Can’t Beat the Real Thing – Virtual Staging vs. Professional Home Staging

Technology is in every area of our lives.  Real estate is no exception.  Buyers can “shop” for homes anywhere they have WiFi.  And based off what they see online, they develop a list of potential homes they want to visit.  Home staging has benefited sellers by creating beautiful spaces for beautiful online photographs.  Buyers are not only looking for a new house but they are visualizing a home when they shop.  According to the National Realtor Association, 44% of agents feel staging increases the dollar value offered for a home and 53% say staging decreases the amount of time a home is on the market.  So if staging is so beneficial – which is better – virtual or professional home staging?

First let’s address - what is virtual staging?  Virtual staging is the process of using software to enhance photos of an empty home.

BUT in reality – the house is still an empty box. 

Professional home staging makes a connection between the home and the buyer. From start to finish, professional staging caters to the demographics of the buyer and furnishes the home with that in mind. Professional home stagers also use design principles to space plan accordingly to the design of the house. When buyers walk into a home they need to visualize the space for their needs.  Seeing a home is also an emotional experience for a buyer.  The feeling a buyer gets when walking into a home is a clear directive as to whether they love the home or not.

Professional home staging may be a little more expensive upfront but it’s proven track record of selling homes faster can’t be beat.  Virtual staging is a risk.  We have encountered countless clients who have started with virtual staging, then a price reduction and finally end up coming to us for professional home staging. Once our work is done, the house sells quickly but it cost the seller more time and money in the long run. All of this could have been avoided if a little more money up front were given to professional staging and the home could have sold for top dollar. You can’t beat the real thing.  Professional home staging works.

If you are wanting to sell your home fast, give us a call for a home staging consultation.  Or simply click here for our online scheduling form.  We want to give you the real deal for real results!

Tomorrow is Just a Day Away - When is the Best Time to Call in a Home Stager?

The decision to list a home for sale can often occur quickly. It ranges from a result of life or work circumstances, to simply finding the perfect home and needing to sell the current home first.

Listing a home can become quite a production for your clients. If you compare it to a Broadway musical, it comes together with the work of many people.  With a musical you have the design of the product (the play), the promotion of the product (marketing) and the appearance of the product (the set and the characters).  All of these components come together to hopefully create a box office hit. 

Just like producing a musical on stage, putting a house on the market must be a well-choreographed process.  This process includes promotion, price and product.  As a realtor, you advise the seller to come to the most achievable price point in which to sell.   It is your fiduciary responsibility to provide your client with all the tools at your disposals in promoting the listing. The product, one of the most crucial component to the process, is one of the easiest portions to enhance, yet requires the coordination of many moving parts, of which staging has the overall highest ROI. But when should this part of the process take place? 

We have created a great guideline for deciding when a staging consultation should happen.  We believe a good parameter should be 1 week for every year you have lived in your house. For instance, if the seller has lived in the house for 2 years, schedule a consultation two weeks prior to listing.  If the seller has lived in the house for 10 years, plan on 2 ½ months prior to listing.  The need for upgrades and deferred maintenance are substantially higher the longer someone has lived in the house. In addition, the amount of personal possessions tends to grow with each year. Our consultation will outline what maintenance needs to be completed before list date and what should stay or go. The goal of our consultation is to focus on the tasks that provide you with the highest return on investment (ROI).  Our guideline gives sellers plenty of time to schedule contractors for the work to be completed as well as sufficient time to edit their possessions. 

If furniture and accessory staging is needed, post consultation, our lead time is typically one and a half weeks in advance.  Our detailed design is customized to the needs of the home, with any suggested upgrades, updates and scheduled work all geared to support the list price of the home.

Our staging, along with proper price and aggressive marketing, will complete that perfectly choreographed process for selling a home FAST and making it a "box office hit" on the market.

Give us a call at 703-552-4545 or simply click HERE to book your consultation online to start your perfect listing.