I’m Kayley Danielson, interior designer for Niche Homes, and today I’d like to talk about Niche Homes staging philosophy. Staging achieves two different types of goals. The first are quantitative goals, a staged home usually sells for about 10% higher than a home that is not staged. A staged home also is on the market about half the time of a house that is not staged. The other type of goals that we achieve when we stage a house are qualitative goals. Those include detaching and depersonalizing from the home for the seller. It also allows buyers to visualize their future life and see all the potential that a home might have.
Step 1: Consultation
The first step in staging is a consultation. At this meeting, the homeowner gives me a tour of their home and we talk about how they lived in it, we highlight the things that are important and beautiful about the home. We talk about the neighborhood and especially who the potential buyer of the home might be. In the process, we plan for the story we want to tell through staging. We also talk about repairs, unfinished DIY projects, or things we might want to change and improve before we put the home up for sale.
Step 2: Checklist
Once I am back in my office, I create a checklist. In the checklist there are items for the realtor to take care of, items for the seller to do, and items for me, as a stager, to do. This includes furniture, art and the accessories that will appear on stage day.
Step 3: Stage Day
On stage day, we come with a moving crew and we are able to stage that entire house within about four to eight hours. During that time, we’re also coordinating with a deep clean for the house and window cleaners. By the time we’re done, the house is ready for photography and videography.
Step 4: Creating Vignettes
My focus when staging is on the details and creating vignettes that are going to put the home’s best foot forward in photography. We need to make an impact and memorable first impression online, which is where most buyers are first going to see your home.
A staged home is going to look and feel different than a home that you’re living in. Staging is designed for marketing and has a different approach than traditional interior design. We’ve taken the end user out of it and are now focusing on creating a really great first impression for a potential home buyer. A staged home usually has furniture that’s a little undersized, the walls usually have less hanging on them. But what it does, is it allows people to visualize their future and the potential a home might have.
A Collaborative Process
What I love about staging is it’s a collaborative process. We all work together as a team. The realtor, my own staging team, and the seller, we all come together to bring out the best in a home before we sell it. Staging allows the seller to close the door on an old chapter and open the door on a new one, feeling confident and ready for whatever the future may hold.
Kayley Danielson is Niche Homes in-house interior designer. Read more of Kayley’s design advice or follow her on Instagram.
Niche Homes is a boutique real estate agency specializing in the neighborhoods and enclaves of the Wasatch Front. Contact us if you are interested in buying, selling or moving to Salt Lake. Learn more about Niche Homes all-inclusive staging and view our current listings.
