What is Home Staging?
Have you ever heard about home staging? Actually I like the British English variant more - House doctoring 
The goal of staging is to sell a home quickly, and for the most money possible by attracting the most amount of potential buyers. Staging focuses on improving a property to make it appeal to the largest amount of buyers by transforming it into a welcoming, appealing, and attractive product for sale. A STAGED home is a SOLD home.
Staging often raises the value of a property by way of reducing the home’s flaws, depersonalizing, decluttering, cleaning, improving condition items, and landscaping. For vacant homes, rental furniture is used to create a living space the buyer could “see” themselves in. Properly executed staging leads the eye to attractive features while minimizing flaws.
Home Staging in US
Since the 1970s, real estate professionals have used Staging as a marketing tool in the US and Canada. Not until the 1990s did staging became a separate endeavor adopted by professional designers and decorators and home based career seekers. More recently, the trend of do-it-yourself home staging has become widely popular, as many books have been published on the subject. Staging is viewed by some as a necessary step taken prior to selling a home, and many real estate professionals and home sellers alike hire a professional Home Stager to stage their homes prior to sale. Statistics show that it makes a dramatic difference on the amount of days a property is on the market and how much it sells for.
Home Staging in UK
In Britain Home Staging had been a relatively new concept but the techniques have been televised by Californian home stylist Ann Maurice in the popular television show House Doctor on Five.
June 8th, 2007 at 9:33 am
Well, Julie, “Home staging” is not a new term, but for many homeowners it is. Thanks for the articles, I liked them. Most homeowners are sure that they are able to prepare for home showings without any stagers. But it’s just not always easy to get a home into selling condition in a timely manner without some sort of experienced assistance…
June 12th, 2007 at 5:01 am
A few words about staging, “Staging is not decorating,” said Barb Schwartz, founder of Associated Staging Professionals. “Decorating is personalizing. Staging is de-personalizing.” The idea behind staging is to spruce up your house to make it look less like home, and more like what a prospective buyer wants to see.
June 12th, 2007 at 5:09 am
We hired the Nuances team to stage our home in the hope of getting the most money for our modest two-story, three-bedroom home in Watertown, a middle-class Boston suburb. And they did a great job. The investment was worth it. Would I have cleaned up the house before a potential buyer came in? Yes. But would I have paid the same attention to detail and overall sort of ‘wow factor? No.
June 12th, 2007 at 5:39 am
hey, Julie, I also liked BrE “House doctoring”
hehe ..my own definition of home staging is spiffing up your home in a number of small ways to boost the value of your home. Tell me Julie, you like it? And it’s getting more and more popular as the housing market cools and sellers try and set their homes apart. Going FSBO is definitely one way to do it.
June 12th, 2007 at 5:44 am
Thank you for your comments, guys. If staging your home is too big a project to pull off by yourself, there are scores of professionals willing to give you a hand. You can find Accredited Staging Professionals in your state at www.stagedhomes.com. But before hiring anyone, ask to see their portfolio.
June 14th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Thanx for the link, really. Thanx for the article and all the comments here. Really, the main difference of staging (from decorating) is de-personalizing. This is the thing the future owner wants 2see - the material for his future home.