STAGING IS NOT INTERIOR DESIGN?

I almost always work with a professional stager on the Move with Maggie team to stage our listings, including this condo located in Andersonville in Chicago. I include in my listing package for sellers, several hours of staging. I consistently find that staged properties sell more quickly and for higher prices than unstaged ones.

My professional stager is a licensed realtor who shows properties to buyers for our team, giving her a direct line to buyers’ perspectives. She does a wonderful job of selecting paint colors, shopping for accessories, rearranging furniture, and helping sellers to thin out their possessions so that buyers can visualize living in the home.

Staging sounds like a great idea, right?   However, I am finding that at times sellers are sometimes confused by the process.   They either want to be the decision maker in the selection of items, or they don’t want their home rearranged too much from its current arrangement. They forget that the client we have in mind is the buyer.

One of the most important lessons I learned is the importance of explaining early in the selling process, that staging is not interior design. Staging is marketing to the masses. Interior design is designing for the homeowners specific taste, which is not the point; the point is to sell their house.   Items are chosen to appeal to the demographic of buyers potentially looking at their property as well as to introduce styles that might not currently be in the present decor in order for every buyer to see a bit of their own taste in a property.

Maggie Finegan, ABR, Move with Maggie Chicago Real Estate Team