[Video Transcription]
Morning Sarah here. I’m taking my Starbucks with the dear Natalie Robinson of Set The Stage and we’re going to talk about home staging. Nat thanks for joining me here in my kitchen. I appreciate you coming to talk to us about staging, I know there’s some differences between staging and design and you’re truly a stager. I had the pleasure of working with you for almost years and you’ve probably done thousands and thousands of our clients homes.
So lots of people know your face and know your stuff, give us the impression though so many people are nervous when I say we’re gonna stage your house what is the difference of staging versus design? What’s the goal?
Great question, Sarah. I guess the biggest difference is when it’s your home you’re trying to personalize it, it’s your family, you’re proud of your your children and maybe you don’t have some fabulous art that you’ve collected on the trip, but for staging we want to make the space look welcoming for everyone. Everyone’s taste sort of deep personalizing neutralizing the space you don’t want to lose the charm or the feeling of a home because I think a lot of people think, “Oh staging they’re going to make it look cold and you know sparse and and unrealistic” but I feel like there’s a line between making a home look presentable and marketable with not losing that ‘wow’ factor that we try to create.
It’s so true because our clients are always impressed once you leave, they feel like their house is going to be almost naked when you’re done with it because we’ve told them to remove so much. But you do such an incredible job and we hear the feedback from our buyers and sellers that we keep the home feel well presenting attributes of the house and staging is truly about retailing the home it’s no longer your personal home right. So the end goal of staging I always try to present to people is we’re selling your house not your things.
Absolutely. I have sometimes pushback there because they’re like but you know this artist is this much or these chairs I picked and I’m, and I know you know, it’s about making the house look presentable for every one of the highlights of the home, the the features, the upgrades that they’ve spent money on you know? I want them to notice the staircase and the backsplash and the hardwood not you know the knickknacks or the tchotchkes as you like to call them that stuff’s not stained it’s leaving. So we still want to make them fall in love with the idea of the house but not focus things that really don’t add any value to the home.
Perfect so what would you recommend to someone preparing we get a lot of people getting geared up for January/February you know to get ready for the market before you come in? What could I do as a homeowner to prep my house?
Things like neutralizing your space you know fresh linens, fresh towels, if you can provide those things that would be wonderful white shower curtain anything that can fit in your hand that’s a good rule of thumb we say if it’s if it’s fits in your hand we probably aren’t going to keep it. Our biggest thing is we focus on photography and and how that is going to look in you know five second MLS video. The camera sometimes will highlight the small things or the bold colors rather than showing off you know your beautiful cabinetry or your hardwood all those things that we want to highlight. Having something small or bold red in the corner it’s going to take that away from from the overall shot. It’s so true we have buyers that will be searching realtor.com seamlessly there, “I want to see the purple house”.
Right, I think oh wow if they just painted that purple wall you know to a great new tone of gray just we’ve been growing it it wouldn’t be memorable as the purple. Absolutely. Deep personalizing is huge. I mean if you can take a few minutes and you know pack up and the thing is you’re moving so the more you do ahead of time I feel like the homeowner, yes it’s a lot of work up front, but they are very pleased at the end because like wow I’m actually like pretty much packed up ready to go and better than you the homeowner packs their things I know I don’t want to take a risk of breaking somebody’s precious things. Right now I’m great grandmothers were exactly, the other thing is when when you have family photos in the home yes they’re beautiful for the family because it’s your space, but the homeowner you know they’re gonna be stopping people join do I know that person? Do my kids go to preschool? So you know just trying to make the place more neutral and welcoming for everyone.
Yeah so I guess the bottom line is you’ve got to remember when you’re selling your home you’re not selling exactly to your imprint you’re selling to a huge group of nationalities, age groups, different people to see your house in a different light. So staging truly works we know 78% of homes that are staged sell faster according to National Association Realtors and I think it’s worth it to present your house in the best light. Absolutely.
So before you step out the door and put a for sale sign on your house, contact Natalie or contact us, we can put you into contact with Natalie and get your house off on the right page. Right neat, clean, neutral clean. That’s a great point clean is if you didn’t do anything that I’m asking you know if they can’t do the fresh linens you can’t do the towels, please just, yeah clean is number one probably and keeping it smelling fresh but not perfumed or personal is a great tip as well people definitely appreciate a clean home.
So to get started, if you need tips on prepping your home for sale you’ve done a great handout for our clients we’re happy to share it with anyone who needs it and thanks so much. Great to see you Sarah. Thank you.