The Truth About the Cost of Home Staging
The Insiders Guide to Questions You Should Ask When Hiring a Home Stager
Are a home owner or a realtor seeking to find a partnership with a home stager to better market your home? There's a lot of home stagers out there and the industry can be very confusing. Currently there are no regulations as to who can become a home stager. So, what makes a good home stager and what should I ask when hiring one? Take a look at my video for a brief overview of what you should look for when hiring a home stager.
To recap - here's five questions you should review with every home stager when seeking a partnership to better market your home:
1. Is home staging their full time job?
Many do home staging on the side or as a hobby. If they are full time you know their business is serious.
2. What training have they received? Ask about their education.
Many home stagers do not have a degree in interior design. That's because home staging is more about target marketing while interior design is more about the design for a homeowner. With that aside, there are professional certifications to become a home stager. If your home stager has that certification then they have been trained in design to market a home to sell.
3. What are their average days on market? Ask to see previous staged properties.
Reputable home stagers take photos of all their staged properties. By asking to see these photos you are ensuring their style will meet your needs. Also by asking how many days their homes have been on market gives you a clear view of the quality of their work.
4. Are they insured?
This is a very important question for anyone who comes into your home and does work on your home. Home stagers are no exception.
5. Do they partner with movers or have an in-house team?
Home stagers depending on size will either hire an outside mover to help load furniture in/out of the home or have an in-house logistics team that does the heavy lifting. Just nice to know if you will have another company reputation to review before hiring home stager.
If you are in the market for a home stager who will work with you to market your home for top dollar, then give us a call at 703-552-4545 or make an appointment online.
We would love to SHINE A SPOTLIGHT ON YOUR HOME!
Best of 2019
As we wrap up another year, we here at Staged By Design wanted to pay tribute to 2019 and spotlight some of our best stagings and memories throughout this year. It's been a privilege to work with our clients and help them sell their homes faster and for top dollar.
Statistics prove that staging sells. Of all our stagings this year, 80% of our homes sold within the year. The average day on the market for our homes was 21 days! We had MANY of our homes sell within one week of being on the market. The numbers don't lie - home staging is definitely an investment that gives a return!
We loved working with all of these amazing homes, but there were a few designs that stood out to us. Our team collectively picked our top 5 favorite stagings of the year. Here they are in no particular order:
Dean Drive, McLean, VA
Roland Clarke Place, Reston, VA
Aldie Road, Aldie, VA
Golden Arrow Street, Great Falls, VA
Great Falls Street, McLean, VA
We had some great stagings but we can't forget about some VERY memorable animal antics of the year!
First up comes Champ, the pig who randomly walked by the office on a leash. We learned that day our warehouse neighbor is Bionic Pets, who creates custom pet prosthetics. An interesting day at the office for sure. Second isn't quite as cute and friendly. When on a destage, we discovered a little squirrel who had crawled under a bed pillow and died! Wendy about died too that day! LOL! And finally, hats off to all the cats who look totally annoyed by our visits and wonder why their cat condos can't stay in the room.
Despite all the animal craziness, we have received a lot of recognition this year. Our team has worked hard to improve our processes, style and inventory. We are excited to bring more of these improvements into the new decade.
We would love a chance to SHINE for you in 2020! Give us a call or go online to set up a consultation. It's worth the investment. Here's to a new decade!
2019 Loudoun's Best Interior Designer
Leigh Newport was named 2019 Loudoun's Best Interior Designer by the readers of Loudoun Now, a Virginia based news media outlet.
Thank you to all our clients, friends and fans that voted! We are humbled and excited to receive this award.
Our team would love to help you with home staging or design needs. Give us a call at 703-552-4545.
Professional Home Stager for Oakridge Communities
Oakridge Communities is a locally owned and operated home-building company in Northern Virginia. We have had the pleasure of working with Mike Gorman of Oakridge Communities over the last year. Catering to the millennial generations, Oakridge has recently built new homes in up-and-coming neighborhoods of Hamilton and Haymarket, Virginia. We have also had the opportunity to stage these homes and have enjoyed implementing the projects immensely. Thanks Oakridge Communities!
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Staged by Design is Northern Virginia’s premier home staging company.
today to schedule a home staging consultation and see what a difference staging your property can make. With our extensive experience in home staging and interior decorating, we help homeowners sell their homes for more money in less time!
Most Saved Image on Houzz
For those of you who know and love Houzz, it provides endless opportunities for home ideas, decor inspiration and renovation updates. We recently received the 1,000 saves badge as a result, meaning our photos have been saved over 1,000 times! The photo below which has received the most saves overall continues to be popular, we think due to the fun color and soothing aspects of the decor we chose for this model home. Hope you like it too! As Northern Virginia’s premier professional home stager we help homeowners sell their homes for more money in less time! Contact us today to schedule a home staging consultation and see what a difference staging your property can make.
Home Staging Dilemma - What do I do with all my books?
Rooms with wall to wall, or built in bookcases are prime candidates for editing or removing altogether if possible. Don't get me wrong, we hold no personal grudge against the written word, rather it's the weight they can create in a room when assembled en masse. Much of what we do as professional home stagers is create additional visual space in each room. Our general recommendation is to remove at least 1/3 of the books if the bookcases remain in the room. Do take care to remove any political, religious or controversial titles as a rule. I realize that those of you who are voracious readers and book collectors will be horrified or at least slightly offended to read this. To make you feel better, in this age of e-readers, Kindle's and book apps, I may be one of the few home owners actually adding a library in lieu of a living room. (Note: I'm also not selling my house). I personally delight in the feel of a book and the promise that the pages hold. For me, reading and appreciating a good book is a tactile experience that even the best well-lit Kindle device cannot offer. As for staging, although we typically recommend removing books in their overflowing state, books are a wonderful tool to backfill areas where overly personal items may have been placed. They can lightly fill built-in shelves, as well as add interest and speak to the demographic of the buyer. For example, we always add a golf book when staging in the communities of Creighton Farms, Belmont Country Club and River Creek, placed on the coffee table in a prominent arrangement. Professional home stagers never adhere heavily to a theme of any sort, however our goal is to let the staging speak to the mindset of the type of person that would choose that home. Books help to convey that sentiment. Another example is adding books on Virginia Hunt Country when staging in such locales as Delaplane, Middleburg and Western Loudoun. The photos illustrate some of our favorite ways we incorporate books as accessories and decor, not just for staging but for interior redesign as well. We often use stacks of books that provide height, color and texture on large coffee tables.
We have even used a book to create symmetrical height when staging occupied homes. Placing a book under a table lamp evens out mismatched side tables or nightstands. 
We even take it a step further and create a monochromatic look for bookshelves by painting books white for a more contemporary look. 
Removing the spines of worn hardback books and wrapping the stack in burlap ribbon provides texture and interest for coastal spaces. 
We even found a way to utilize the lowly paperback by wrapping the cover over the book and tying the stacks with jute twine. The morale of the story is that for books and bookshelves, be creative, but less is more.The End