Staging = Staging …. Are you sure? Staging is a relatively young industry and as other industries are evolving, also the home staging industry is changing. The blanket approach of mass marketing lies in the past of the marketing world. Home staging should not be an exception. New staging techniques go beyond de-cluttering, de-personalizing and making a space look pretty to appeal to the widest range of buyers. Today, staging has moved on to the next level - a smarter, more informed level, where research is being incorporated to understand the target buyers. Home buyers nowadays are more sophisticated than ever before. Traditional staging often creates neutralized staging installations that do not draw buyers in as effectively. We all buy with emotions and buying a home is no different. Our job as professional home stagers is to emotionally connect home buyers to a house. People don’t buy a house, they buy a HOME. Along with selling a space we are selling a lifestyle! In order to connect most effectively with buyers the staging professional needs to conduct research to understand and target the most likely buyers. Birgit Anich Staging&Interiors; specializes in and is a pioneer in Connecticut to implement these most advanced and most successful staging techniques ofTarget StagingandLifestyle Merchandising. Based on a discussion with the real estate agent, the home seller and conducing their own research, this staging company is setting up a Buyer’s Profile, which includes information not just about demographics, but also about psychographics of the most likely buyers. Once the buyer’s profileis completed, a stunning staging installation that appeals to these buyers is being created. “Every piece of furniture, rug, artwork, lighting and décor item is carefully selected as each item sends both a conscious and an unconscious message giving us the opportunity to emotionally connect with the buyers. With every staging design we are telling a story with a specific person in mind, giving the buyers a lifestyle experience, a dream they aspire to. Our intent is to get home buyers excited when visiting and we want them to go “WOW this house is stunning!! This is how I always dreamed to live. I want this house.” instead of “This is nice”. “ comments Birgit Anich, president and chief lifestyle stager of Birgit Anich Staging&Interiors. Do you remember the last time when you saw this most beautiful jacket that you just fell in love with, but was beyond your budget? Yet you bought it because you loved it – you were willing to reach deeper into your pockets, just because you were emotionally connected with it. Yes, home buyers are also willing to pay more for a house they aspire to and fall in love with. Barbara Corcoran recently mentioned at the Nate Berkus show that well staged properties sell for a 5% to 10% higher price. The new generation of effective home staging is strategicTarget Marketing with Lifestyle Merchandising! © Copyright Birgit Anich Staging&Interiors  About the Author: Birgit Anich is the president and chief lifestyle stager of Birgit Anich Staging&Interiors, LLC, a Real Estate Home Staging and Interior Styling Company in Fairfield county. Birgit is a National and Regional Awards Winner by the Real Estate Staging Company (RESA). Having been trained and mentored by HGTV star Matthew Finlason (“The Stagers”), she specializes in the most advanced and successful staging techniques of Target Staging & Lifestyle Merchandising. Birgit has been featured on local FOX, NBC, ABC, CBS, the radio, Life@Home Magazine, and other media. For more information contact 203.807.4040 orbirgit@BirgitAnich.comor visitwww.BirgitAnich.com ...read more

There are many reasons why a home might be vacant when being sold – various reasons include: new construction relocation property seller has already moved into their new home it was a rental property that is now for sale In all these cases the bottom line is that SELLING the property FAST is CRITICAL. There is a lot of money on the table because of ongoing mortgage costs, maintenance cost, insurance cost, and other carrying costs that need to be paid for all these months that the property is sitting on the market without any income stream. Selling fast in a buyers market and a down market is a challenge, but especially it is difficult for vacant homes. Vacant homes sell typically slower than occupied homes. What are the 5 biggest mistakes when selling a vacant property? Mistake #1:Selling the house as a VACANT property We just said that vacant homes sell slower than houses that are occupied. Why is that? a.People don’t buy houses, they by homes, they buy a lifestyle!Without furniture, wall art, rugs, lighting, décor,… there are no emotional connection points in the house – the house does not show its soul and any lifestyle buyers can aspire to. b.Buyers do not have a point of reference empty rooms look smaller buyers cannot see how much furniture they will be able to fit in the room they cannot envision how to set up the room functionally – how should I face the sofa, where does my TV go, can I fit….. Adding the right furniture, rugs, lighting, wall art and other décor that reflect the target buyers’ lifestyle will make them feel drawn to and helps them envision themselves living in that home. c.When a room is empty, buyers focus on the negative detailsIt is so much easier to notice cracks in the walls, paint chips, missed repairs,… if buyers have nothing else to look at. Providing them with a welcoming home they will focus more on how they can live in that house rather than what they don’t like about it. With staging we emphasize the positive features of the property while downplaying the negative features. d.Only 10% of home buyers can actually visualize the potential of a home Nine out of every ten people walking in your home have no imagination of the wonderful possibilities your house has to offer. Mistake #2: Wait to see if it sells vacant As ahome stager in Connecticut, I often receive the response from clients “I want to see first if it sells vacant before I consider staging”. This can be avery costly mistake. Selling a house is all about FIRST IMPRESSIONS. On a new listing most of the traffic is generated within the first 2-4 weeks. The Real Estate Brokers open house will get the buyers’ Realtors into the property. They are your “sales staff”. If these brokers do not get excited about what they see, they are less likely to bring their buyers to your property instead of your neighbor’s house on the market. Let’s say you change your mind down the road and have the property staged and then have another Realtors open house. It will be hard to get Brokers to come back to the property as they have already seen it and do not want to waist their time, nor will their buyers come back for a second time. So, now you have wasted all that traffic and time on the market without showing the house at its’ best potential. If you had it staged upfront you may have it already sold by now. Mistake #3: Not Differentiating Your Listing from the competition Put yourself into the shoes of a home buyer – 94% of home buyers start their search online first looking at all the photos of houses within their qualifying criteria. This is what they might see: House #1: House #2: What makes your house different from these other vacant houses? Why should they visit your house? There is nothing that would draw a buyer into these houses. Remember – A SALE CAN BE LOST BY ONE MOUSE CLICK – if your house does not stand out and attract these buyers for a visit, you have lost a potential sale. Mistake #4: Price has now become your only marketing strategy Selling a house, typically the home owner’s most valuable asset, is not any different than marketing a commercial product. Location, Condition&Showcasing;, Price and Promotion need to be considered together. There is nothing that you can do about the location of the property, but you can influence the other marketing factors. The price is being influenced by the Location and the Condition&Showcasing (the packaging) of the house. The Promotion to bring the traffic into your house will be most effective if the Showcasing and Photographs are professionally done. So, if there is no showcasing, the promotional pictures will not stand out, so price is now your only marketing strategy. Buyers are willing to pay more if they feel emotionally connected to a house – on average staged homes sell for a 5-10% higher price tag. Mistake #5: Seeing home staging as a COST instead of an INVESTMENT Staging a house for sale can help you MAKE money. It is an INVESTMENT into your home selling process – most investments into home staging range between 1 and 3 percent of the listing price, which yield in a 5 to 10 higher sales price –how nice is this, but this is not all. If selling your house faster you will SAVE ongoing mortgage payments and carrying costs.See more detailsand examples on howBirgit Anich Staging and Interiorshelped their clientsMAKING a PROFIT by staging. Barbara Corcoran, one of the biggest real estate experts in the US, says: “Never sell a home without furniture!” “Once the staging is complete you might even find that you can raise the price” –see Barbara’s 2 mintues segment on The TODAY SHOW Copyright 2011 Birgit Anich Staging & Interiors, LLC ...read more

In ourlast blog postwe spoke about the Staging Consultation and price determining factors of a Home Staging Proposal. Today we will go into more detail of the actual Staging Proposal and the Return on the Staging Investment – how staging helps making money. The Staging Proposal: The consultation for occupied homes and the walk-through of vacant homes provide the real estate stager with an overview of what is needed to get the house prepared and ready for a successful sale. As a general rule over the thumb, home staging prices can range from a 0.5% to 3% of the listing price – again, depending on the specific needs of that property as well as the selling price. Remember in the beginning I said that real estate staging does not cost anything – it helps making money. Home staging is not a cost, but an investment. The National Association of Realtors indicates that staged homes sell on average for a 6 to 10% higher price – a pretty good deal for an investment of 0.5% to 3%. Studies and statistics conducted by theReal Estate Staging Association (RESA®)have shown that professionally staged homes sell on average 67% faster than unstaged homes. This means months less of expenses for mortgage, insurance, utilities, maintenance and other carrying costs. Add to that the reduced time of stress and worries, having to be prepared every day for a potential showing and having your peaceful life back quicker. Now let’s look at some specific numbers of a real life example of a property thatBirgit Anich Staging&Interiors;has recently staged. While most houses staged by Birgit Anich Staging & Interiors are in the $750K to $4M price range, there seems to be the impression that "staging is for high end properties only". Thus we decided to illustrate a lower price example to show how real estate staging helps making money also on lower priced properties. However, the same applies to higher priced homes – the numbers are just getting bigger. This real example property is located in Norwalk, CT: Original Listing Price: $410,000 Days on Market BEFORE Staging: 155 Price when Birgit Anich Staging&Interiors was called: $389,000 After reducing the price by $21,000 or 5.12% to $389,000, the price reduction still did not help to sell. The real estate agent was in a tough spot: 1. Either make another price reduction and have price being the only marketing tool used in selling this property or 2. Make use of a different marketing tool – packaging the product to appeal to the target buyer group by staging it – the real estate agent decided to  advise her client to stage the property At the first visit to the property Birgit Anich Staging& Interiors immediately knew what needed to be done and the client agreed to most of the proposed investments of their vacant property – we made somehome improvementsand used the most advanced and successfulstaging techniques of Target Staging and  Lifestyle Merchandising: Home Improvement Investments (paint, toilet replacement, lighting replacement, floors refinishing, new ceiling in one room, some repair): $6,000 Staging Investment (rental of furniture & décor for Living Room, Dining Room, Master Bedroom and Staging Services) $4,500 Total Investment: $10,500 …. 2.7% of the listing price After completion of staging, the housesold within 2 days at full asking price.  By not using price as the single marketing strategy to sell this property, the real estate agent was able to sell the property without any further price reduction. This is great! But what would the scenario have been if the property was staged BEFORE putting the house on the market? · The house would have been 153 days less time on the market = 5.1 months less time of ongoing costs: Mortgage: $1300/month Carrying costs (taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance cost): $1000/month Total monthly fixed costs saved: $2300/month Months less on the market if staged before: 5 months Saved cost because of faster sale: $2300 * 5 months =$11,500 As you can see,staging did not costthemanything. Remember, we spoke about that staged homes sell on an average at a 6-10% higher price. If the house were staged before putting it on the market, it is likely that the house would have sold at the original price of $410,000 (or closer to it), which is an additional $21,000 Total Return on Investment, if staged BEFORE listing, would have been: Saved cost because of faster sale: $11,500 Sale at top price: $21,000 Total gain: $32,500 Staging Investment: ($10,500) Profit Made from Staging: $22,000 Return on Investment: 209% This real life example shows how staging helps to MAKE money – it does not cost anything. After reading this, what does cost more – to stage or not to stage? I hope you have come to the conclusion thatit only costs NOT to stage. Not to stage costs money, time, and energy. We realize that afull staging might not be for everyone, as this is an upfront out of pocket expense and many people might not be in the financial position for various reasons to make such investment. I recommend though toat least invest in a home staging consultationfrom a qualified Home Staging Professional. You will be surprised what a difference this powerful information will make in your home sale, if you implement it. By staging BEFORE listing the Home Sellers can move on with their normal lives faster and with more money in their pockets. When selling properties faster and closer to the Home Seller’s price expectations, Real Estate Agents will receive more referrals and can quicker devote their energy and time to their next listing. Copyright 2011 Birgit Anich Staging & Interiors, LLC ...read more