Staging & Real Estate Merchandising:  Involves preparing your home (or business) and getting it ready to be placed on the market so it can be sold for top dollar and in the least amount of time possible. 

Although staging can be done at anytime, the ideal situation is when our clients contact us before they list in the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) or put their home up for sale.  This gives you and your real estate agent the ability to do the competitive market analysis (CMA) and to take into account the upgrades that staging and merchandising your home will contribute to the overall value of your property.  Staging and putting your merchandising in place
before your home goes on the market for sale also allows you to have your home ready to go before people start looking at it.  This is much more important than you may think!   Remember - the longer your home is on the market, not showing at it's maximum potential, the greater the number of people who are going to see it, and, in all probability, never come back again.  No matter what you do to improve your home's appearance, it's feel, and the overall impression that it makes - after a person has already viewed your home, if they didn't like it the first time around, that's it, you've lost a buyer.  Once you've lost a prospective buyer, you will never, or very seldom ever get a

second chance.  Why throw away potential buyers if you don't have to?

In the top photo above, you can easily see that this home, without staging, does not even come remotely close to showing at it's maximum potential.  Even after you clean up, without furnishings and proper merchandising and staging, this is the equivalent of showing your home "naked"!  In the top photo, there is nothing to excite, to motivate, or to stimulate your buyer to take a positive action to make an offer and to buy.  Equally as bad - there is nothing to create emotional value, and to create an attachment to the home in the hearts and in the minds of your prospective buyers.  Potential buyers are unable to effectively imagine themselves actually living in the space.  In the retail world; this would be the equivalent to a shopper walking into a major store that was completely empty, void of shelves and void of actual products, with nothing on display, with the exception of a single, lone, catalog laying in the middle of the floor!  Retailers realize that this approach would yield them few, if any sales.  So then, why in the world would you want to do this with your home?

Lets be brutally honest here - placing a home on the market for sale, void of being properly merchandised and staged, is one of the dumbest things you could ever do in your efforts to sell your home; especially in the current Real Estate market!  This is especially true, given that your home is most likely the single largest and most significant asset and investment that you currently own, or ever will own.  If it's not the largest, then it's certainly right up there at the top of the list, right?

When Million Dollar Stagers prepares your home for public presentation, we create a "Model Home" environment.  And we don't just simply stage your home, we strategize everything that we do.  We target the correct demographic buyer market, and then we design and stage accordingly.  We do this so that when your property hits the MLS, your home will have the greatest chance to sell as easily and as quickly as possible, and it will be positioned for the best return on your investment.  This means de-personalizing, de-cluttering and re-arranging your existing furnishings, if you home is occupied.  For occupied homes, this may also include bringing in some additional furnishings, as needed.  Sometimes, it can even mean a few repairs, or perhaps some remodeling.  If your home is vacant, we will be starting out from scratch, and we will be providing literally everything that you need.  We will be bringing in all of the needed furniture, and accessories & artwork.  We will also be creating focal points that will enhance and bring out your property's best and most important features, and we'll be addressing issues such as color and lighting, and more. 

The fundamental goal of our staging efforts is always to create a home presentation that will allow you to realize the maximum possible selling price for your property, and to achieve a sale as FAST, as EASILY, and as PROFITABLY as possible.  Our Professional Million Dollar Stagers are Experts at doing this.

How We Work: We start with an evaluation that begins as the potential buyer first enters into your neighborhood.  At your home, we evaluate for curb appeal.  We assess your home from every angle: the view from the street, every room in your home, the lanai, the yard, even the closets and the garage!  We will make notes of everything that needs to be done.  We also take pictures and document everything before the project begins.  Next comes the brainstorming and planning sessions.  This is where the real creativity and strategizing begins.  If we find areas where repairs or upgrades need to be made, which would effect the marketing and presentation of your home, we will make recommendations as to what repairs and or upgrades are needed.  We are not painters, plumbers, electricians or landscapers, but we can recommend, or possibly even sub-contract out to and coordinate with others who can help in these areas if this kind of work is necessary. 

If we get started early enough along in your project, we may even be able to help you in ways that will improve the physical as well as the psychological value that staging and merchandising can add to your home.  After our initial evaluation, we will provide all of the needed accessory items for your home.  We will be using some accessories from our existing inventory, and we will make custom purchases for those items that we do not already have but that are needed.  The use of accessories are usually included in the staging fees that we quote you, for a period of up to 90 days.  After 90 Days, our accessories are rented to you on a monthly basis if your home has not yet sold.  But keep in mind - most homes that are staged, and especially homes that are also "merchandised", do sell within this time. 

We will also shop for furniture.  We will select the furniture that is needed and make arrangements for delivery.  Furniture is either rented, or purchased, depending on your home and it's specific needs.  The first month of furniture rental fees are usually included in your staging plan, if we are using rental furniture.  Starting in the 2nd month (if your home is still on the market) monthly furniture rental fees will be charged to you by the furniture rental company directly.  Again - our staging fees only include the first month furniture rental and you are responsible for rental fees beyond that point.  Occasionally, we are able to obtain discounts on furniture rental. Occasionally, we may even be able to secure some furniture on consignment, in return for putting out business cards for the supplying furniture company.  Sometimes we are able to do this with art-work too.  This can be a win/win for everyone, when we are able to do this, and it can save you money.

Staging Day(s):  On the scheduled delivery day, we will bring accessories to your home and we will meet the furniture delivery people.  We will arrange all of the furniture, hang artwork, place plants and knickknacks throughout your home, deal with lighting issues, and we will take care of everything that needs to be done as it relates to staging (preparing your home to hit the market looking it's absolute best).  We will complete arrangements in key areas of your home to create an environment that is inviting and that encourages prospective buyers to linger longer and to visualize and even fantasize living there.  We focus on the architectural features and selling points of your home and not just the contents.  We will address lifestyle as well, by creating special design displays throughout your home.  This is very important for the merchandising element of the work that we do.  One of our primary objectives is to style your house or condo to appeal to a broad, but accurate and properly targeted market.  Unlike "Traditional Home Staging", which targets as broad of a market as possible, our professional Real Estate Merchandising team will zero in and focus on the correct specific market segment that your home needs to appeal to, according to it's location and the demographics of the typical buyer for properties in your neighborhood.  Only a trained and experienced Real Estate Merchandising Specialist can do this and successfully integrate it into the staging of your home.

Time Required:  This work can take anywhere from one day to several days, or even several weeks, depending on the value and size of your home, as well as depending on schedules and the amount of work that needs to be done.  One thing that we try our best to NOT do is to rush the work, or to handicap the outcome by focusing on the "design on a dime" concept / approach.  Our philosophy is that the specter of services that we provide mandates a great deal of creative talent, and that creativity is an evolving process that requires time to unfold properly.  We also believe that quality work necessitates correctly addressing what honestly "needs" to be done to stage and merchandise a home (or other type of property).  One of our goals is to achieve maximum effectiveness in the Staging & Merchandising work that we do.  We do everything possible to save on expenses and to work within the clients budget and time constraints, but we also try to balance costs with the true needs of a home from a Merchandising / Marketing / Staging, and Return on Investment perspective.  Keeping in mind that the entire purpose for the work that we will be doing is to sell a property - our focus is on getting the job done right, and on doing it the right way the first time around! 

 If the home is occupied, it usually takes longer to do the work, as opposed to a vacant property.  We can help with de-cluttering, packing and putting things away, and possibly even help with moving some of your smaller items into storage, if necessary.  We are not a moving company, and this part of our service is limited, but we will try to help as much as possible in this respect.  If your property is vacant, we will start fresh, from scratch, and fully furnish, accessorize and decorate so it will have the look and feel of a lived-in, inviting, alluring home that radiates a fabulous first impression and feeling that potential buyers will not forget. 

Destaging:  Finally, once your home is sold, we will come back and "De-Stage".  This includes making arrangements and doing the actual work for whatever is necessary; such as furniture rental pickup, removal of staging accessories, cleaning up after ourselves, and preparing the home to be occupied by its new owners at closing. 

Cost:  Our Real Estate Merchandising and Home Staging Services are now priced at a fixed rate.  This will make the process of calculating your cost much, much faster, easier, and simpler for both us, and for you.

We now charge a flat one-time Merchandising and Design / Home Staging Fee of 0.925% of the homes listing price for homes listed below $1 Million.  For Homes listed at or above $ 1 Million, our fee is 0.825%.  Our fees are calculated based on listing price as of the time we enter into a contract with you.  All labor, design fees, accessory items and art work for your home are included in this fee for the entire time you home is on the market for sale.  Furniture, if needed, is an additional cost.  Some properties may not even need furniture, some properties will be appropriate for rental furniture, and other properties may need to have furniture purchased.  For homes listed at $1 Million and above, some or all furniture rental may be INCLUDED in the fixed fees shown above - depending upon your homes exact, specific needs.  We DO NOT make ANY money from either the rental or the sale of furniture.  This is the reason why we separate our design and merchandising / staging fees from furniture costs.   More information about Furniture Here

Watch a Home Being Staged.  See what this pricing plan can buy for your home with the services of Million Dollar Stagers!  (NOTE: at the end of the show, you will see the homes listing price, staging cost, and the home sellers profit that was actually gained from the staging project! - Now, after watching this, don't you agree that the price was well worth  the Staging Investment?

HGTV - The Stagers Full Episode

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