Thursday, June 7, 2012

What is Staging, and Why Do We Do It?

Most people do not have the ability to look at a piece of property and imagine what it would look like with different furniture, or reconfigured walls, or even simply cleaned up.  Many of them end up not buying places that would be exactly to their liking without wallpaper, or with hardwood floors.  That's how there came to be a business called "staging".

Stagers come in and work with owners to "de-clutter" rooms and rearrange furniture, as well as make cosmetic changes and accessorize the space.  Since appearance can make a big difference in the offer a buyer makes, the cost of staging is often well worth it.  When you've lived or worked somewhere a long time, you can reach the point where you don't even see the flaws in a building.  It can take an outside, objective eye to point them out and mitigate them.  Stagers sometimes even lend furniture or "props" that will enable buyers to imagine the room after redecoration, or that will make a space seem less personal and therefore more able to be decorated to one's own taste.  

Real estate agents, who have often looked at thousands of homes over the years, can be effective in recommending changes, additions, or deletions to rooms.  However, when a great deal needs to be done, or when expert help is required, a stager can be just the ticket to a faster, better offer.