What Happens During A Home Staging Consultation
Home staging is a rapidly growing industry and those who aim to sell homes fast and for top dollar probably already know about its benefits. Although home staging is mostly associated with furnishing vacant properties and making them feel like a lived in home, this is just the top of the iceberg. Home staging for occupied homes, color analysis, curb appeal consultation, key room enhancement – these are just some parts of a big process, the only goal of which is to make homes stand out from the competition and sell for the best possible price and within the fastest time frame. But whichever path you’ll take, it always starts with a home staging consultation. In this article we’ll explain you what exactly happens during staging consultations, how to prepare and what to expect from them.
Most people have probably heard that preparation of a home for a sale starts with de-cluttering. “De-clutter, de-clutter, de-clutter!” – those words should be pretty self explanatory, but it turns out that the more often people hear them, the more it sounds like a general meaningless phrase to them. During the consultation professional home stager will tell you exactly which items are considered to be clutter, and what is most important will offer solutions on how to get rid of/reorganize/hide those items. For example a very simple advice I give to my clients is investing into couple of wicker baskets. They are relatively inexpensive, look great and you can quickly throw smaller items that you use every day (clutter) into such baskets right before the unexpected showing.
De-personalization is another very important thing home stagers will advise you to do during the consultation. Home buying is a very emotional process and it is crucially important that potential buyers connect emotionally with the property. In order to help buyers visualize themselves living in your home, you should “vacant” it for them, meaning no items that would remind them of someone else’s presence in the house. Professional home stager can help you transfer your own castle into the home that everyone will be able to envision him/herself living in.
During the initial home staging consultation a stager will give advices on how to improve the flow and the balance of your home. Professionals know lots of tips and tricks on how to make your space look bigger, better-organized and well-balanced. By giving advices on furniture reorganization, furniture removal, strategic mirror hanging or zoning the space, home stager will help you create a thoughtfully designed beautiful open space.
Color analysis is a very important part of a home staging consultation. Whether offered as part of a consultation or as a separate service, color analysis should necessarily be done in order to avoid further frustration if the home is not being sold. Too bold or too personal colors can be real deal breakers for buyers who do not want to invest their time and money into re-painting or simply didn’t connect to the property because of the present color palette. Professional home stager will be able to tell you whether you should consider repainting your home or not, make a thorough color analysis and provide you with color names and swatches.
Another important part of a home staging consultation is evaluation of an overall ambiance of a home. As all buyers respond to bright and airy spaces, your home stager should be able to advise you making those changes that will help to achieve the desired look. For example, if the room lacks its natural light, a professional will help you create a feeling of a bright open space by improving the overhead light (at least changing the light bulbs) or strategically placing additional local light.
Professional home stager will also address smaller repairs and changes that need to be made in order to prepare a property for sale. For instance to quickly update the look of a kitchen a simple change of hardware can be recommended. Professional home stagers can also make suggestions on bigger renovation projects, but they advise only those upgrades that will have the most return on investment.
As you see there are a lot of aspects that are being discussed during home staging consultations. For a relatively small investment you’ll get a big piece of advice on how to make the most out of your home. Plus a third party opinion will never hurt.