Selling a home is an expensive undertaking; there’s no getting around that. Home sellers can be overwhelmed by the list of things to do and the price tags attached to them. Especially now that they have seen their equity fall or melt away entirely, they are eager to find ways to not spend money to sell their home.

Many home sellers seem to view professional home staging as merely another selling expense–one that might be nice, but one that is at the bottom of the priority list. Loreena Yeo, a Realtor in Frisco, Texas, says this about home sellers and the cost of staging a home for a hypothetical fee of $1000: ”It’s always about the $$$. But here’s what they cannot figure out: That $1000 is an investment to sell the house. It is NOT an expense per se. I’d pay a $1000 upfront fee if I know it would help me sell my house faster.”

An investment is defined as “something given or lent for a return.” The old saying that you have to spend money to make money usually holds true. Spending a few hundred dollars (or even a couple of thousand) for professionals to stage a home in order to sell it for full price is a wise choice. Any price reduction taken because the home does not sell quickly will certainly be far more than a staging fee of 1 or 2% of the listing price. As Ms. Yeo says, “… the home selling business is a very serious business. It’s not a matter of choice of what should be done or not. It’s a matter of moving on to the next chapter in life. When I put in that perspective, then coming up with a $1000 rental cost doesn’t seem so hard anymore.”

Here are some examples of home sellers who invested in professional home staging, and have now moved on:

Occupied Home Investment: less than ½ of 1% of listing price — Sold in 8 days

Vacant Home Investment: 1% of listing price — Sold in 18 days

Professional home staging is a wise investment! Call us at Gloria Home Staging to see how we can help you sell your home quickly.

Home stagers

To be “move-in ready,” the home must, of course, be in good repair and clean. Fresh paint, and carpets and flooring that are in good shape are important. Buyers are also looking for up-to-date homes with new appliances, contemporary fixtures and current colors. Wallpaper is something they really do not want to see, since ­when they see it, they see an immediate home-improvement project (or a complete turn-off). Buyers want the home to be one they can live in without feeling desperate to make changes immediately. Home staging makes this possible.

When we first saw this kitchen, it was caught in a time warp from the early 1990’s. The homeowner invested in updating it with granite countertops, wood flooring, new appliances, and a fresh coat of paint. He made the home one buyers couldn’t wait to move into, and he was rewarded with a sale in 14 days.

Buyers in the Orlando, FL area have a lot of choice these days. If you are selling a home in the Orlando area, Gloria Home Staging can help you make it stand out in the crowd. Give us a call!

Listen to your Realtor about pricing. Realtors are market experts!

Stage the home and sell it while it is still occupied. Staging an occupied home is much less expensive than staging a vacant one, and makes it far likelier that the home will sell before the family has to move.

If the home is already vacant, have it staged. Eight out of ten buyers will choose a furnished home over an empty one. Yes, staging a vacant home is more expensive, but it is a vital investment to minimize ongoing carrying costs. There are many levels of staging available to fit into home sellers’ budgets to make it possible.

A professional home stager will come alongside you, the Realtor, to provide resources to educate your clients, and expertise to package their home for a quick sale. For example, this home shows how much more beautiful and memorable a furnished home is than an empty one:

If you have a home for sale in the Orlando area, Gloria Home Staging would love to help you  make it beautiful. Give us a call!

At Gloria Home Staging, we had the answer to this problem for the owners of this Orlando home. We suggested Light Staging – using fewer and smaller pieces of furniture to keep the price down, but still accomplish the goal of making the home appealing. It worked, too: the owners showed the home an hour after we finished staging it, and received an offer the next morning!

Take a look:

Many homes lend themselves to Light Staging. If you have a home for sale in the Orlando area, call us at Gloria Home Staging, and we’ll be glad to help make it stand out for buyers!

If you are wondering why occupied homes need to be staged for sale, here are three good reasons, taken from the first two parts of our series:

#1 –Getting a home ready to sell can be overwhelming to sellers, and home stagers can help guide them through the process.

#2 – Occupied homes are lived in, and home stagers can help make them feel like home to buyers.

#3 – Sellers need help to see the home as a buyer would, and stagers provide “outside eyes” that see the home as the buyers will.

Here are two more reasons that a home staging consultation is essential to help occupied homes sell faster:

#4 – Decorated does not equal staged. Although they are often beautiful and warmly welcoming places, decorated homes are not meant to be sold. They are meant to be lived in. They are often highly personal, and the décor can distract from or cover up some of the home’s features. Décor can also go out of style. The point of home staging is to show off the home (not the furnishings or the owners’ taste) and make it appeal to a wide segment of its target market. The more highly decorated a home is, the harder it is for buyers to picture themselves making it their own.

Being unbiased outsiders, stagers can point out decorative elements that are too particularly individual, such as paint colors, wallpaper, or collections. The owners of this home had many lovely things, including a curio cabinet containing a large collection of angels. We advised them to pack the angels up, and the result was this welcoming reading nook, instead of a museum likely to distract buyers.

#5 – Home stagers specialize in presenting homes to their best advantage. That’s our full-time job, and something we love to do. We are students of home merchandising: We know what colors work well for marketing homes. We know low-cost solutions for outdated furniture and décor. We know whether furniture needs to be removed or added, and how to arrange that furniture so that it shows off the home. We know how to help home sellers, who are experts in other areas, not this one.

In this example, the seller resisted removing the draperies and much of the furniture from this master bedroom. He thought it would look bare, and that the room would not look as large because it would not be showing how much furniture it could hold. We insisted that the room would look bigger, brighter and more up-t0-date, and he chose to trust us. You decide whether or not it worked!

If you are selling your Orlando area home, give us a call at Gloria Home Staging. We will be glad to help make your home feel like home to buyers.

#1 –Getting a home ready to sell can be overwhelming to sellers, and home stagers can help guide them through the process.

#2 – Occupied homes are lived in, and home stagers can help make them feel like home to buyers.

Here’s another reason:

#3 – Sellers need help to see the home as a buyer would. Stagers provide “outsiders’ eyes” to see the home differently. Not only can we view the home’s features impartially, we can spot “red flags” – signals of potential problems – that the seller either knows are no longer a problem (like water stains resulting from leaks now repaired), or is unaware of.

For example, the china hutch in this kitchen was a clear indication to us that the home does not provide enough storage for the sellers’ things. The buyers were likely to assume that there would not be enough room for their things, either, so we advised the sellers to put it into storage.

Being objective outsiders, home stagers can see the home as the buyers will. They will help the sellers to prepare their home to make its best first impression.

Remember to look for the next part of our series!

The owner of this study was willing to pack up about 20 boxes of books and largely clear the room out. He was rewarded with a sale in 30 days.

Be sure to check back in to hear about Reasons to Stage Occupied Homes, Numbers 3 – 5.

Gloria Home Staging stages homes in the Orlando, FL area. Our staged homes have sold in an average of 21 days!

When we’re selling a home, we want it to be striking in appearance. We want it to have an effect on the potential buyers (a good effect!). We want it to stand out from the crowd.

Let’s have some DRAMA!

And do you know what one of the synonyms for “dramatic” is? Staged.

Home stagers accentuate a home’s features, drawing potential buyers’ attention to the home’s interesting details and making them memorable. They aim to put the buyers’ imaginations to work picturing themselves living in the home. Stagers know what buyers are looking for in a home, and they add touches designed to engage emotions, so that the buyers want to live in this home. They show possibilities. They create beauty. They add drama.

In 2009, Orlando home buyers looked at 15 houses before they bought. When there is a crowd of houses out there competing for buyers’ attention, your home needs some drama to stand out.

For example: This townhome in Casselberry, FL was one of three for sale in its community. All three had the same nondescript off-white formica cabinets, so we decided to make this one “striking in appearance and effect.” We had the cabinets painted, and it made a dramatic difference! It’s staged.

To add some drama in the Orlando, FL area, call Gloria Home Staging at 407-695-0023.

So the Realtor took action. She called Gloria Home Staging in to show the buyers how much space there really is in this small home. We illustrated some of the possibilities this lovely home provides. And we proved one of the basic principles of home staging: furnished rooms truly do look larger than empty rooms.

Judge for yourself. Here’s the small Great Room:

And the tiny Master Bedroom:

The home, which had been on the market for  three months, sold one month after staging. If you have a home, small or large, for sale in the Orlando area, Gloria Home Staging will be pleased to help you make it look its best for your buyers. Give us a call at 407-695-0023.