I know you’re insanely busy now that real estate is in full force, so I have a QUICK home staging love story for you. Once upon a time (okay, it was 2009 – not a great time in our industry), a Realtor I knew asked me to give new listing clients advice on their house. She convinced them to make a modest price adjustment after it languished on the market for more than a year with another agent. I wasn’t yet a stager, but she had been to my home and liked my decorating style.
I researched staging and met the owners at the house. The lady was lovely. The man? Not so much. He was mad his house hadn’t sold and thought he was about to spend a fortune on staging. I told him I would work with what they already had and that staging would be quick and as painless as possible.
The next day, their adult grandson (the brawn) and I (the brain 
) showed up to stage. I had my work cut out for me: the rooms were stuffed to the gills with outdated furniture, personal items, and knickknacks. The male homeowner huffed out the door, warning me to stay out of his home office and calling me “The General”. It wasn’t intended as a compliment.
Hours later, as his wife and I toured their newly staged house, tears filled her eyes and she hugged me tightly. “I can’t thank you enough,” she said. “Please don’t be upset with him. He was just diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer, and this house is causing him so much stress.”
When her husband returned he made a beeline for his office — which I HAD staged at his wife’s insistence. Crickets. His wife and I tiptoed down the hall and peered in. He sat quietly at his desk, looking around. When he met my eyes he said, “I wish you’d done this for us ten years ago. Now I don’t want to move.”
That “AHA moment” was the moment I fell in love with home staging. I saw the dramatic, positive change I could make for sellers at an extraordinarily difficult time in their lives.
Oh, and the listing? It sold in six weeks at full price.
I’d love to show you what I can do. Contact me and let me create “AHA moments” for your sellers.
The end.