4 Challenges staging your home
Kala Callahan of Addressed to Sell in Wilmette, Ill., and Lori Matzke of Center Stage Home in Minneapolis share their biggest staging headaches and tell you how to make them go away.
How to Overcome 4 Common Staging Challenges
Challenge 1: Owners don’t want to change their decor. “You can’t force them to do it. You have to show them the value,” Matzke says. To make sellers more open to staging, present it as a service you do for every client. That is, you’re not singling them out. “I use myself as an example,” Matzke says. “I tell them I’d also have to remove art from my house to sell it so that the listing would appeal to the masses.” Adds Callahan: “Let sellers know you need to protect grandma’s antique bureau by putting it in storage so that nothing happens to it.”
Challenge 2: The listing has languished on the market for months before the owner or salesperson calls a stager. “Stage the house right before it’s listed,” Matzke says. Otherwise, it may lose its selling momentum.