Your Peoria Area Real Estate Experts

What is Staging®?

When you get ready to place your home on the market for sale it becomes a product. Similar to a product on the shelf at your local store, the product has features and benefits as well as pluses and minuses, and competition. To compete with the competition on the marketplace you must be priced right and look better than the other products. Homes are no different: yours is one of many homes for sale and you must present it to the buyers in the best possible light.

Staging® is the process of preparing any home for sale, regardless of the price or location. Using a proven professional set of guidelines, your house is reviewed for compliance with preset standards, and any modifications are made if necessary. Once your house meets the criteria, a Staged® Home Certificate will be issued and your home will be registered as a Staged® Home. This entitles your home to a special marketing program developed to promote those homes who have been designated as Staged Homes.

This unique system has proven to help sell homes faster and/or for more money. Real estate agents will have great confidence in showing your home to potential buyers because they know it is Staged® and ready to be sold.

Home Staging® Myth Busters

Myth 1: Staging is Decorating...

Fact: Staging is NOT Decorating or Design! Decorating or Design is personalizing and Staging is De-Personalizing and preparing a house for the un-known Buyer. That is why it’s KEY that you hire someone with training specifically on how to prepare a house for sale. The Accredited Staging Professional Designation™ (ASP™) is the ONLY nationally recognized professional designation for Home Staging. Make sure to hire someone with this professional designation when selecting a qualified Home Stager.

TIP: When the focus of the Staging becomes about things and not your house, then you are working with a decorator and not a trained Stager. An ASP Stager can use existing items in a house and their creativity to properly Stage a house for sale.

Myth 2: Staging Costs Too Much...

Fact: Staging is an INVESTMENT in getting a house sold and the investment in Staging is always less than a price reduction. An ASP™ Stager has been trained to work with a Sellers’ budget and time frame to properly Stage a house. We like to ask our clients, “Can you afford NOT to Stage?” When compared with the other costs associated with the sale or purchase of a home, Staging is very reasonable. In most markets, a Staging report detailing what needs to be done to Stage the house for sale is less than the appraisal or Home Inspection reports.

Myth 3: All I Need Are Lights, Flowers & Music...

Fact: Lights, Flowers and Music are great for Showing a house, but that is not Staging. Staging requires an objective and professional assessment of a house’s strengths and challenge areas, and solutions to help Buyers fall in love with what they see. This requires more than just flowers and music to achieve - it requires an Action Plan! Your ASP can help you and your clients with a Success Plan for getting their house STAGED and SOLD!

Myth 4: I Can Just Watch One of Those Shows...

Fact: The shows on HGTV and similar channels give Sellers the idea that they need to do something to their house to prepare it for sale, but Sellers cannot truly be objective in a house they have been living in and need a 3rd party independent opinion to get it properly Staged. ASPs have the experience and ideas to help Sellers get their houses ready and we honor our clients, and work closely with Realtors to help get a house sold.