Staging

Home Staging:  Preparing Your Home For The Market

The objective of staging is to make a great first impression. Home staging is simply the merchandising of a house to capture the hearts and bids of potential buyers. Sellers are often too used to their homes and cannot see it through the eyes of a buyer. Once you decide to sell, you need to detach, the home is no longer about you, but a house that needs to appeal to its next owner. The stager makes that leap for you - the homeowner - by figuring out how to showcase the best features of each room. Staging should not be confused with decorating. Decorating means personalizing your space - staging is about depersonalizing it.

Before	After	After
This undefined space is transformed into it's intended purpose of a formal dining room.

Staging is designed to differentiate a house, to create emotion, which translates into more offers and more money. Sellers shouldn't look at staging by seeing how much it will cost but how much it could make. Staged homes can eliminate costly price reductions. Stagers create an illusion of space and high style using low cost solutions from local discount stores. Even sellers with limited financial resources can benefit from a stager's expertise.

A New Milieu is listed in The Staging Directory, a national listing of professional interior redesigners & staging experts: http://www.stagingdirectory.com/gallery.htm

A testimonial from a very happy customer in Illinois during team training says...

Thank you so very much for the total house "makeover" today! I was absolutely stunned by the quality of your work, and the collective creativity that proved to be a definite recipe for success!

Seeing my own furniture and accessories used in new and exciting ways made me feel as though I was walking through a brand new home...no, a MODEL home! You gave "odds and ends" new life that radiated an aura of " House Beautiful" from top to bottom.

Truly, you are more than Stagers; you seem to be somewhat of Alchemists who can change a lump of coal into a diamond! I am forever grateful. There is no doubt that our house will sell quickly, even in this tough market.

Please extend my heartfelt thanks again to your crew. They were all sweethearts!
Janet A. and family ~ Algonquin, IL

The way you live in a home and the way you sell your house are two different things,” said Barb Schwarz, who created the home staging concept in 1972. MSNBC’s article “Professionals set the stage for quick home sales,” also reported that according to a 2006 StagedHomes.com survey, homes listed for sale without staging spent an average 4.5 months on the market; homes staged before listing spent less than 1.5 months on the market. The average time for a staged home to reach a ‘sales pending’ status was about a week. And staging boosts the estimated sales price by 3 percent, according to other industry surveys. On average, certified stagers charge $1,900 per listing, Schwarz estimates, although that varies widely depending on region.

Need more reasons to stage your home? Here are ten, as listed by the Home Staging Resource...

Top Ten Reasons You Should Professionally Stage Your Home…
1	You Will Make More Money U.S. Housing and Urban Development reports that a staged house sells, on average, 17% higher than a non-staged house.
2	Your House Will Sell Faster = Less Headaches and Hassle The New York Village Voice reported that the average number of days on the market for a staged house was 13.9 versus 30.9 days for an unstaged house.
3	The Cost of Staging, Doesn’t Cost A Dime… In a 2003 HomeGain Survey of over 2000 Realtors it was discovered that sellers who spent up to $1000 Staging their home recovered almost 200% of the cost in the sale of their home.
4	Most Home Sellers Cannot View Their House Objectively If you can’t see objectively, you can’t “package” effectively. Have a staging professional give you a detailed, step by step, “Action Plan” for less than $500 so you can do the work yourself.
5	Less Guesswork and “Do It Yourself”… A professional home stager can manage your projects from start to finish OR give you a detailed enough report based on their extensive knowledge and training to have you “do it yourself”.
6	Only 10% of homebuyers can visualize the potential of a home That’s why staging a vacant home is critical! You don’t want the benefits of your beautiful home left up to the buyer’s imagination.
7	Studies show that the longer your home stays on the market the lower your selling price will be… Don’t settle for less and lower your price…have your house staged.
8	The Money You Make is TAX FREE! Take advantage of your tax-free capital gain by getting every dollar you can in the selling price of your home.
9	Leaving Your House in “AS IS” Condition Will Help Sell the Competition Right now the number of homes for sale on the market is at a record high, competition is getting stiff and buyers have an expectation when they walk through your door.
Do you really need another reason to invest in your future earnings by staging?