When staging a house the right way, a good professional home stager will use important strategies that highlight certain selling features or will help detract unpleasant ones. I'm not talking about using 'trickery' so let's not go there...you'll see what I mean in a minute. It's important to understand that staging is not just throwing some furniture and decorations from the local Home Goods into rooms and calling it a day. There is much behind the scenes planning that goes into the staging process and good stagers are considering everything the property has to offer and using strategic methods to guide buyers eyes where they need to go. I shared a success story last week "Rejected To SOLD! How Staging Helped This Frustrated Seller Sell In 17 Days After 20 Long Months On The Market". If you missed reading it, you might want to take a minute to read it now because I'm going to build on that story today and share some staging/photography strategies we used to help get the home sold quickly. Don't worry, I'll wait for you.
So... this particular house had one main feedback issue that kept coming up. Yep, "The yard's too small". This can be a pretty big obstacle to overcome, don't you think? It's not like you can change the size of your yard to make all those buyers happy. But one thing I did know is that this was a great house with so much to offer. Great selling features and an awesome neighborhood! (besides, not everyone needs a huge yard) How could our team use our staging and professional photography skills to show buyers that this was the home for them?
Here's how:
Staging Strategies
The only doorway leading to the backyard was sliding patio doors from the breakfast area. Without any furniture, I was afraid that buyer's attention was heading there where they were looking outside at an empty patio and neighboring homes and thinking the yard is way too small. With that impression sticking in their minds, the rest of the house didn't have much of a chance.
So what did we do?
Our objective was keeping more of the buyer's focus on what great features were inside the home esp. the kitchen and family area. We used the color RED to add an overall warm and inviting feel to the spaces.
We also added a tall floral arrangement to the set breakfast table. It also added the drama and scale needed to stop the focus from going right to the patio doors. It was probably a little bigger than I would normally use but I don't mind breaking a few rules if the objective is met and it helps get the house sold.
Photography Strategies
I snapped a few photos of the backyard and sent them to our professional real estate photographer Jenny before she came out to actually shoot the house. We discussed the issues that the seller had with the feedback and knew the importance of getting some creative angles that highlighted the patio, landscaping and fence. Jenny did not disappoint! I was so impressed with the way she was able to capture the 'lifestyle" of living in this home and neighborhood.
I didn't even know this was in the neighborhood. Who wouldn't want to take a walk and spend some time here? And it was right down the street!
Are you preparing your home for Spring or currently have a house on the market? Curious to know what strategies could work to get your house sold quickly in 2010? It's easy to find out...just give us a call. We look forward to talking with you!
Happy Staging!
Teresa Meyer is the Owner and Lead Staging Designer at Stage a Star, Cincinnati's Premiere Real Estate Staging company located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Teresa is an ASP, Accredited Staging Professional and CSPE, Certified Staging Professional Elite and Ohio Certified CSPE Trainer to real estate professionals in Cincinnati. She is a member of RESA, Real Estate Staging Association and currently is the State of Ohio RESA President. Teresa can be reached at 513-379-5488 or by email: teresameyer@fuse.net to answer your questions about the staging process and looks forward to assisting you in preparing and staging your house for the Cincinnati real estate market.
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Stage A Star provides home staging services to Hamilton county Ohio, Butler county Ohio, Warren County, Ohio, Clermont county Ohio, West Chester, OH., Liberty Twp, OH., Mason, OH., Fairfield Twp., OH., Monroe, OH., Hyde Park, OH., Loveland, OH., Maineville, OH., Morrow, OH., Deer Park, OH., Indian Hill, OH., and surrounding Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky areas.