Posts Tagged ‘professional home staging’

Recognizing the right home stagers in Calgary

If you thought that home staging is just another fad, think again. The Home Gain Survey reported the results of their study of more than 2,000 realtors and found that the staged homes often sell for almost 17 percent more than a home that was not professionally prepared for sale. The survey also found out that a staged home sold twice as fast as the home that has not been treated by professional stagers.

Calgary market is picking up and slowly recovering from the recession blues. As banks are announcing interest rate raise, many home owners are thinking of taking advantage of the climate and trying their luck. So, how to get ahead and make your home stand out from the crowd?  How to make most money from your biggest investment? Many home owners found out from experience that home staging is the first step, right after you find a good, professional and experienced realtor.

There is a number of home stagers in Calgary and all of them claim to be professional, accredited and experienced. Finding the one that suits your needs requires a bit of common sense.

What do home stagers do?

Home stagers will prepare your home for the market. Instead of your home, it will become a market product and they will prepare it for as wide number of potential client as possible. They will depersonalize your home to enable other people to imagine themselves in your home

How should a staged home look like?

Home staged for sale should look clean, neutral, the décor should be appropriate to the architecture of the home. The furniture and appliances should respond to the current client expectations. So, if you happily lived in your home for 15 years with your art deco collection and with your fixture and fittings that worked just fine all that time, you can be sure that the first thing your home stager will tell you: let’s bring your home to the 21st century. After all, did you like all that stuff you found in your home when you moved in?

Where can one look for a home stager?

Your best advisor is your realtor. If you are lucky, your real estate agency offers free home staging. It is in their interest to sell the home as fast as possible and for as much money as they can get. If they have their own team of home stagers, and your realtor has a good sale history, do not hesitate, use them. If you have to look elsewhere, web is a good place, as well as the Yellow Pages.

How to know if a home stager is really good?

Home staging is still in its infancy as a business and there is no official accreditation. Their experience and testimonials from their former clients is your best guidance. Look at their portfolio  and ask for references. Call their former clients and ask if they would hire them again.

Should you pay for a home stagers’ visit and estimate?

Professional home stagers make a living from offering their advice to clients. Once they visit your home and offer you advice on what to do next, they sold you their knowledge and expertise. Their advice is valuable, so do not hesitate to pay for it.

Even if you found a great Calgary home stager, do your part as well: do not forget about the age-old advice and make your home smell like a home – bake some cookies before the next Open House.

Guide to Choosing the Right Home Stagers in Calgary

Paying for a home stager to prepare your home for sale is an expense that will pay off many times over. The reports say that homes that are staged by professionals sell twice as fast as those not treated, and for almost 17 percent more. There are many reasons for this, but it mostly has to do with the professional’s objective eye of what sells, what are current trends and what are the best points of your home.

We all remember house hunting and instantly trying to place ourselves and our furniture in a home we were visiting. Everyone is going through the same fantasy, but for some reason we are not able to do this for our own home. The reason is probably that our home is for us a collection of memories, not a market product. We cannot objectify it sufficiently, so it is much better to let the strangers, with professional training and experience, to do the job.

How to recognize good home stager

Home stagers learn their trade by experience. There are no schools to teach them to simplify a home, or to make it more attractive to the largest number of clients, or to recognize the full potential of a home. So, don’t look for diplomas. Look for pictures of homes they did for other people. If you like what you see, give them a call?

Good home stagers will have a large list of former clients. Ask for their numbers and give them a call. People who were happy with the stagers’ job will be more than happy to talk to you.

If the home stager does not ask for the payment for the first visit, ask yourself: who can afford to spend hours of doing what is essentially their job, without being paid. Probably people desperate for their first job! True professionals value their time and know that what they have to offer is good and will benefit you. For that, you will have to pay, and don’t resent it. It is a sign of professionalism and that is what you are looking for.

What about furniture?

You might love your furniture, but you can take it with you. Your home that is ready for sale needs to look like a place everyone would like to live in, not only you. That often means new, more modern, simpler furniture. Sometimes it is necessary to bring in few luxury pieces to show off the architecture of the house. Good home stagers have their own collection of furniture to use for different staging situations, or they have access to affordable selection from a reputable furniture dealer. This is priceless service and could make difference between your home being sold as an upscale property or just a collection of rooms.

What else can home stagers do for you?

Browsing through interior decoration magazines, you often dream of owning some of the features homes, but would not know how to start, or think you could not afford them. Home stagers can adapt your existing home to be as close to your dream, with a few changes and additions that you would not even think of.

Home stagers can even change your home’s curb appeal, but redoing your front garden, or adding few hard cape pieces. They have access to reputable and imaginative craftsmen that would do much better job than you would think possible.

Some professional home stagers practice the art of feng shuei and are able to rearrange your furniture, add or remove pieces of furniture, change colors or art pieces to make your home much more livable and comfortable, although you would not be able to say why exactly.

If you live in Calgary, don’t miss checking the website of the Unique Home Stagers, for the full portfolio of their projects.