once the home was sold, but that company that leased the furniture didn't even deem it worth collecting as the company went into receiver ship and was out of business over night. This illustrates the thin margins that many leasing companies face in this industry. Thus, it sheds light on why stagers themselves won't buy the furniture and own that furniture: it gets damaged, its difficult to move in and out without damage, and it takes up a lot of storage space.

BEST ADVICE ON STAGING....

I would suggest that you incorporate some sort of staging when staging a house for sale – JUST DON'T DO IT ALONE – and be vary when hiring home staging companies.

If an agent offers you free staging advice and you can ascertain that they are experienced and really understand what I illustrated in this article, then use their expertise to help you make the best decision. This also means that there should be unbiased advice. Be careful who you ask for help. Some realtors may get kick backs on referring a home stager or home staging service. Stagers are there to stage your home and make money – stagers don't do charity work! The more they can stage the more they make.

Personally, I have had over 25 years experience with staging and prelisting home preparation for both Sellers and my own real estate flips and investments. In all of my clients home and in my own renovations and flips, each home needed to be   considered individually . There were times where no staging was necessary because the home and or location was so outstanding.

It's this experience that will help you get the best advice and home staging tips on where to put your money in, and what home staging will give you the best return. I don't get any kick backs for referring professional home stagers or staging companies (if it comes to recommending a home stager). Some agents have friends who are into home staging and push that friends services – whether or not you really need it. Keep that in mind when confronted with an agent insisting that you use their "recommended home stager".

Call me for a free no pressure consultation on house staging, as I do this for all of my clients. Honest and unbiased advice that puts more money into your pocket by saving you money while making more money in the end. Call me directly on my mobile at   416-543-7348 , to discuss today and get the help you deserve!