How To Choose A Home Staging Consultant & Interior Redesigner

So you've looked around your home, looked at your timeframe to sell and realistically looked at what resources & skills you have to get your home ready to sell. And you have realised that you need to find a home & property stager or interior redesigner to help you.

Selling Your Home?

Don't Leave Money
On The Table
Prepare your home to sell for more, faster!
Home Staging Handbook

You've seen the tv shows where the House Doctor waves her magic wand, the house doctor team whirl in and whirl out leaving a greatly improved property.

But what do you do if you can't entice the House Doctor to come to you and makeover your home?

Well take a quick look at the internet and type Home Staging or house doctors into the search box, you will literally find hundreds of results.

So how do you go about choosing a reputable and effective home staging consultant from a dodgy get-rich-quick merchant or a someone who just wants to dabble in interiors?

Here are my top tips to choosing and using a good home staging consultant who will get you the results you desire... a fast sale at a good price.

'Start with a pen and paper'

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Tip 1: Know what it is you want/ need to achieve!

This may sound obvious... 'Sell your home' but take a look at your property realistically.
I always recommend that you start with a pen and paper. Walk through your property making some notes of the obvious things that you think may need doing.
A good friend or even a friendly Estate Agent could help you to identify problem areas.

Tip 2: Decide realistically what the scope of the work is.

You just need a wash & brush up.
You need a little bit more in the way of painting & decorating.
You need a complete overhaul.

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Tip 3: Be realistic about your own strengths & weaknesses:

'What am I really capable of doing ?
What money do I have?
What's my time-frame?'

With this 'clearer picture' in mind you can also take a realistic view at your own resource:

How much times do you have to give the project?
What skills do you have to complete the work?
What money do you have to put into the process?
What is the timeframe? Sell by next year or next month!

It may be that although you do have the skills 'time' is the issue

You have the skills and the time but limited resources... you are considering doing the work yourself.

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Tip 4: Now we come to those Home Staging Consultants

'Do they sound 'interested' in you and the project?'

Don't just choose to call the ones with the most attractive website:

Who are these consultants?
Where did they train or learn their skills?
Have you heard of this training?
Do they show a portfolio of case studies of their work?
Do you think that their 'before ' & 'after' pictures make a difference?
Do they show client endorsements?
Have they been in business long?
Track record?
Do they give you information on how they charge/ organise their work/ produce reports?
Did they sound interested in you and your project?
Did they ask relevant questions?
- "how long has your property been on the market"
- "what size of property is it"
- "What feedback have you had from the estate agents/ potential buyers?"
- "What are other properties selling for?
- Is yours realistically priced?"
- "Does your area draw a certain type of buyer? Family/ first time/ retired?"
- "Does your property seem likely to appeal to that buyer?"

There are many other questions that you could be asked but all demonstrate a basic understanding of the process of gauging a new property and it's issues.

You should be getting a 'feel' of the way that the Home Staging Consultant works.

Using the information from 1,2 & 3 you can work out whether you are looking for someone who can:

Prepare the report to tell you what to do - and you do the work
Prepare a report and carry out some of the work for you.
Completely manage the whole process from report through to sale of property.

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Tip 5: A good consultant will give you advice & ideas before you pay anything:

Look at their website, look at their brochure or listen to their conversation... are they confident that they can help you, are they already talking positively about the project, have they looked at the photos that may be on the estate agents website?

Those consultants who are confident wont be afraid of giving you ideas and advice for nothing... they know that because they do and sound confident, you can trust them!

Useful Resources

The Property Coach Directory

www.stagingdiva.com - Debra Gould the 'Staging Diva' has a network of home staging consultants to call on.
www.housedoctor.co.uk - Ann Maurice, tv's House Doctor has a network of house doctor trained home staiging consultants.
www.homestagingconsultants.co.uk - independant network of consultants run by Anita Kenna
www.homestagers.co.uk - Tina Jesson runs 'Home Stagers' a franchise of home staging consultantants.
www.stagedhomes.com - Barb Scwarz 'The original home stager' and her network of ASP stagers.

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Why not send me your article and I'll post it on the website with your name and website link.

There are loads of good ideas on how to 'Use What You've Got' or buy and use second hand furniture and furnishings in The Property Coach 'Home Staging Handbook'.