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Home Staging

2008-12-30. Written by Jake Benjamins

The following is an interesting e-mail I received about our article on home staging from Heather Cook of Rooms in Bloom:

I came across a copy of the article you wrote about home staging and just wanted to touch on a few points you made. I am co-owner of Rooms in Bloom, a professional Home Staging company in Kitchener-Waterloo and have considerable experience and training in this field.

First of all, I agree with the most basic points you make in the article - presentation is vital for anyone selling their home. You understand, as my partner and I do, that simply by de-cluttering, cleaning, and arranging furniture and accessories properly a seller can create a warm and welcoming house which any buyer would be interested in.

What I would like clarification on, is your recommendation for sellers to call around and ask home staging companies for free estimates. Professionally speaking, neither my partner and I would offer an estimate to a potential client without seeing the property. Going through the home, deciding what needs to be done are part of our consultation process and consultations are not free. A stager offering free consults or free advice is doing him/herself a disservice as home stagers provide valuable information to sellers through the consultation process. Any seller getting "free" estimates without seeing the property raises a red flag in my mind and I believe you should instead counsel sellers to schedule a detailed consultation with a reputable staging company in which the seller will recieve a report with detailed recommendations which can be done either by them, or by the home stager if the sellers so choose.

Also, in terms of renting furniture, stagers generally do that when a house is vacant or when the furniture is not viable. My partner and I, without exception, strive to use as much of the seller's furniture and accessories as possible so as not to incur extra costs for the home owner. However, although renting furniture for vacant homes is considerably more expensive, without question it shows the home better. Not only does appropriately sized pieces of furniture allow buyers to get a real sense of the room's proportions, it also helps foster the emotional attachment between buyers and a home - which is the key reason why people buy a home. Your article did not come out and say that renting furniture is a waste of money however it did not enlighten people on the reasons why it is a vital part of vacant home staging either. Yes, it is money spent however the current statistics from the Real Estate Staging Association strongly indicate that staged homes sell faster and for more money than vacant or unstaged homes.

As you state in your article, there should be a balance between the investment made into staging services and the expected return on this investment. By staging a house, the seller considerably increases the chances that his/her home will sell fast and for close to, if not over, asking price. The end result is that the seller has more money to invest in their next home, which is always a positive outcome. Staging is a powerful tool and one which sellers need to utilize when they decide to sell their homes. Just as the seller is investing in a realtor's services in order that their home sell more quickly and for a better price than if they sold themselves; home staging is another investment which sellers need commit to before they put their home on the market. Professional home stagers realize that sellers do not want to spend themselves out of house and home to get their home sold however by working with the stager and customizing a staging plan which works for the seller, the issue of cost should not be a factor. We work within client's budgets all the time - sometimes it means the sellers need to accomplish more on the report themselves in order to achieve that budget however it never means not to stage the house. Just how to do it smart so the end result is an appealing property.

I am attaching the current "Guide to Home Staging" from the Real Estate Staging Association which Rooms in Bloom is affiliated with. There are some great statistics and information in this guide which you can give to your clients when you are discussing the merits of home staging. We also have a copy of it on our website under "In the Media" if you want to direct anyone to it.

One of the goals my partner and I have is to establish a local chapter of the Real Estate Staging Association in Kitchener Waterloo. This way there will be a professional home staging network established so that real estate professionals like yourself will have access to current information and stats on the benefits of staging, the pricing of staging, the results of staging and more. We want to ensure that consumers are hearing the same information from professional stagers and realtors so as to create at the very least, a unified impression of our industry.

Warmly,

Heather Cook

Professional Home Stager

Rooms in Bloom

www.roomsinbloom.org