Archive for month: October, 2015
Should I Stage My Vacant Home?
Before
After
Have you ever looked online at vacant homes?
What do you remember about that home?
Did it spark a feeling? Did you know which room you were looking at? Were you intrigued to continue on and look at every picture. Or, did you simply pass up that listing to look at the next home that was furnished and had character! This is Exactly why you need to stage a vacant home.
Vacant homes can all look the same, they are void of style and personality. They are, simply, a house with no character. You see all of the negatives; lighting, space, dated wood, confusing rooms… the list goes on. Vacant homes can amplify negative thoughts and features.
You wonder, “What room Am I looking at”? A staged home defines the space and rooms showing all of their potential. Buyers buy on feelings and emotion. Home Staging creates an emotion that helps the buyers envision their first home, a temporary place they want to call home, or maybe even, their dream home.
I have been in the staging business for over ten years. There are times when an agent asks for an emergency staging before an open house. I ask for all of the photos of that vacant home. (Now remember, I have been in thousands of homes at this point) I look at the pictures, then call the agent, confused! I ask myself , “How many living spaces? Dining spaces? Is that the same room, or a different room?“. Now, if I am an experienced stager and I can’t tell the rooms apart, how can a new potential home buyer!? They Can’t!! So they skip Right Over that MLS listing, and move on to another, with pictures of a more well defined, uncluttered, updated, freshly furnished home.
THAT should be Your home.
A VERY Important thing for you to Know… You have Three chances to sell your home:
- The online listing.
- When they are at the home.
- THE MOST Important! What they can remember of Your Home above anyone else’s!!!
Final Thought…
Will a vacant home leave the buyer with a lasting, positive impression? Definitely NOT.
But a home, simply staged beautiful enough to be in a magazine, WILL!
The National Association of REALTORS 2015 Profile on Home Staging found that 81 percent of buyers find it is easier to visualize a property as a future home when it’s staged.
Kari
This is how Kariel became Kariel…
Today many people are fascinated by home staging. I think it’s because it is a transformation of old to new or cluttered to simple. I have loved doing transformations since I was a small child. Whether I was decorating my Barbie townhouse or my daughters’ townhouses (I think I loved it more than they did) or my childhood room. I just loved making it look pretty.
I started staging 11 years ago. I had a friend tell me about people staging homes in San Francisco, CA. I told a coworker, who happened to also be a realtor, about staging and she suggested I stage one of her home listings. Within a few days I staged my very first home. It sold right away. It had been on the market for 6 months prior to me staging it. Immediately after this home sold the buyers asked me to stage their home. From that lead I staged my first million dollar plus home. I remembered often thinking “if I could stage one home a month.”
I eventually was staging one home a week. My business began to grow quickly. After a short period of time I had 35 homes to stage in one week. I asked myself “how did I get here?” I was nervous, anxious, and excited that I had made it this far. I had many great opportunities from many great people that believed in me and what I did. I now stage about 1,000 homes a year. My business continues to grow and I am working on expanding into other markets. I will talk more about that in some of my future blog posts as my plans come to fruition.
I hired people that could help me with my quickly expanding business. I wanted to build a team that could visualize my vision. Everyone I work with believes in what we do. I have three incredible designers. They do a fabulous job helping me execute the vision that I have for Kariel Staging. My movers have as much passion as I do about this business. We all feel good when a house looks great. When we walk out the door we get to feel amazing about writing a story for a family buying their first home or someone buying their dream home. I’m excited for you to meet my team and get an inside look of who we are and what we do.
I’m excited for my new blog. I want to share with you what my team and I do every day. I continue to be thrilled that we get to stage Barbie Dream homes every day.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I look forward to posting many more of them.
Kari
