When Should You Hire A Professional Stager?

The Best Time To Hire A Stager Is First

In an absolutely perfect world, when it is time to sell your house, find your stager first. Even if you know certain things, like painting, need to be done, find your stager first. Do an Internet search for stagers in your area or ask friends for referrals. Bring a few stagers in for interviews. Ask for references, talk to the stagers about "how" they work. As with any other professional, interview several stagers before making your selection.

I say you should find your stager first because you do not want to make mistakes.

Maybe you are thinking, "I have excellent taste. All my friends compliment my furnishings. I can save money by doing some of the work up front."

Maybe you do. Maybe you can. But almost every day somewhere a stager walks into a house and finds the owner has done something that enhances Living, not Selling.

Story
(I am changing some things to hide the innocent, but the fundamentals are accurate.)
Recently, a stager friend was asked to review a house the owner had staged herself. She had spent a lot of money having custom shelving installed in the foyer. The shelves were a series of floor to ceiling boxes. Every wall was covered. In each box, they placed an antique tea cup. They spent hundreds of dollars building shelves which now held thousands of dollars worth of antiques. Because she is a collector, this was a wonderland to her. If she was a buyer, she would want the house the minute she saw the foyer.

Maybe you collect something small and are enchanted by this idea. The odds are most of you are thinking, "If I saw a foyer like that, I would just turn around and leave." By installing those shelves and putting out those tea cups, the seller has severely reduced the number of potential buyers who can imagine living in that house and she is putting her cherished collection at risk.

(Please do not misunderstand me, putting up beautiful, removeable shelves and displaying a valuable collection is great when you are Staging To Live, or redecorating, your home.)

Anyway, the best time to hire a stager is before you do anything. Do this because it puts you in control of those all-important first impressions.

Your Realtor's first impression will be of a house buyers will love exploring. This both motivating and energizing. The first photos of your house that go on the Internet will capture more buyers' imaginations. Frankly, presenting a staged house to the world from day one really enhances your likelihood of making a fast sale.

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Is it too late? Have you made changes before hiring a stager? Is your house is already listed?

The Next Best Time To Hire A Stager Is As Soon As You Can.

Maybe you already made changes that cannot be backed out. Your stager will take this into consideration when she/he plans the staging. Maybe your house has been on the market a long time and is stale. Your stager and your Realtor will design a marketing plan to revitalise your listing.

You can certainly ask your Realtor about staging your house. If he/she says your house does not need staging, or that you just need to do a few things, ask how your Realtor learned staging. There are agents who attended training, understand staging very well, and do an extremely good job when they stage a house. These hard-working, dedicated souls have my admiration. Sadly, there are still agents who do not "get" staging. Some of them think staging is adding flowers and froo-froo. If you ask and are not satisfied with the answer, start interviewing stagers.

Oh, and in closing, I did an informal investigation among my friends and on some of the staging blogs. General opinion is there are two #1 mistakes sellers make when they stage themselves: choosing the wrong paint color (colors meant for living, not for selling), and putting multiple purposes in a room.

That is all for now. I hope you have a great day!