How Home Staging Will Get You Moving

When you’ve decided to get moving, you want to get moving as fast as possible. Unfortunately, there’s no fairy moving godmother that can make the process happen in a snap. (But there are some superhero-esque movers you can hire!) The moving process can be held up if your old home just isn’t selling. When that’s the case, you might want to consider home staging.

Making your home move from drab to fab is as easy as hiring someone with home staging know-how! Home staging can help up the curb appeal and revamp the interior design of your home so that it sells on the market faster. Whether you choose a full service home staging (where home staging involves bringing in furniture, rugs, art, etc.) or to just get advice from a home staging expert, it’s definitely a good investment.

Michelle Minch, owner of Moving Mountains Design and 2010 Real Estate Staging Association Stager of the Year, knows everything you might ever need to know about home staging. She kindly shared her insider expertise with me and helped answer my questions about home staging. (Don’t forget to follow my favorite Los Angeles home staging pro on Twitter! My brother Zippy is always talking about her tweets.)

Home Staging versus DIY

So a few of you out there might be thinking that DIY (do it yourself) home staging is the easiest (and cheapest) way to sell a house. But bringing a home stager into the mix will result in something far better than any DIY projects. Home staging experts know what will sell a house. They have experience getting homes to sell and therefore know the inside scoop about how to make the real estate market work for you.

As Minch points out, a home stager can be like your own personal Yelp. Contractors, service providers, carpet cleaners, painters, counter top installers–a real home staging pro will be able to recommend the best people for the job.

And if you’re worried about cost, don’t be. Minch and her team are used to working with homeowners in a situation where they know that it needs to look good but it needs to be as inexpensive as possible, too.

Home Staging Will Help Your House Sell

Does home staging really work? You bet it does! One of Minch’s coolest home staging success stories: a San Gabriel home that had been on the market for six months sold in just one day after the owners had their house undergo some home staging.

A home staging expert knows what buyers are looking for. By incorporating information about your neighborhood, community, and other aspects that buyers consider important, a home stager can make your house more appealing to potential buyers. One way that Minch does this by using feng shui in all her home staging. This subtle art can make people feel immediately more comfortable in a home without them even realizing why. It’s knowledge like this that makes home staging the key to making your home sell.

Choosing a Home Stager

So how do you choose the perfect home stager? Minch’s first piece of advice: “trust your gut.”

A lot like hiring the perfect movers, when hiring a home stager, use your intuition to make sure they seem knowledgeable and professional. Minch also advises that clients make sure their home stager has home staging business insurance, which should include liability.

When looking for a home staging pro, look for the most experienced home stager, not the cheapest one, and not the most decorated one. The letters behind a home stager’s name aren’t always as important as the experience and knowledge they can bring to your home staging.

But do look for someone who is a member of the Real Estate Staging Association. Because it’s an international group where all members comply with a code of ethics, members of this group will most likely be home staging experts.

Do you have any other questions about home staging that you want answered? Ever had a great experience with home staging? Tell us about it in the comments section!