Emma Vargas, Simply Staging

I don't have a problem with doing a "light" staging in a vacant home. It is not a less quality staging as long as it is done correctly and it can be a much more affordable option for those sellers that don't have the budget to do a "full or complete staging".

I always say, doing something is better than doing nothing at all. I'll work within most budgets and will never say no to someone who says that they can't afford a full staging, but want to do something. Why should we turn anyone away? My objective is to help people sell their homes - period.

Plus, my "light stagings" have been very effective. I use quality pieces and add my creative talents in making a house look good. I've had much success with selling homes that have had only vignettes and smaller furniture pieces from my own inventory. If it didn't work, then I wouldn't do it, but my experience has shown that it works just as well, especially when staging a smaller sized home. I would not recommend "light staging" for larger, higher-end homes, it just won't work. A small vignette will get lost in a large room, and in a high-end home, the buyer will expect to see higher-end furnishings.

With people spending less money these days, it's an option that I like to offer. Here are some money saving ideas for keeping the staging "light" and costs low for smaller budgets.

• A Queen blow-up air mattress in the master bedroom or guest bedroom
  • Buy a good mattress that guarantees no leakage
  • Use high-end bedding, king size to cover mattress completely, looks pretty good and most can't tell the difference
  • I always put a large sign on the bed to let people know that the bed is for display only and not for sitting
  • Cuts down on delivery cost of having a real mattress delivered
• Rather than using a real headboard, hang metal art above the bed
  • Use large metal art that spans the width of the mattress
  • Looks great and cost savings compared to a real bed are significant

• Decorator tables made of plywood with screw on legs
  • Cover with beautiful, complimentary colored fabrics to go with a room's theme
• Use ottoman/s as a coffee table
  • 2 Cube or 1 bench Ottoman are usually less expensive than using a real coffee table
  • Is a very popular design trend that buyers love
  • Ottomans are versatile and can be used as a coffee table, at the foot of a bed, with a reading chair (as an ottoman) - great to have a few in a stager's inventory
• In a kitchen nook, use a small table and 2 chairs only
  • Can be just as effective as using a larger table with 4 chairs

• Instead of a complete sofa and love seat set in a living room, use a standard sofa and a matching large reading chair
  • After adding an area rug, a coffee table and two end tables, the look can be just as affective
• Apartment sofas are much smaller than the standard sofa and work well in a smaller room.
  • Are less expensive and appeal to a more contemporary/transitional crowd
  • Works well when marketing a home to younger couples

• Butlers Tray Tables make beautiful accent tables
  • Can be less expensive than end tables or night stands
  • Fold-up nicely and are easy to store, make a great addition to any staging inventory
• Pillow Covers
  • If you're like me and love pillows, keep a good supply of pillow covers and less pillows
  • Covers are less expensive than buying a pillow, they come in a variety of colors and designs
  • Best of all, they take up less space than pillows, so less storage costs
  • If you're handy with a sewing machine, this option is even less expensive and the sky's the limit when it comes to styles
• Fabric art work - Use picture frames or stretch frames to make these.
  • Buy a couple of yards of elegant fabric with large, interesting print
  • Cover picture frame backing with fabric or stretch fabric on frames.
  • Hang 3 or more matching frames with matching or complementary fabric to make a bold art statement at a low cost

These are all low cost alternatives that I've used in the past and still use for the smaller budget staging jobs. I hope I gave some of you some creative ideas that you can use. If you have any of your own, please share with the rest of us, I'd love to hear your creative solutions to low-cost vacant stagings.

I love, love, love my magazines and get lots of creative ideas from them. Here's one that stood out as one that I couldn't wait to try, it was easy, it was fun and can be used again and again for stagers. Use a closet door as a headboard.

When the seller's budget is tight, and we've all been there before, and there isn't enough to rent a real bed with a headboard or paint a room, this is a great alternative for adding drama and color.

Here's what you need:

• One or two old hollow closet doors, make sure you use the side that doesn't have a hole for the handle, use the smooth side. It should be hollow because we need it to be easy to carry and hollow doors are very lightweight.
• Paint the door with your color of choice, preferably one that coordinates well with the colors to be used in the bedroom. A quart of paint from your local hardware store is all you need for 2 to 3 doors. Use a high-gloss to protect the paint since you will be moving it around a lot. Or use a flat paint and then a sealer.
• Get creative and paint stripes or coordinating color blocks, my first attempt was a basic one color and it turned out pretty nice. I think my next project will include a more dramatic color scheme which will surely add drama and sophistication to a room.

See for yourself, for this project I used two different sized closet doors for a little interest. I hung these on the wall for greater height, but you could also just rest them on the ground and lean them up against the wall or just use one door and hang it horizontally for a more traditional looking headboard. I spent about $40 total for paint and the 2 doors. This was for a guest bedroom and the colors gave the room a very romantic feel. (Can you tell I used an air mattress? Be honest.)

Where did I get the closet doors? I go to my local Habitat for Humanity ReStore (check out this link for stores in the Sacramento and El Dorado County areas) to get great 2nd hand building materials and miscellaneous goodies for my projects. It's a win-win because I'm helping my local community and recycling materials. If you haven't tried a 2nd hand building material store yet, check your local listings to see if you have a Restore near you, you won't regret it. The prices are great too!

"Habitat for Humanity ReStores are building supply stores that accept and resells quality new and used building materials. They generate funds to support Habitat's building programs, while reducing the amount of used materials that are headed for overflowing landfills! They are an environmentally friendly store that makes sense!"

I'd love to hear from anyone else who's tried this or has other creative headboard ideas to try. Please share your pictures with us too.

Simply Staging has been offering Home Staging Solutions for both the "Vacant" and the "Not So Vacant" homes in El Dorado County and The Greater Sacramento area for more than 3 years. For a free proposal, give us a call at (530) 417-1337 and see what it takes to get your home "Sell Ready".

This is a classic example of how some good old fashioned elbow grease, can transform an outdated house into one amazing home - and without having to spend a lot of money doing it.

Several months ago, I received a call from an ASP Real Estate Agent to provide a Consultation for an upcoming listing. I try to get as much background information from the agent first so that I know what I'm walking into. The agent said that the house was nice, well maintained, in a good neighborhood, but it was old and needed a lot of updating. In addition, the homeowners wanted to sell at the higher-end of the price range, but of course - they had a relatively small budget for updates. I love a challenge, so I said "bring it on!"

Fortunately, the kitchen had been recently updated and it looked pretty fantastic. Overall the home had been lovingly maintained and it showed, the sellers had great furnishings to work with too, but all the love in the world couldn't hide how outdated the bathrooms were and how dark the house looked and how empty the living room was. The old oak trim and oak cabinets throughout the house gave away the home's almost 30 years of age and made it very, very dark inside.

There was a $1,000 budget set aside for any updates and the staging costs, not very big at all when considering what needed to be done. The good news was that the sellers were willing to do whatever it took as long as it was within the budget.

The RE Agent knew that the house was going to have to look amazing to get the top dollar that the sellers so desperately wanted. Did I mention that they'd already bought their new house? So they needed to sell fast to avoid the two mortgage problem. Calling in a Stager to determine what changes will bring in the biggest bang for your buck, is definitely a wise investment.

The Staging Consultation recommendations included minor, low cost changes, but there were many of them and three larger projects that would require some hard labor, a little know how, and not a lot of money. The bigger projects included: 1) Painting the oak trim and cabinet's white. 2) Changing the shiny, brass light and bathroom fixtures to something a little more modern, like brushed nickel and 3) Adding living room furniture to the living room area to provide a good first impression.

These changes were not very costly, the painting was time consuming, but fairly simple to do, and made huge impacts thoughout. This is a before and after view of the cabinets - what a difference! Oak is no longer attractive to most buyers and a fresh coat of paint was all it took to get this area looking updated and made the hall brighter too.

This is a picture of the updated bathroom, new light fixtures, new water faucets, painted cabinets, new mirrors and updated hardware. Low cost update, new looking bathroom!

The living room was completely empty. The homeowner's never used this room, so they never put anything in it.

This is the after shot of the living room. We didn't use a full sized sofa, but 2 simple reading chairs and rug and some pictures to define the rooms size and add a little warmth. Even with a small budget, the room looked and felt better.

The few pieces of furniture were rented from our inventory and the painted trim & cabinets made the house look brighter, newer and much more modern. The updated fixtures gave the house a fresh look too. Buyers obviously thought so as well because the first open house weekend which was 3 days after completing the 3 big changes, resulted in 3 offers!

3 big changes for not a lot of money, 3 days on the market, 3 offers!

Now the sellers wished they would've done the recommended changes years ago because the house turned out so well and they didn't get to enjoy it for very long!

Simply Staging has been offering Home Staging Solutions for both the "Vacant" and the "Not So Vacant" homes in El Dorado County and The Greater Sacramento area for more than 3 years. For a free proposal, give us a call at (530) 417-1337 and see what it takes to get your home "Sell Ready".

Homeowners, If you plan on selling your home anytime soon, please, please, please - Leave the staging to a professional stager and leave the selling to a professional Real Estate Agent. It could save you lots of time and money in the long run.

Selling a home is not as easy as some people might want to believe it to be, if it were, then there'd be no need for real estate agents, inspectors, mortgage companies, stagers, photographers, pest inspections, etc... We are all experts at what we do and even if you think you know what you're doing, finding out that your wrong during your own home sales transaction could be a very costly mistake.

Staging is indeed not an easy task either, so don't plan on doing it yourself without some professional guidance from an experienced stager. Did you know that most staging companies offer services to help guide you through the staging process so you can do it yourself? And at a cost equivalent to a home inspection?

Here's a true example of how things might turn out:

In this scenario, we have a homeowner, who decided that hiring a Real Estate Agent was the right thing to do before putting her house on the market. Her new agent strongly recommended that the homeowner meet with a staging professional to get some ideas and recommendations on how to properly prepare the home for the market. This is where things start going wrong: The home owner said she didn't need a professional stager because her house was already staged. She had done it herself and gave each room a purpose and made all the necessary changes.

This is a picture of the room before, just a big empty room.

Then after of the homeowner's interpretation of what the empty Living Room should look like staged.

I never did get the opportunity to meet with the homeowner, but was able to view the house while it was on the market and my professional opinion was that it was not properly staged at all. Unfortunately, I watched the house sit on the market for several more months, until the price was finally brought down around $75,000. Only then did the house sell.

I'm amazed at what some people's idea of staging is versus what it really should be. Now, I'm not saying that this is everyone's idea of staging and some of you might even be really good at it - who knows? But do you really want to find out if you're doing it correctly or not on your own house and find out months and $75,000 later that you'd made a mistake?

Simply Staging has been offering Home Staging Solutions for both the "Vacant" and the "Not So Vacant" homes in El Dorado County and The Greater Sacramento area for more than 4 years. For your proposal, give us a call at (530) 417-1337 and see what it takes to get your home "Sell Ready".

Once Upon a Time, about 10 to 15 years ago, in a land called The Greater Sacramento Area, there were many new housing developments popping up all over the place. The "newness" of these homes along with the "lower than average California going rate" made our area very attractive to home buyers all over the California Kingdom. One of the disadvantages of buying a newer track home was that yours would likely be exactly the same as 100's of others in your village.

This is a tale of two track homes with the same exact floor plan, same buyer, same Realtor, very similar lots, "for sale" at the same time... OK, I think you get the point - just about the same everything. There was one difference and I'm sure you've guessed by now what that was, one was staged and the other was not.

We begin our story with the home buyer, they were taken to see the unstaged home first, as they entered, it was the awful smell that struck them first. Kitty litter mixed in with the scent of cheap cologne and a strong, but unpleasant, cover-up air freshener. Next, our buyers notice the walls painted an ogre green (Like Shrek) and brown (like baby poop) and an entry full of stuff, the kitty hair balls everywhere a huge fish tank and wires everwhere. Not a very good first impression. The old hand-me-down furniture, unmade beds, dirty bathrooms and an untidy kitchen through out the rest of the home didn't help improve that impression either. The buyers hated almost everything about it, their words, not mine. This is an actual picture of the home being shown while on the market.

Now onto our second home, the homeowner simply followed their agent's direction to meet with a stager. After they clearly understood the value of home staging, they did almost everything their stager asked; in the end it cost a few paint cans, a storage unit, a few tough weekends, a little inconvenience and a few hundred dollars investment for the staging consultation. Our second home was staged to perfection. Our buyers were welcomed into the home with clean floors, no unpleasant odors, beautifully painted walls and a neutral, but welcoming foyer. Did they want to see the rest of the house? You bet they did.

How do I know? Well, because the Real Estate Agent told me so. At the end of the tour, the buyers were ready to put in an offer on the staged home. Instead of being thrilled that he had finally found a house for his picky buyers, the agent stands there confused.

The Agent: "Don't get me wrong, this is really great news, but why did you tell me that you hated the house and now you want to put in an offer?"

Now it's the buyers turn to be confused. The Buyers: "What do you mean? We love this house! Why else would we want to make an offer?"

The Agent: "Well because you told me on the first house that you hated it and now you want to put in an offer on the same house."

The Buyers: "This isn't the same house as the smelly one."

The Agent: "Yes, it is the same house as the smelly one. It's the same floor plan, same everything! I thought I had mentioned that to you already. Didn't I?"

The Buyers: "Are you kidding me?"

The Agent: "No. I'm not kidding."

The Buyers: "Well, I'll be darned. Now that I think about it, it is the same house. Wow! That's incredible!"

The Agent: "So, do you want to look at the other one again?"

The Buyers: "No. Why would we want to do that for?"

The Agent: "Just in case you want to compare them again now that you know they're the same."

The Buyers: "The only reason we'd want to see that house again is to see how much lower our offer will be because it isn't as nice as this one. But on the other hand, we'll have to do so much work to get it to look as good as this one."

How did the story end you ask? Well, our buyer wanted a move-in ready house and so they offered full price for the staged one.

My agent loves to tell this story because when he does, sellers don't need anymore convincing.

Sure it could have ended with the buyer going for the "smelly" house and my story wouldn't have ended as happily. But don't think for a moment that the homeowner of the unstaged house wouldn't have questioned why his house sold $20,000 to $40,000 below his neighbor's staged house.

The moral of my story: Do your client and yourself a favor, recommend an experienced stager and you too can live happily every after with a client for life. The End

Although these are not pictures of the actual homes described here in the tale, they are actual before and afters of a recently staged home that shows what a difference a few small changes can make. Moving the dresser helped open up the room to make it look bigger from the buyer's perspective.

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Simply Staging has been offering Home Staging Solutions for both the "Vacant" and the "Not So Vacant" homes in El Dorado County and The Greater Sacramento area for more than 4 years. For your proposal, give us a call at (530) 417-1337 and see what it takes to get your home "Sell Ready".