Home Staging - Why LESS Means MORE by Jennie Norris, ASPM, IAHSP

De-cluttering. Editing. Room refreshing. Purging. No matter how you slice it (or say it) it still amounts to “Home Staging.”

Home Staging is all about LESS is MORE.

LESS is MORE for Buyers - as it allows them to see MORE of the house when there is LESS to distract them.

LESS is MORE for Sellers. When Sellers listen to the sage advice of a professional ASP Home Stager, and put away things as directed by the Staging Plan, the Seller will get MORE for their house than their un-Staged competition.
The reverse is true too.

MORE means LESS for Sellers - when their houses are too cluttered and selling features are obscured or hidden behind objects or drowing in decor and clutter, a Buyer cannot appreciate all the selling features of the house and an overwhelmed mind says, “no.”

This can be confusing to a public that is watching television shows where the house is remodeled, decorated and called “Staged” for sale. It is truly misleading. There are many ways to Stage a house where the Seller is unable to make improvements or upgrades based on budget and timeframe. The house would be marketed appropriately, but it can still be showcased to show its best when it is ASP Staged.

When you have LESS can you afford MORE? The answer is YES. The truth is - many Sellers simply do not have the amount of money being touted on television as necessary to Stage a house. Shows tell us to spend $2,000 and remodel our houses. The truth is the average investment to Stage your house using the ideas of a professional Home Stager who provides a detailed plan to the Seller is about $300 - that seems much more reasonable and something most homeowners can afford. Depending on the Seller’s timeframe and budget, the ASP Stager can come and help finish off the Staging for an additioanl fee, and even bring in “WOW” Factor to help add visual appeal.

Is MORE Better than LESS? No. Some Stagers are being taught to “Decorate to sell” a house. This is a cardinal sin in the world of Home Staging. Staging is a real estate tool to help market a property. Although we do consider things like placement, color, and items used in the Staging process, ASP Home Staging is NOT about the stuff. It’s always about the SPACE.

With many other entities jumping on the Home Staging bandwagon and “training” people to “be Stagers” it’s important to ask about the qualifications and credentials of anyone you consider working with to Stage your house or listing. Make sure your Stager is insured, up to date in their designation, and a member of the first and highly respected International Association of Home Staging Professionals (IAHSP).

In the world of Home Staging, only the Accredited Staging Professional (ASP) Designation has been around for over 10 years, and has nearly 40 years of history and experience behind it based on the success and career of Barb Schwarz, the Inventor and Creator of the Home Staging Concept.

Is MORE ever too MUCH? Yes. In the world of training and designations, beware of the “education junkie” - who has taken oodles of classes and has many initials after their name. To me, that is a confused Home Stager that really does not understand his or her role with the Seller and his or her role within the real estate industry. Getting too many viewpoints begins to dilute the purity and message of Home Staging. What I have seen is that those that are into taking many classes inevitably end up in the “Staging is Decorating” category and lose the pure essence of what Home Staging is. Home Staging is a marketing and presentation tool to help a piece of real estate sell. Pure and simple.

LESS is MORE is our motto for Staging and Selling a house. If you wonder how much you need to remove or what to do - it’s a wise investment to pay for a detailed Staging Report - that tells you what to do in each room of your house. Or you can hire a team of professionals to just get it done for you - where you leave for the day and your house is transformed while you are gone - and you come back to a whole new house - that is STAGED and ready for sale!

Get MORE instead of LESS for your house or listing. Realtors earn MORE commission not LESS when a house is Staged and sells rather than dropping in price.
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If you have a house or listing in the Sacramento area - and want it professioanlly Staged, we invite you to contact the ASP Home Staging experts at We Stage Sacramento. We are Accredited, Insured and adhere to a professional code of ethics. Call us at 888-WE-STAGE to let us help you achieve your goal of Staging and Selling. We work with Sellers, Realtors, Builders and Investors throughout Placer, El Dorado and Sacramento counties.

What is Happening in We Stage Sacramento and the World of Home Staging?

My last post was a while ago - and I have to be honest, I sort of lost my spark of wanting to write posts based on what our family was dealing with in December. The loss of a family member is always hard, and especially tough when it is someone that is taken long before they should - in their prime.

My brother in law passed away in February due to complications from an "accident" he suffered while joggin August 30th, 2008. It was not really an accident but I don't know what else to call it. . . he became severely dehydrated, his heart stopped as a result, he died on the trail, and then was revived. But his brain that went without oxygen for too long never did recover, and he was basically disabled to the point that he was a vegatable mentally. This was a severe blow to my sister and their son, and our whole family. He had just turned 50 and had so much to live for - but that was not to be his path. We miss him.

So I really have not felt the spark to write since then. But I felt it was time to share some good news and success . . .

I am happy to share that Staging is picking up momentum here in the Sacramento region, to the point that we have consistent calls coming in for occupied and vacant houses.

We are also hearing good results from our efforts. The last house we Staged was an occupied house, and it SOLD in only 3 days at FULL PRICE! We brought in basic decor and mostly helped the Seller with a Staging Plan that he implemented. It is always gratifying to hear such great news, especially when the doom and gloom of the market continues all over the US.

We have several vacant houses Staged and are awaiting the success on those properties. Of course, price is still a key factor - and must be partnered with Home Staging as a presentation and key marketing tool. We are also getting calls for Staging to Live, and New Homeowner Move In. Our specialty of Green or Eco-Friendly Home Staging is also a draw for those interested in that market niche.

We are looking forward to a successful second quarter - and hope that business continues to be steady throughout the year.

What Do Home Stagers and Major League Baseball Players Have in Common?

Well it certainly is not our annual multi-million dollar contracts . . . or the papparazzi that follow us around! LOL

But seriously . . . I was out to dinner with my husband and friends on Sunday, and the Tampa Bay-Boston final series game was on television. We were seated at the bar waiting for our table, and people were shouting and yelling for their preferred team.

I said hello to the man seated next to me - he looked to be in his mid-50's - and as he watched the game he sort of whimsically said, "You know - those guys really have it great. They get to do something they have loved since childhood and make money at it."

Hmmm.

So I turned to him and said, "Well I may not make the multi-million dollar annual contracts of the baseball players, but I get to do something I love and have been passionate about since I was young."

He was intrigued - I told him about Home Staging, and found out he was an engineer (boring - to me anyway) and from the environmental business arena (where I used to work) . . .

Think about it - it's true. As Home Stagers, we get to use our creativity that we've had since we were very young, and make money and have a life because of it.

Most people (including me) were taught to get educated, get a good job, pay bills, and pursue something that helped make enough money to support the lifestyle we want.

When I found Home Staging as a viable business, it opened my eyes and my life to the possibilities of doing something I really enjoy. I hope to teach my kids that their passions are worth pursuing - and there are ways to make income doing something they love not just doing something for money.

There is a difference, as most of us know. Any of us that have ever worked for someone else doing something we really did not enjoy can attest to this truth.

I think there are many people that are following their passions and doing things they truly enjoy. The true test is to ask ourselves, "Do I see myself doing this for the rest of my life and if so, will I be happy?"

The best part of all is that we CAN earn good money as a Home Stager - it totally depends on how we build our business. We can be successful, we can even have "fans."

Home Run for Home Staging!

- Jennie

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To work with Home Stagers that are passionate about what they do to help you Stage your house or listing, call We Stage Sacramento - 1-888-WE-STAGE. Serving Placer, El Dorado and Sacramento Counties since 2002.

Home Staging is Not For Sissies

Bette Davis once famously said, “Old Age is no place for Sissies.”

Well I think we can rephrase that statement to say,
“Home Staging is no place for Sissies.”

Definition of Sissy: A person defined as timid, weak or cowardly.

Professional home stagers know that in order to be successful you have to really work hard, and work smart. Being timid, weak or cowardly is a sure recipe for failure as a Home Stager.

We have to be bold, strong, and brave – especially in a market that is changing.

This does not mean we don’t have fear about rejection or discomfort in approaching people about our business. Fear is a natural part of any human – fear is normal, however we have to get past our fear and overcome it in order to have the success we want. We cannot let our fear paralyze us to the point of inaction.

We have to bold to get our message out to our audience. We have to, as the title of one of my favorite books says, “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.”

We have to be bold in our Staging as well – and make sure that our Staging really is Staging, not decorating or design, and not something done to appease a pushy client. We have to be bold and educate our clients about what home staging is – and what it is not, and begin to counter the things we see on television that are really harming us as Stagers. I have yet to see one show that truly depicts what we do as Stagers, that has not crossed the line into decorating, design, remodeling, and criticism.

Being bold in Staging also means reinventing our look from time to time so that our Staging does not get stale or predictable. It means having fun with what we do and use our creativity in situations where others would give up – and go shopping. I love that part of being a home stager – that I was taught to use creativity first, and then the dollar, to help clients. It is a challenge we rise to time and time again, to the delight of our clients and Realtors who never thought the house could look so great, and never thought of using items in the way we used them in the staging process.

We have to be strong – physically and mentally.

Physical strength is needed. I did not realize how much physical activity it would take to be successful in Staging. I am a strong woman – I always have been. I was a dancer in my younger years and played all sorts of sports and have an arm that would rival good quarterbacks. With a team partner I have moved whole houses of furniture in to vacant staging projects, and have loaded and unloaded trucks, and warehouses. It is a prerequisite of our job to be strong physically, and the good news is for those that do not have the physical strength, we can hire help!

I got smarter as I grew my business, and we do hire labor for moving things – heck, I only have one back, and I don’t want to tweak it out because of Staging (and I have J). I have suffered sore back, tennis elbow, broken toes, scrapes, bruises, and the near loss of an eye from a flying bungee (hit my lip instead and split it open). Once those things happen, you tend to reassess the wisdom of “doing it all alone” to save money, and begin to stage smarter.

Hiring help actually helped us stage faster, smarter and kept us from getting overly tired and injured. So we actually are able to accomplish more in one day than in the past. I have always said, as long as have our minds and can envision the plan for Staging, we can stage.

Mental strength to me is more important than physical strength. With so many people jumping in to the Staging market, it is now about mental sharpness, and being able to deliver a message of WHY a person needs to work with my company or me as a Stager, versus someone else. Positioning.

It requires staying on top of the real estate market and trends, and responding in kind to keep business flowing. It also requires a constant positive attitude adjustment so that I don’t end up locking myself up in fear, or analysis paralysis – both also the kiss of death for Stagers. I don’t bury my head in the sand and ignore what is obviously happening with our economy, I ask, “How will this affect our business, and what can I do to help stimulate production?”

It always boils down to marketing – and so I find ways to entice clients to use our services and remind them of the benefits of Staging versus sitting on the market.

And we have to be brave – of course, our Staging does not take the bravery of our armed forces, but we do have to have a sense or courage and bravery when we go out to promote our business. We have to have courage in the face of economic times where financial disaster seems to be looming around every corner. We have to be brave and delve in to new market niches – and be willing to reinvent ourselves to respond to the market and the needs of customers. We have to have the courage to keep a positive attitude when everything and everyone around us might be telling us doom and gloom information.

The natural tendency for most humans is to hunker down and wait it out – but waiting in our business, means not doing face time, and not getting out there to go after business, and this is too risky for us as Stagers. In tough times, we have to be out there even MORE than in the past- because our business is built on relationships, and when we are out of sight, we are out of mind. That then leaves potential opportunities for Staging up for grabs for the person that is out there, a presence in person, and actively asking for business.

So sissy stagers will fall away in these tough times, and the strong will survive. This is the way it with all species – it’s called, Survival of the Fittest.

When this economy turns around (and it will), we will find ourselves with even more ways to serve our clients, the ability to earn even more than we ever thought possible, and the strength to keep Staging day by day.

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We Stage Sacramento is a full-service Home Staging company serving the Greater Sacramento market. For over six years we have been helping sellers, builders and Realtors prepare houses for sale, successfully staging over 2,500 properties. Our Services also include services for redesign, holiday staging, and workplace staging. We are members of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals (IAHSP) and Accredited as ASP Home Stagers. Call us at 888-WE-STAGE or www.WeStageSacramento.com