for you. Ask questions about how they work out their rates, how long they will take, what you can do on your end to keep the costs down, how many homes they’ve staged, and whether they’ll expect anything from you during the process. Remember, they are staging professionals. Not agents. Not bankers. However, they do need to know enough about real estate to understand that their job is to increase a home’s salability. Their job is to make your home as appealing as possible to potential buyers, so they won’t (and shouldn’t) talk to you about negotiating pricing with those buyers. Once the staging’s done, make sure to get in and dust regularly. Real staging pros should make you feel confident about the quality of their work. If you have any negative internal reaction during your initial consultation, run in the other direction and find someone you can trust.
DIY TIPS
If you choose to stage yourself, the Internet as a whole — and Pinterest in particular — has become a great online resource for creative projects. If you find out that you have enough furniture but just need to embellish a bit more, here are some ideas: • Brighten it up. Do you have a “sad” paint color in any or all of rooms? Is the house monochromatic? Consider repainting rooms according to their purpose, such as using soft neutrals, like mild yellows or creams that set off a glow when the sun shines in the dining room. Add an accent wall in the living room by choosing a complementary color such as a calming sage green or a deep red against taupe walls. Whatever you do, make the home welcoming through appropriate color.
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