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By Melinda M. Williams
 With mortgage rates climbing, homes are sitting on the market much longer than they did last year. In this type of selling environment, getting the competitive edge becomes more and more important.
Enter, home staging. Home staging is one of the newest trends in the real estate industry. Succinctly put, it's the ability to make the average home (with 2.5 kids, a dog, cat, selected sports equipment, toys, etc.) look like a model home. Clean and sleek with a "move-in" mentality presented.
Usually, home stagers and realtors work hand in hand, a relationship born out of synchronicity. Sometimes, the home stager works independently or is part of the realtor's team. Together, they access the needs of the home, in conjunction with the projected sale price of the property.
 The home stager will then objectively review the property; making lists of too much or too little furniture, ill-placed design items, outdated paint/carpeting, clutter, and family memorabilia. At this stage, a list is developed of what needs to "stay", "go", "come" and "temporarily relocate."
It may surprise some homeowners that home-stagers not only remove furniture from homes that are too cluttered, but they also bring in furniture to pull together a room or totally redecorate it, if necessary. Maggie Fithian knows this part only too well.
Maggie Fithian of Maggie's Designs in Downingtown is a highly-respected stager in Chester and Lancaster Counties who works with The Liz Saunders Group at Coldwell Banker in West Chester. "I had a beautiful farmhouse in Lancaster County that was being rented to college students, Maggie recalls. "The decoration consisted of trash bags for curtains, a ping-pong table in the dining room and sneakers, CD's and pizza boxes on crates making up the rest of the décor. We cleaned everything out, brought in rented furniture, curtains, and décor items and the house ended up selling in 14 days!"
Liz Saunders couldn't agree more with the value of home staging. As one of Chester Country's preeminent realtors for the last 20 years, Liz attributes much of her success to helping sellers stage their home for sale and has even created a new company called Core Décor. "Once, we made a house so beautiful - the owner decided not to move. Not the ideal objective of course, but a good lesson about the power and metamorphosis of home staging," says Liz.
Melinda Williams is the managing partner of The Williams Group, a nostalgic marketing company located in Downingtown, PA. Visit their website at www.TheWilliamsGroup.info, email them at melinda@thewilliamsgroup.info or call them at 610-518-4888. |
