Leave it to the Pros: The Perks of Professional Staging

by Allie Moffett

When selling your home, it’s important to help potential buyers visualize themselves in the home. Where they will gather for holidays, prepare coffee in the morning, and unwind at night. It can, however, be hard to view your own space objectively. Cue the professionals!

“Staging can be a key factor in the success of your marketing plan when selling your home,” shared Kelli Bastin, Bond Real Estate broker. “Professional Staging reports that a professionally staged home spends 73% less time on the market compared to those without staging.”

What does professional staging entail? Bastin partners with Whitney Vredenburgh of Nested Spaces to stage her listings.

“Initially, we visit the property before creating our home staging plan. We discuss buyer demographic, list price and the overall aesthetic we want to achieve. Kelli and I work together to outline a punch list of additional work need to make the house market ready as what rooms we suggest staging ,” says Vredenburgh.

“From there, we talk through each room’s design and how we want it to function. We then pull pieces from our warehouse and bring our moving and staging team in. Voila! Like magic, the house is market ready.”

If homeowners only want to stage a few rooms, Vredenburgh suggests focusing on the main living spaces (entryway, dining room, family room and kitchen). Staging the primary suite is an added bonus for buyers.

Bastin always urges her sellers to stage their home, as there is guaranteed ROI. Vredenburgh agreed, saying “The NAR states that if you invest 1-3% of the value of your home into staging, repairs and maintenance, you reap 8-10% in sale price. This is a huge ROI, resulting in tens of thousands of extra dollars for the seller. So it’s something for sellers to consider. Your home is your largest financial asset. When you hire a realtor, you’re using them to help you leverage that.”

If you’re thinking about listing this year, give Kelli a call to discuss a home marketing plan that works best for you.

During the height of the pandemic, when folks were stuck at home, many homeowners took stock of things they would like to change, either through a renovation project or the next time they built a house. Unfortunately, COVID caused havoc with the supply chain, and for two years companies like Ferguson were unable to display the latest and greatest products in their showroom. Thankfully, that has all changed!

“Coming out of that time period, we have focused on really touching and updating every corner of our showroom,” says Jeremy Konechne, Indiana Area Residential Sales Manager at Ferguson.

They have refurbished and updated both of their “working kitchens” on the floor. They utilize these kitchens to hold quarterly events as well as various cooking demonstrations throughout the year. These kitchens include four appliance vendors, and all products are “live,” which means that customers are welcome to come in and use them in order to test out the package they are purchasing.

“People will pop in with their cookie dough and a cookie sheet and test out a Wolf oven,” says Konechne. “With appliances becoming more technical, it’s good for customers to be able to touch and feel appliances because otherwise you’ll get something installed and then realize that you don’t like the controls. There’s not much you can do about it at that point.”

Ferguson is adding more style vignettes into the showroom than they have had in the past. For example, there will be two vignettes of just a bathroom wall – a completed wall with a sink, toilet, accessories, and lighting – and then an inspiration wall for customers to get a full picture of what a product looks like.

Ferguson, this year’s platinum sponsor of the inaugural Women Build It conference, is also adding more contemporary and modern lighting to the floor of their showroom – particularly larger fixtures and multi-pendant fixtures, both of which are trending.

In addition, they are getting ready to add a 2,500 sq. ft. complete cabinetry selection center to the showroom, which will have the latest programming to give customers a highly realistic image of what their kitchen will look like.

“With that 20/20 programming, it almost looks like a picture,” says

Konechne. “This will enable us to sit down with the client and show them the finalized lifelike product. We can download the countertops you’re using, select whatever lighting you’ve chosen, and really give you the full view of what your new kitchen or bathroom will look like.”

If you’re eager to check out all the new lighting, cabinetry, kitchen, and bathroom options, stop by Ferguson’s newly renovated showroom today. And bring your cookie dough with you! Browsing and baking in the same trip – you can’t beat that! Plus, you’ll head home with freshly baked goodies. That’s a win/win!