A Journey Through Staging a Home: Before & After

Ever wondered what goes into staging a home? Been curious what the process looks like behind the scenes and how a project comes together?

Megan and the MHM team have pulled back the curtain in a video, A Journey Through Home Staging, by inviting you to follow one of their many home staging projects. In the video, you’ll get to experience what it’s like to take an empty home and transform it for the market. Some people might look at the property in the video, which is a brand new house with upgrades, and assume it’s an easy sell. Why would it need staging when it’s already beautiful? The truth is, the purpose of home staging isn’t just about making the home look prettier.

The primary benefits of staging are:

• To make an empty home feel warmer and more inviting
• To take the guesswork out of room sizes and furniture arrangement
• To make it stand out from the competition

When buyers walk into a house, it can be hard for many of them to envision what it could look like with their own furnishings in it. This is especially difficult with an empty house because rooms can appear much smaller than they actually are without furniture to illustrate the true scale of it. In awkward spaces, such as an open concept layout, buyers can get even more confused by how to make use of the space.

Megan, the CEO and Founder of MHM Professional Staging says, “People want an open floor plan but they often don’t know how to put furniture in it, so staging gives them an idea of how to use the space.” You never want them to wonder how they would make it work with their own furniture and get overwhelmed by the idea that it may be impossible to do. Taking these questions out of the equation gives keeps the doubt out of your buyers’ minds, letting them focus on the positive features of the home instead. You’ll see a great example in the video when Megan stages the floating living room in the house’s open concept layout.

As you’ll see, there is a lot more to home staging than placing out a few pretty things. There is actually a lot of careful planning and details that go into making a home ready for showings. We always start by thinking about the psychology of buyers. What is most important to them in a home? How do they want to feel when they are house hunting and looking for the right place to call home? Every house is unique, so staging isn’t a “one size fits all” deal. We aim to bring out the unique elements of every space so the buyers will notice the selling features as soon as they walk in.

The biggest goal is to create that emotional connection that will inspire buyers to put in an offer. You don’t want buyers to walk in and think of your listing as “just another home.” That disconnect will not translate to offers. But if you can make buyers feel warm and inspired while touring your property, it will not only help it stand out from the competition, but you will also get more bids and higher offers. Feelings are powerful!

Watch A Journey Through Home Staging to see firsthand what happens when an empty home is transformed by home staging.