Do we really need to pay someone to tell us to throw stuff away?  On top of her fee she’s asking us to purchase new stuff!  Arg!

Well, this is a funny story.  Last week I went to an appointment with a new realtor to one of her listing.  I really loved the house, the vibe of the house and the seller.  After our appointment I whipped together a room by room staging plan and sent it off feeling like we had a a perfect plan and everything was good to go!  To my dismay I received an email that I don’t think was meant at all for me but for the sellers husband….I quoted word for word above.  (kinda awkward, huh!?)

My first instinct was to email them back and say go fly a kite…it sort of hurt my feelings a little - although I laughed out loud when I read it first!  After I slept on it a night (which I highly recommend for so many things like this that can be taken the wrong way) I realized that I too would have said the exact same thing to my husband if we had a stager come into our house telling us what to do with our family home which we loved so much!

Like I said, after a night to sleep on it I sent off an explanation of the multiple ways a stager can be utilized to get the final results outlined from a staging report.

  1. The owners can throw their hands up and turn the house over to the stager to do all of the work. $$$
  2. The owners can dig in and do the de-cluttering, have the stager come in and execute majority of the staging and final touches. $$
  3. The owners can dig in, do the staging laid in the staging report and then have the stager do a final walk for a “fresh eye final tweak”. $

My wheels were turning after receiving the email and I decided to put together a few before and afters so that clients can see what de-cluttering, painting, rearrangement of furniture, rehanging of artwork, etc. can do for a space.  It makes a HUGE impact.

I sound a bit like a broken record in my staging reports, I mention certain things on each page it seems.  Here are some tips for getting ready for a stager:

  • Donate!  It is time to be critical about your belongings!  Be ruthless and donate items which you know you will not be taking with you to your next home.
  • Remove all extra furniture from rooms (extra chairs, stacks of stuff in corners on furniture, etc.)
  • Touch up any paint that is dinged up, re-paint rooms that haven’t been painted in 3 years.
  • Clear out closets, bathroom cabinets, etc.
  • Start the process of fixing up the yard and landscaping.
  • Start a honey do list and line up contractors or handymen to get the items fixed.