Home Staging Blog

We received a great staging tele-coach question today asking how is the best way to stage a second bedroom in a two bedroom home.  Should it be staged as an office or a bedroom?  My answer is definitely, stage the room as a bedroom.

Home buyers with children are looking for that second bedroom.  They want to know without any doubt that the bed and other furniture are going to fit in the room comfortably.  Looking at a two bedroom home that has office furniture in the second bedroom leaves a question mark in a buyer’s head-will everything really fit well?

Think about the buyers that are going to be looking at your home and stage your house accordingly.  Answer their questions by showing them the solutions.  Show them your home’s best selling features and get your home sold fast!

Choosing foods that are fresh, vibrant, colorful and healthy will nourish your body  and fill you with vibrant, radiant energy.  The food you eat carries life giving chi (energy) so do your best to make the best choices for yourself and those you love.  Good Feng Shui is about enhancing the energy in your environment and what better environment to start with than your own body?

                                                         Image by Barsik

There is more to life than staging homes and selling real estate.  Today is Friday.  Celebrate!  Find something fabulously fresh and beautiful to eat, nourish yourself and improve the Feng Shui in your most personal environment, your own precious body.

Many people are opening up to color on their walls, even when they are preparing their homes for sale.  Do yourself a favor and remember to test the color before investing in all the paint for your home.  While the color on the paint chip might look perfect, the actual paint can differ enough to make it necessary to rethink the color and choose another.

Paint chips are printed on paper and while the colors are close to the actual color of the paint, ink and paint are two different mediums.  The surface of your walls, the primer you use and the lighting in your home can all cause the paint to vary slightly as well.  Even the color of your floors and furnishings have an effect on how the color of your walls is perceived.

Purchase a small test can of each color you are considering using in your home and try it on your walls in the rooms you plan to use it in.  Live with it for a few days and study it under different lighting conditions at different times of the day.  If you are happy with the color, go ahead and go forward with your paint choices.  If not, try something that will work.  Now that you have seen the actual paint on the wall, you will know which direction you need to go in choosing another color.

Remember, for the purposes of staging a home for sale, you will probably not want to go too extreme with wall colors, but you do not have to stick with white either.  Have a little fun and make your house expressive, but keep things calm and simple.  Your goal is to have a home that appeals to as many buyers as possible and to get it sold quickly!  If you need help, contact a professional home stager in your area for a consultation.

Buyers make a lot of major decisions in the first few moments they see your house.  You have an opportunity to change any problem areas that have the potential of being seen as negatives by home buyers and to change them into positives that will impress buyers the right way.  Take a good hard look at your home as it shows right now and evaluate how it can be improved to show just that much better and I think you are going to be very happy with the results.

Change the buyer’s focus from any potential negatives and put their focus on your home’s positive features.  How?  Here are a few examples of how some homeowners here in the Los Angeles area recently applied the basic principles of home staging to address their problem areas and got their homes sold quickly.

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1. Problem:  Luxury condominium in high profile area, single male owner, pool table in dining area, crowded closets.  Owner’s belongings still in home although owner was currently living in another property.
2. Solution:  Remove pool table and replace with dining table.  Pack personal photos and personal collections.  Remove excess clothing, shoes and other items from closets.  Edit accent items.  Rearrange furniture to best showcase home’s features, views and to show how new buyers might best enjoy property.  Add new accent items to appeal to both men and women.  Thoroughly clean and polish this home that had been on market for 2 1/2 years with no offers, which resulted in a property that looked and felt deserted.
3. Result:  In Escrow within one month of home staging.

                                                    

This is a gorgeous home, but a pool table in the dining room doesn’t work for most buyers and makes the rest of the space feel out of scale.

                        

 Use furniture that shows buyers the best use of a home’s space and is in scale with the size of a room to get the best results from your home staging efforts.

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1. Problem:  Crowded condo in sought after neighborhood where young growing family with kids and dogs has filled space to its overflow capacity.
2. Solution:  Pack, pack, pack.  Organize, organize, organize.  Remove personal photo collections.  Thoroughly clean out and edit all closets, cupboards and storage areas including kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, linen closets, coat closets and display areas.  Remove extra furniture in kid’s room.  Rearrange existing furniture to best showcase home’s selling features.  Add a few new accent items for bright splashes of color and a fresh feeling throughout home.
3. Result:  Home in Escrow at full price within days of listing with backup offer within a week.

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1. Problem:  Vacant condo in popular San Fernando Valley area, updated, clean, fell out of Escrow twice.
2. Solution:  Stage home in a warm, comfortable and inviting fashion, suitable to a home of its size.  Stage each area of home to define all areas as usable square footage.  Use color and simple accent items that appeal to a wide range of buyers yet add sophistication and excitement to the home.
3. Result:  In Escrow within a few short weeks of home staging, this time it closed.

You can make a big impact on buyers by simply staging your vacant properties.

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1. Problem:  Upscale home in popular area of Los Angeles.  Three bedroom home; third bedroom home was being used as workout room and storage room.  Bedroom has low ceilings and very little natural light.  While on market, comments from buyers were that the room was unusable space.
2. Solution:  Remove workout equipment and items stored in space.  Reposition owner’s futon and open it to use as bed.  Add lighting, nightstands, linens, reading area, and accent items to show room as a great guest room.  Use accent lighting and accent pieces to make ceiling feel taller.
3. Result:  In Escrow within a couple weeks of home staging.

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1. Problem:  Brand new construction townhome apartments with small main living areas and multiple bedrooms.
2. Solution:  Stage each unit in a different style to illustrate how the small space could best be utilized and could accommodate the number of residents that would likely be renting a home with the amount of bedrooms these units offered.
3. Result:  All units rented within one month of staging.

Small spaces make it difficult for buyers to imagine their furnishings in.

Show buyers that even in small spaces, comfortable living areas can be easily created.

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1. Problem:  Traditional style vacant home in upscale Pasadena neighborhood in excellent condition but without updates.  Previously on market and not sold, buyers commented about lack of family room.
2. Solution:  This home features an extra large living room and a formal dining room with a fireplace.  Through staging, carve out an area in the living room and create a dining area that makes sense while leaving ample room in the main living room.  Stage the formal dining room as a den complete with TV viewing area.  This home also offers two master suites, so these were staged to highlight this additional feature.
3. Result:  In Escrow within a few short weeks of staging.

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Professional home staging has got these homeowners the results they wanted in this rocky real estate market.  Contact a home stager in your area and do all you can to get your home to show its best and sold quickly.

If you have been looking for a home in an area that offers natural California beauty yet is not too far off the beaten path, then this home we recently staged in the Calabasas Highlands area might be perfect for you.  This home is dramatic with soaring ceilings and gorgeous windows that frame amazing views.  The floorplan was designed for entertaining and each bedroom features its own balcony to enjoy the natural surroundings.

This new construction home is gorgeous and we had so much fun staging it-who wouldn’t?  What a great place to hang out and work!  Imagine, you could be living here!  If this sounds like the perfect home for you, be sure to go check it out.  It is ready for you to move right in.