Welcome to my first blog! Here I’ll be talking about all things related to Home Staging but before we dive into other topics, I wanted to provide a better perspective on what home staging really is.

So what is home staging exactly? I bet some of you have heard about it but aren’t overly familiar with it or its merits. There are many misconceptions out there. Home Staging is just “putting lipstick on a pig” or home stagers just “fluff”. And although stagers LOVE pillows and who doesn’t love a great lipstick and on a pig- adorable! It is definitely so much more.

Home staging is the process of preparing your home for sale so it looks its best in order to sell faster and maximize your profits. You might think this is a little counter-intuitive- why would I put all this effort into a house that I’m going to leave for someone else? The answer is because when people are looking for a new home, they want more, expect more and are willing to pay for more, which in turn can mean more profit for you as the seller.

Here’s another way to think about it. Selling your home is just like selling any other product in a specific market- just at a higher price tag. You have something to sell and there are people looking to buy. And just like any other product your home has distinct features, benefits, disadvantages and competition.

Home staging can both highlight and detract the characteristics of your home so that it showcases the best of what it has to offer over the competition. You might have the same model home as your neighbour but the property that is staged properly will likely show better than one that hasn’t. Why you ask? Well stagers use different techniques to showcase your property so they are inviting and captivating from the moment buyers walk in.

When Barb Schwarz pioneered and created the “Staging™” concept in 1985, she also recognized the importance of the emotional aspect of purchasing a home. It wasn’t just that a house was big or on the perfect street but it had to “feel” right too. People want to buy the dream of how they really want to live. Home staging helps create that lifestyle. Home staging is not meant to deceive potential buyers but really highlight the best of what the property has to offer.

So how do you get there? The first step is the consultation. This is when the home stager and the property owner review the property together. During the consultation, the home stager will walk through every room in the house and makes suggestions that would add value to the home. Some home stagers, do a “walk and talk” in which the homeowner jots down their own notes as each room is reviewed. At Nest, we provide a consultation report within 24 hours of reviewing your home. This is an easy to follow checklist of recommendations to prepare your home for sale. This preparation can include cleaning, de-cluttering, depersonalizing, rearranging furniture and neutralizing the space so it appeals to a broader group of potential buyers. After the home stager has done the consultation with the homeowner and recommendations are made, they determine if staging is required or if the homeowner can manage the to-do list on their own. If staging is required, the homeowner and stager will work together to determine a budget and what areas of the home require work.

Once all the nitty gritty details are ironed out, both the homeowner and the home stager begin their preparation independently. They also determine an
appropriate timeline in which work will get done. Then the real fun starts! Typically staging day is very busy and takes about a full day to complete. It’s always best to let the home stager do their work without anyone at home- it makes the reveal so much better!

Once the staging is complete, you can sit back and wonder why you didn’t do some of these changes before!

Home Staging can benefit almost every property. Give us a call at Nest so we can transform your home into a sellable and profitable home any potential buyer would love.