The Grace & Co. Staging Experience
People lead busy lives, and the increased cost of borrowing money to update the home you have just purchased is driving home buyers further towards falling in love with homes that they see as turnkey.
At Grace & Co., we understand that. When we assist our sellers by providing their potential buyers with that experience, we sell their homes quickly and for more money – just what most sellers want!
Our listing agent and staging team put together a tailored plan for each of our clients’ homes. Sometimes the only requirement is a thorough declutter; other times, as with this home, we are replacing some of the client’s art and furniture with our inventory. Sometimes our clients have already moved, and they give us their property vacant, so we stage it from top to bottom.
There are two main goals when staging your property:
Firstly, our team wants to ensure that every room in your home is utilized to its full potential. Often, a bedroom is used as a den or home office, but to maximize saleability, we always prefer to transform that space back into a bedroom. During COVID, for example, we looked at how people’s interaction with their homes was forced to change, so we began looking for ways to showcase an area in the home for a workout as well as a convenient space to work from home.
Secondly, we want to ensure that a buyer falls in love within the first seven seconds of browsing your home online to increase the chances they will book an in-person viewing. Real estate purchases are often led by the heart, not the head, so we want the furnishings to complement or elevate your space. When looking for top dollar for your home, you need to provide an experience similar to a new home sales centre – a clean, well-lit space with furnishings, art and accessories that could be from your buyer’s favourite shop and even some subtle music playing in the background! It’s not enough for a buyer to like your home; they must fall in love with it.
This issue’s featured staging is of a detached home just east of the Beach – in the Hunt Club. More than 14 years after helping our clients sell their Beach home and purchase this one, the benefits of condo living were growing stronger, and it was time to help them sell their home.
We discussed the return on investment that our Designed to Sell program could bring them. A fresh coat of white paint, updated light fixtures, and painting the kitchen and bathroom millwork along with new stone counters would transform the space and increase what they could realize for the home. But since the home had already doubled in value since they bought it, they were satisfied with the current value and opted to focus on just staging.
In the living room, the placement of their furniture was perfect, but while the oversized leather sofa and club chairs were extremely comfortable, they crowded the room, absorbed the natural light flowing in from the bay window, and felt dated. When the team was done, a tailored light grey sofa, two bouclé occasional chairs, a bright area rug, an airy marble table, and fresh accessories transformed the space. The room immediately felt brighter and more spacious!
At the front door, a console table was brought in and dressed while a pouf was added for the functionality of sitting to tie/untie your shoes. At the rear of the home, a small family room housed both an outdoor wicker loveseat and a workstation. Both were removed to accommodate a more comfortable sofa, given there were already two work-from-home setups in the basement, and an area rug was put down to keep your toes warm on the tile floor.
The primary bedroom in this home featured a sitting area with a fireplace. By removing the dresser and updating the furniture set to match the new living room, we made the room feel larger and ensured a cohesive feel throughout the home.
Our clients were thrilled with how their home looked and even more thrilled with the result we achieved for them. One of their neighbours had sold the week before, with six competing offers. We secured nine buyers for their home and beat that last sale by $110,000! And that neighbouring sale that they were worried might drag down their value… we beat it by nearly $350,000!!
At Grace & Co., we realize that home décor is akin to fashion. Each season brings new styles and trends. And furniture, like clothing, can dip in and out of style every few years. Homeowners cannot be expected to keep up with popular colours and the latest design innovations. But, with the help of our staging team, you can update the style in your home with ease and at no cost. At no cost, we style your home with the furniture, art and accessories found on the pages of your favourite interior design magazines, making each one of our clients’ homes magazine-worthy.
Sometimes, our clients don’t need, or want, staging, and that’s totally fine with us. Staging isn’t a requirement to hire Grace & Co. But, if you would like to explore how our team can transform your home to help you achieve top dollar in as short a time period as possible, drop by our office at Queen & Wheeler, give us a call at (416) 699-9295, or email [email protected].
To view more of our before and after galleries, visit gracehomes.com/staging