Accredited Staging Professional (ASP) Designation

Home Staging has become very popular in the real estate industry in recent years.  Thanks to HGTV and other design/decorating TV shows, more and more homeowners recognize the importance of home staging.  In fact, home staging started around the 1970s but it was not until the 1990s when it really grew in popularity.  In today’s market, the homes that have been staged sell faster and for more money than those that have not been staged.  However, not every seller has the budget for Professional Staging but I still want to find a way to help them to get top-dollar for their home.

Home staging is not like the model home in a brand new house or condo community.  Home staging is a marketing tool and a necessary step taken prior to putting a house on the market for sale by de-cluttering, depersonalizing, rearrange furniture, re-accessorizing and making it smell better while homeowners are still living in the house (or by renting furniture for vacant homes).  Staging works, because it helps buyers to visualize what can actually be done with the place.

Therefore, I signed up for an Accredited Staging Professional (ASP) for Realtor class with the intent to serve my clients better.  The class was taught by Barb Schwarz, the creator of Staged Home.  Barb has been featured on 20/20, the Today Show, ABC, CBS, FOX 8, etc and she also written several books on Home Staging.  Many people think staging is about remodeling or re-decorating which is personalizing the home, but it is not.  The key to staging is to de-personalize by taking down family photos, personal collections, awards, certificates, etc, and redefine the purpose of each room by rearranging furniture.

Depending on your budget, sellers can hire a Realtor who has an ASP Designation to provide you with a DIY staging plan to save money or you can hire an ASP Stager to stage your house for you. 

Who doesn’t like to see a house that looks like a model home?  As a Realtor, I love to show staged homes to my clients because it feels good to walk in the house and it helps my clients to see how they can live in the house where each room has a clear function.  Since you don’t get a chance to have a first impression twice, how a house looks is a very important key to getting the house sold.  The National average shows that price reduction range from 5-10% when a house is not selling, so it would be better for a seller to invest that money in staging before the home comes on the market to see it is sold more quickly.   

Home is the biggest investment in most people’s life and a car is the second biggest investment.  Most of us would invest some time and money to detail our car before we put it on the market for sale.  So why wouldn’t we invest some time and money to detail our house before the sale??  Think about this for a second, most of buyers today are looking for houses through the Internet first.  They look at the photos online first to decide if they want to go to see that house.  If the house isn’t staged, and combine that with the fact that most Realtors don’t know much about proper photographic techniques, what do you think the chances are that you’re home is making a good first impression?

If you can’t get buyers in the door, you are not going to sell the house.

(Photo courtesy of StagedHome.com) 

Comments

[Sabrina]

Hi Rachel,

Thank you to being the first one left me an message. I truly believe that every house should be staged before put it on the market because it looks a lot better. I am also glad that more people know about staging that help my job as a Realtor much easier too.

I have checked out your blog, very nice.

However, I have a few suggestions to you if I may:

- In your "About Me", there is no contact information. I couldn't find a way to contact you because there is no phone number, no email, no mailing address. Also, I would like to know where is your serving area/cities.

- You are a ASP member, and people want to know about it (I do). So you might want to insert a ASP logo in the front page and About page for people to see.

- As a client (Realtor is your client), I would like to see your work. So create a album with all your before & after photos would be a big help.

I wish your business grow as fast as bamboo. :)

[Rachel - www.stagedmakeovers.com]

Great before and after pictures. Staging makes a huge difference when selling a home. I am glad that it is getting more well known by the public. It makes our jobs as stagers much easier!