By Dawn Trachtenberg, Staged Ryte

Realtors are most often the individuals who recommend home staging to clients. Of course, sometimes we get homeowners themselves, flippers and developers who reach out: mostly it’s you all. The question we get most often (even before how much does home staging cost) is how does home staging WORK?

Let’s break down the home staging process. We’ve simplified it here, but you’ll get the overall idea.

1. Home staging always starts with a conversation with the listing agent to help us understand the seller’s needs and the optimal buyer.
2. The next conversation is with the home owner. As home stagers, we need to know if the home will be vacant or furnished. Does any work need to be done to the home before staging?
3. We tour the home and take COPIOUS photographs and notes.
4. We create a comprehensive home staging plan which informs the proposal we send to the home owner. With the home owner’s go ahead, we send our Staging Agreement and with that and a deposit, we are on our way to staging.
5. We then dive into our home staging warehouse to pull sofas, cocktail tables, dining tables, bed frames, mattresses, carpets, accessories, etc. Sometimes we have to go on shopping excursions to fill in where needed (we don’t mind).
6. We now have space in our Ashley Falls facility to pre-stage – set up a room to see what else we need or if another color scheme, living room chair or pillow might work better. This has been a great benefit to our design process.
7. Once everything is finalized, we load up our truck and head out to stage the home. Small homes can take a day; large homes can take multiple days. Staging doesn’t happen in a matter of hours as it seems to on our favorite HGTV and Magnolia Network shows. We will often make multiple trips back to the warehouse if we need to swap items out, add more furniture or find just the perfect final accessory to complete a room.
8. Sometimes homes are staged for weeks, sometimes days! Then it’s time to pack, wrap and bring it all back.

Our process works. Staged homes garner up to 6% more than unstaged homes. Staging can help to sell a home faster, too. According to HomeAdvisor, homes that have been staged spend between 33% and 50% less time on the market. You likely know the most important rooms to stage. According to the National Association of Realtors, “Staging the living room was found to be very important for buyers (46%), followed by staging the [primary] bedroom (43%), and staging the kitchen (35%).”

Look through our Metro and Country galleries to see dozens of Staged Ryte staged single-family homes, city apartments and condos that have sold

Want to have a conversation? Contact Dawn.

Staged Ryte is a woman-owned boutique home staging and design firm. We create homes where buyers see themselves in the story we create – living their ideal lives. Our attention to detail and ability to understand what buyers want is unmatched. And no two spaces ever look alike because of our extensive inventory: our home staging facility in Ashley Falls, MA contains over 10,000 pieces in over 5,000 square feet (want a tour?). Our goal is to Wow! home buyers, and make home owners – and real estate agents – VERY happy with faster-than-expected sales at the best price. www.stagedryte.com