All the world’s a stage, that’s what Shakespeare said. You know what I say? I say, all the home’s a stage! Hey, ya gotta love the English language… it's the only place where one word can hold two entirely different meanings. Or does it? Because when you think of setting the stage, you think of setting a mood, a theme, a tone, and an arrangement of elements by which the cast and crew can easily and swiftly navigate… that is a performance stage… a place on which to perform… the place a performer acts upon so that an audience may observe and applaud that performance. This is the applied use of a stage in the arts… and staging a home takes its inspiration from the arts. It’s a creative exercise in form and function, practicality and expression, a place to showcase beauty and wonder, creativity and comfort, and it’s all the talk today on this, our sixth episode, of Real Talk with Big Red.
All the world’s a stage, that’s what Shakespeare said. You know what I say? I say, all the home’s a stage! Hey, ya gotta love the English language… it's the only place where one word can hold two entirely different meanings. Or does it? Because when you think of setting the stage, you think of setting a mood, a theme, a tone, and an arrangement of elements by which the cast and crew can easily and swiftly navigate… that is a performance stage… a place on which to perform… the place a performer acts upon so that an audience may observe and applaud that performance. This is the applied use of a stage in the arts… and staging a home takes its inspiration from the arts. It’s a creative exercise in form and function, practicality and expression, a place to showcase beauty and wonder, creativity and comfort, and it’s all the talk today on this, our sixth episode, of Real Talk with Big Red.
Happy day to you all, and how are you on this fine spring day? Here we meet again in this market gone wild, spring 2021. How many of you find yourselves perusing the interwebs and looking at houses you’d love to buy? Or maybe you are looking at houses to get a sense of how to redesign your own? Maybe you want to sell someday soon and would like to spruce it up and give it a more modern flare? Or maybe you just enjoy a good voyeuristic journey through your neighborhood. Maybe you’ve found yourself walking past that one house you so admire in your neighborhood one night after dinner, when the blinds have yet to be drawn and the lights are all still on and you catch a glimpse inside of the furniture, the bookcases, the lovely artwork on the wall… the lighting, the upholstery, the paint color… sigh… it’s enough to make you want to pull up the Amazon app on your phone right then and there
Sigh… why is it that we always want what everyone else has?
My point is… why do we as a society admire, obsess, fixate, pore over and consume what OTHER people have and do? And for the sake of today’s episode, we’re talking specifically about what other people have and do... with their homes.
We’re talking about home staging.
So what even is home staging?
Ah, in short, it is the activity or practice of styling and furnishing a property for sale in such a way as to enhance its attractiveness to potential buyers. It is the visual satisfaction that comes with smart interior design.
Well, maybe easy for me to say…. some people, who shall remain nameless of course, may find themselves fairly paralyzed at the thought of “making a house a home.” We’ll talk about that a little later on in the episode, but for anyone who wants to know just what, for the love of Pete, do I mean when I say home staging?
We are talking about how you feature the nuances of your home, whether you are hosting a party, or getting your home ready for sale, when you stage your home, you are taking into consideration compatible colors, the arrangement of elements, minimalism (or maximalism if that’s the kind of thing you’re into), the careful appointment of accessories, adding dimension through layers of decor, varying textures of upholstery, the feel of fine furnishings, the appeal of eye-catching artwork…. We are talking about dressing your home up and stepping back to marvel at the transformation… seeing how \ with a few tricks and tips, and a flick of a not-so-magic wand, you can creating a look and a feel, a vibe and an energy that feels inviting, interesting and uniquely your own.
Why is home staging such a big deal?
Contrary to what you might think, home staging is about more than just preparing your house for sale. Staging is what you do after you've cleaned, decluttered, painted, and made minor repairs. It's about vision. It's about mood. It's about making the home look bigger, brighter, cleaner, warmer, and more comfortable. It's the metaphorical lipstick, mascara, and single strand of pearls that pulls the whole look together.
If you think you can't afford to stage your home, and that professional stagers are so expensive, you're not wrong, and you're not necessarily right either.
Prices vary depending on where you live and the local demand for professional home staging. Coastal areas and large metropolitan cities where home staging has been prevalent for years command higher prices.
Some real estate agents help sellers stage the home themselves. Most listing agents agree, however, that vacant homes show better with professional staging. Even if an agent is capable of helping to stage a home, they're likely to encourage sellers to hire a professional stager. Fees range from $500 to $4,000—sometimes more, depending on square footage, the number of rooms staged.
Real quick, I’d LOVE to share with you some of my favorite home / lifestyle picks that I’ve curated myself on Amazon. I’m a sucker for the perfect area rug and I know these items are gonna help you.
In fact, I’ve created a quick one stop shop so, if you’re in need of a little spring refresh...and you wanna zhush up your home, you should head on over to denisepetti.com/shop
And here’s the beautiful thing, when you purchase any of the products listed in my curated Amazon collection, not only will you help keep this show going, but you’ll also help others who are interested in all things real estate find the show too.
Again, all you need to do is go to denisepetti.com/shop
Go to denisepetti.com/shop
Now if you wanna make it even easier and you’re already on your phone, go ahead and open a new message and text me. That’s right, you can text me directly and I’ll send you the link to my curated Amazon collection.
You can text BIGRED to 69696
That’s BIGRED to 69696
Home staging can pay off big time for sellers. A 2020 survey by the Real Estate Staging Association showed that 75% of sellers who invested 1% of their list price into staging saw a return of 5% to 15% over asking price.
Not all sellers are receptive at first, but if the home doesn't sell because it's missing that "oomph," home staging always seems to turn it around. You can do large-scale home staging or small-scale What matters is that you do some degree of staging. If you do, you're more likely to quickly sell for top dollar.
When you see before-and-after photos of spaces not staged versus staged, it’s easy to quickly become a believer in home staging! Vacant spaces, in particular, absolutely need to be staged for these 3 HUGE reasons…
1. An empty room EASILY SHOWS its flaws.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not a fan of strutting around in my bikini these days … are you? Why? Because with very little on, you can see every flaw on my body. Empty rooms are no different!
No room is perfect and empty ones especially are like walking around naked.
2. An empty room almost ALWAYS looks smaller than it really is.
People have no imaginations and let’s face it, how could buyers intuitively even know if furniture will fit into a space. Empty rooms almost always appear smaller than they really are because without furniture … it has no frame of reference.
By cleverly floating the furniture around the focal point and creating a seating area, it leaves nothing up to the buyer’s imagination.
Finally, here's the number one reason it’s critical to stage an empty or vacant home...
3. Empty rooms are cold and lifeless (i.e. not exactly an emotion you want buyers to feel!)
Imagine the cost of putting up a lifeless, cold, sterile photo online of your empty home!
Statistics show that of over 4,200 professionally staged homes, the average increase in value to the home due to professional staging was more than 8 percent.
Vacant homes typically take twice as long to sell and go for even less than unstaged, “occupied” homes. So, imagine the true cost of not staging a vacant home!
Every room gives a stager the opportunity to add “emotional connections” to the space, so that buyers fall in love, aspire to live there and can actually imagine their family in that home.
Staging is merchandising and marketing in its purest form. Home stagers learn who the buyer demographic is and what they envision for a home will draw on those emotions with a carefully styled room…
https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-home-staging-1799076#common-accessories-a-home-stager-might-use
https://www.nar.realtor/blogs/styled-staged-sold/3-reasons-why-staging-a-vacant-home-is-critical
Real Estate Staging Association. "Home Staging Statistics," Download. Accessed March 9, 2021.
All the world’s a stage, that’s what Shakespeare said. You know what I say? I say, all the home’s a stage! Hey, ya gotta love the English language… it's the only place where one word can hold two entirely different meanings. Or does it? Because when you think of setting the stage, you think of setting a mood, a theme, a tone, and an arrangement of elements by which the cast and crew can easily and swiftly navigate… that is a performance stage… a place on which to perform… the place a performer acts upon so that an audience may observe and applaud that performance. This is the applied use of a stage in the arts… and staging a home takes its inspiration from the arts. It’s a creative exercise in form and function, practicality and expression, a place to showcase beauty and wonder, creativity and comfort, and it’s all the talk today on this, our sixth episode, of Real Talk with Big Red.
Happy day to you all, and how are you on this fine spring day? Here we meet again in this market gone wild, spring 2021. How many of you find yourselves perusing the interwebs and looking at houses you’d love to buy? Or maybe you are looking at houses to get a sense of how to redesign your own? Maybe you want to sell someday soon and would like to spruce it up and give it a more modern flare? Or maybe you just enjoy a good voyeuristic journey through your neighborhood. Maybe you’ve found yourself walking past that one house you so admire in your neighborhood one night after dinner, when the blinds have yet to be drawn and the lights are all still on and you catch a glimpse inside of the furniture, the bookcases, the lovely artwork on the wall… the lighting, the upholstery, the paint color… sigh… it’s enough to make you want to pull up the Amazon app on your phone right then and there
Sigh… why is it that we always want what everyone else has?
My point is… why do we as a society admire, obsess, fixate, pore over and consume what OTHER people have and do? And for the sake of today’s episode, we’re talking specifically about what other people have and do... with their homes.
We’re talking about home staging.
So what even is home staging?
Ah, in short, it is the activity or practice of styling and furnishing a property for sale in such a way as to enhance its attractiveness to potential buyers. It is the visual satisfaction that comes with smart interior design.
Well, maybe easy for me to say…. some people, who shall remain nameless of course, may find themselves fairly paralyzed at the thought of “making a house a home.” We’ll talk about that a little later on in the episode, but for anyone who wants to know just what, for the love of Pete, do I mean when I say home staging?
We are talking about how you feature the nuances of your home, whether you are hosting a party, or getting your home ready for sale, when you stage your home, you are taking into consideration compatible colors, the arrangement of elements, minimalism (or maximalism if that’s the kind of thing you’re into), the careful appointment of accessories, adding dimension through layers of decor, varying textures of upholstery, the feel of fine furnishings, the appeal of eye-catching artwork…. We are talking about dressing your home up and stepping back to marvel at the transformation… seeing how \ with a few tricks and tips, and a flick of a not-so-magic wand, you can creating a look and a feel, a vibe and an energy that feels inviting, interesting and uniquely your own.
Why is home staging such a big deal?
Contrary to what you might think, home staging is about more than just preparing your house for sale. Staging is what you do after you've cleaned, decluttered, painted, and made minor repairs. It's about vision. It's about mood. It's about making the home look bigger, brighter, cleaner, warmer, and more comfortable. It's the metaphorical lipstick, mascara, and single strand of pearls that pulls the whole look together.
If you think you can't afford to stage your home, and that professional stagers are so expensive, you're not wrong, and you're not necessarily right either.
Prices vary depending on where you live and the local demand for professional home staging. Coastal areas and large metropolitan cities where home staging has been prevalent for years command higher prices.
Some real estate agents help sellers stage the home themselves. Most listing agents agree, however, that vacant homes show better with professional staging. Even if an agent is capable of helping to stage a home, they're likely to encourage sellers to hire a professional stager. Fees range from $500 to $4,000—sometimes more, depending on square footage, the number of rooms staged.
Real quick, I’d LOVE to share with you some of my favorite home / lifestyle picks that I’ve curated myself on Amazon. I’m a sucker for the perfect area rug and I know these items are gonna help you.
In fact, I’ve created a quick one stop shop so, if you’re in need of a little spring refresh...and you wanna zhush up your home, you should head on over to denisepetti.com/shop
And here’s the beautiful thing, when you purchase any of the products listed in my curated Amazon collection, not only will you help keep this show going, but you’ll also help others who are interested in all things real estate find the show too.
Again, all you need to do is go to denisepetti.com/shop
Go to denisepetti.com/shop
Now if you wanna make it even easier and you’re already on your phone, go ahead and open a new message and text me. That’s right, you can text me directly and I’ll send you the link to my curated Amazon collection.
You can text BIGRED to 69696
That’s BIGRED to 69696
Home staging can pay off big time for sellers. A 2020 survey by the Real Estate Staging Association showed that 75% of sellers who invested 1% of their list price into staging saw a return of 5% to 15% over asking price.
Not all sellers are receptive at first, but if the home doesn't sell because it's missing that "oomph," home staging always seems to turn it around. You can do large-scale home staging or small-scale What matters is that you do some degree of staging. If you do, you're more likely to quickly sell for top dollar.
When you see before-and-after photos of spaces not staged versus staged, it’s easy to quickly become a believer in home staging! Vacant spaces, in particular, absolutely need to be staged for these 3 HUGE reasons…
1. An empty room EASILY SHOWS its flaws.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not a fan of strutting around in my bikini these days … are you? Why? Because with very little on, you can see every flaw on my body. Empty rooms are no different!
No room is perfect and empty ones especially are like walking around naked.
2. An empty room almost ALWAYS looks smaller than it really is.
People have no imaginations and let’s face it, how could buyers intuitively even know if furniture will fit into a space. Empty rooms almost always appear smaller than they really are because without furniture … it has no frame of reference.
By cleverly floating the furniture around the focal point and creating a seating area, it leaves nothing up to the buyer’s imagination.
Finally, here's the number one reason it’s critical to stage an empty or vacant home...
3. Empty rooms are cold and lifeless (i.e. not exactly an emotion you want buyers to feel!)
Imagine the cost of putting up a lifeless, cold, sterile photo online of your empty home!
Statistics show that of over 4,200 professionally staged homes, the average increase in value to the home due to professional staging was more than 8 percent.
Vacant homes typically take twice as long to sell and go for even less than unstaged, “occupied” homes. So, imagine the true cost of not staging a vacant home!
Every room gives a stager the opportunity to add “emotional connections” to the space, so that buyers fall in love, aspire to live there and can actually imagine their family in that home.
Staging is merchandising and marketing in its purest form. Home stagers learn who the buyer demographic is and what they envision for a home will draw on those emotions with a carefully styled room…
https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-home-staging-1799076#common-accessories-a-home-stager-might-use
https://www.nar.realtor/blogs/styled-staged-sold/3-reasons-why-staging-a-vacant-home-is-critical
Real Estate Staging Association. "Home Staging Statistics," Download. Accessed March 9, 2021.