But what if you’ve got 3 kids, 2 dogs and a pet parakeet, and plan to live in your home while it’s on the market? You may think that staging is not an option for you. Now I can understand why you might think that, because there are stagers out there who refuse to work on a home unless it is completely empty and they can start with a “blank slate.”

Though it’s true that it’s easier for stagers to start from scratch so that we don’t have to incorporate your existing furniture with what we may need to bring in, there are home staging professionals (including myself) that actually enjoy working on occupied homes!

In fact, staging occupied homes is one of our specialties, and we offer a low-cost staging option that can give you the look of a staged home for a fraction of the price.

The way that I work with occupied listings is to start with a Home Staging Consultation. During a consultation appointment, I will spend 2-3 hours touring your home and making a detailed, room-by-room written report listing what can be done (using mostly what’s already in your home) to prepare it for sale. This might include rearranging furniture to highlight architectural details or views, de-cluttering, neutralizing the decor, painting or minor repairs.

In most cases, you can take this report, check off everything on my list, and there’s no need for me to ever come back to the property. Sometimes, however, there may be certain items that I recommend that you rent or purchase in order to complete the staging – art, accessories or even furniture. In that case, if you prefer to rent these items (and have no use for them in your new home), a professional stager can provide a quote to rent you the necessary items and set them up, putting the finishing touches on your home to really make it shine.

Here are some before and after photos of my most recent occupied home staging. Which photos would you rather see on the MLS?

Living Room Before

Living Room After

The living room was a simple case of too much furniture. The large settee on the right in the before picture was HUGE and made the room feel tight and cramped. By removing it and spreading out the remaining matching pieces, the room felt more spacious. We also brought in throw pillows and art to tie in the colors in the rug, added a few accessories, decluttered a bit, and voila – a staged room!

Kitchen/Dining Room Before

Kitchen/Dining Room After

Hmmm, what is that big thing hiding in the corner of the dining room in the before photo? Yes, you guessed it – a treadmill. Just the thing to stimulate your appetite while sitting down for a relaxing meal! We removed the treadmill and replaced it with a console table from another room in the house, set the table and now this room is staged and ready for the open house.

Master Bedroom Before

Master Bedroom After

First of all, the master bedroom is supposed to be all about romance and relaxation. But there’s a huge TV blocking the biggest feature in the room – a romantic fireplace! Next we have an overabundance of family photos – a real “no no” when selling your home. You want potential buyers to picture themselves living in your house. If they see you and your family staring at them from every wall, it just doesn’t feel like home. And lastly, having your golf clubs and an extra vacuum in the room makes it seem as if there’s not enough storage space in the garage or laundry area for those items. We removed all those items, relocated the TV and played up the fireplace and seating area with new art and accessories. Now that’s romantic!

Guest Room Before

Guest Room After

Once again, the main problem was too much stuff! Removing all the stuffed animals, the extra end tables, the personal photos and the exercise ball made the room feel not only more spacious, but also more “grown up.” This was a 4 bedroom home, but all the rooms (except the master) appeared very kid-like. We wanted to show that one room could still be a functional guest room or home office. Once all the extras were gone, we simply made the bed and added some art and throw pillows to complete the staging of this room.

Guest Bathroom Before

Guest Bathroom After

All the bathrooms in this home had a matching detail in the tile that was quite lovely. But with all the crazy patterns in the bath rugs and different colors of towels, that feature was being lost. We had the seller buy some solid color matching towels, removed the rugs and toiletries and brought in a nice vase with flowers to complete the look. Now the features of this bathroom can be the star, rather than an afterthought.

So as you can see, staging even an occupied home can have dramatic results. And since we used the seller’s own furnishings and they did some of the work themselves, they saved a bundle!

If you’re going to be living in your home while it’s on the market, call a professional home stager in your area. For a few hundred dollars, you will receive  valuable, practical advice on getting your home staged and ready to sell. Your return on that investment will be many times what you pay, not only in terms of a better sale price for your home, but also in a quicker sale. Less time on the market means lower carrying costs for you and more $$ in your pocket.

Make sure to ask for references and before and after photos from the stagers you interview.

Happy selling!

This may seem like a strange job for a home stager, but I sort of “fell into” this line of work when I was asked to “stage” the common spaces in one of these properties for an inspection (read more about that here). That turned into a wonderful partnership with American Communities, with whom I’ve now worked on four separate projects (Witmer Heights, Carondelet Court, The Hobart and The Ardmore).  Since this type of work is so rewarding, I have been working to expand this part of my business and have now completed two projects with another developer, Abode Communities (Casa Dominguez and now Ivy Terrace).

I have been remiss in posting about Casa Dominguez, which garnered a good amount of attention for being the first LEED platinum certified affordable housing project in LA).

So this will be a 2-for-1 post about both Casa Dominguez and my latest project Ivy Terrace.

Casa Dominguez

For Casa Dominguez, located in East Rancho Dominguez, we were asked to bring in furniture, art and accessories for the entry, reception area and common room. We also furnished several offices and small conference rooms with office furniture and art. Since this was a green building, we went with a theme of natural materials in our use of artwork. Several metal and wood pieces were used (in addition to canvas art) to tie the spaces together.

As residents enter the building, they are greeted with beautiful art and plants.

Entry

The reception area offers comfortable seating in a beautiful surrounding while residents and potential residents wait to speak with management.

Reception Area

Reception Area

Reception Area

The community room offers a space for residents to meet and take part in on-site tutoring and classes.

Community Room

Community Room

Ivy Terrace

We have just completed work on Ivy Terrace in Van Nuys, where we were asked to furnish the reception area, a conference room, computer lab and several offices for management. Our theme for Ivy Terrace was to create the feeling of living in a garden.

As residents wait to speak with the on-site manager, bright reds and floral colors provide a welcoming feeling. Large comfortable chairs provide comfort and style.

Reception Area

For small meetings and classes, residents can take advantage of this bright and cheery conference room.

Conference Room

We couldn’t leave out the people who work here, so we brought in contemporary floral art for all the management offices as well.

Manager's Office

Finally the community room provides an open space for classes, meetings and resident gatherings.

Community Room

We are looking forward to working on many more of these affordable housing projects with these wonderful developers. Nothing could be more rewarding than designing spaces for such a deserving but often overlooked segment of the population.

Disclaimer: Please note that Stage to Sell is not involved with the design or architecture of the buildings themselves, or even – in most cases – picking finishes (with the exception of some paint colors). Stage to Sell chooses furniture, art and accessories only.

Living Room Before

Today it’s a whole different story. Now no buyer could say this space doesn’t exude warmth.

Living Room After

If you are selling a vacant home in Los Angeles, and buyers aren’t biting, call Stage to Sell, your Los Angeles Home Staging Professionals, to add warmth and bring in those offers!

Recently a client called me about Staging his designer decorated 2-bedroom condo in West Hollywood. The catch was that he only needed one bedroom and a patio Staged. The rest of the home had beautiful furniture and looked great. The 2nd bedroom, however, had become a sort of catch-all storage room and lacked the appeal of the rest of the home.

So we brought in a daybed and desk setup, as well as art and accessories, to show buyers how this room could be used as either a guest bedroom and/or a home office. We were even able to use a couple of the seller’s own pieces as accents in the room so he didn’t have to put them in storage.

Here are the before & after photos of this guest room and the small patio we Staged as well.

Guest Bedroom Before

Guest Room After

Patio Before

Patio After

*Did you notice how I said that the “short answer” was yes in the first paragraph above? Well, here’s the fine print… The rental companies I use have a minimum monthly rental amount. So, for instance, if you just needed a sofa and nothing else, we probably wouldn’t be able to Stage it for you (well we could, but you’d still have to pay the monthly minimum even if you only needed 1 piece). However if you need at least two rooms worth of furniture, we can make it work! Incidentally if it’s just a bed that you need, we do carry camping beds that we stack on a frame and dress to make them look like real beds. These are in our own Staging inventory, so we don’t have to go to an outside rental company…hence no minimums!

The townhome had been painted and remodeled, so we had a great canvas to work with! Unfortunately the awkward layout of the living room, a not-so-neutral paint color, and a seemingly unusable loft space above the second bedroom were making it difficult for buyers to fall in love with the home.

Living Room Before

Without furniture, the living room felt tiny. The awkwardly placed fireplace didn’t help. Our first order of business was to make this space feel large enough for a regular living room set so buyers could see themselves entertaining in the space.

Living Room After

Properly scaled furniture made the space feel open and inviting and didn’t shut off views to the dining room. Relocating some installed surround sound speakers in the niche above the fireplace allowed us to put in a 46″ faux plasma TV so buyers could imagine themselves snuggling up in front of the TV for a relaxing evening at home. And with furniture in the space, the built-in wine cabinet didn’t feel like an afterthought.

Master Bedroom Before

This bedroom was fairly large and had beautiful built-in cabinets (not shown), but the purple color on the walls felt a bit too taste-specific for most buyers.

Master Bedroom After

Since there was no budget to paint, we brought in a black, white and silver color scheme to neutralize the space.

Guest Room Before

The guest room was small, mainly because of the spiral staircase that took up a good chunk of the usable space.

Guest Room After

By using a daybed with a smaller footprint, this guest room now feels spacious and functional.

Loft Before

What buyer wouldn’t love to have a bonus room in a 2-bedroom townhome? Unfortunately the sloping ceiling made this room feel like its only possible function could be storage.

Loft After

Luckily Stage to Sell came to the rescue with some properly scaled office furniture that gave this space a whole new lease on life!

Well our hard work has paid off. This townhome is now in escrow with a backup offer!

Congratulations to the owner and Realtors on a quick sale.

“How long did it take for you to know that the last home you purchased was right for you?

and

“Who ‘wears the pants’ in the relationship when it comes to making major financial decisions?”

The results of this survey are important for all Realtors, Stagers and home sellers to understand, so that they can make sure the property they’re selling will appeal to the right audience.

Interesting Finding #1:

“Both men and women are increasingly concerned with having a space to work in their homes.”

At Stage to Sell, we always make sure that homes we Stage have a clear space set aside for a home office. In today’s world everyone (whether they work from home or not) needs a space in their home for a computer to pay the bills, do homework, check email and update their Facebook status! Staging the home to include a work space is especially important when you are selling a small home, which may not have  room for a full office.

This home was just over 900sf and had a tiny room, reachable only by a spiral staircase, in the spare bedroom. Because of the sloped ceiling it ended up looking like a storage area when it was empty. But with the correct furniture this small space is now a big feature!

Interesting Finding #2:

“Women may be inclined to make up their mind more quickly than men …”

Almost 70% of women made up their mind that the house they purchased was “right for them” the first day they walked into the house (versus 62% of men). Thirty two percent of men (versus 23% of women) needed two or more visits to be sure.

This is why it’s so important to create an emotional connection as buyers walk through the home. It’s not just the furniture, but all the small details, that make us (and by us, I mean the women) fall in love with a home. When my company Stages a home, we always have the buyers in mind. We ask the Realtor who the prospective buyer is so we know who we’re trying to appeal to. If it’s a family, we often create an adorable child’s room that will make the mom & dad imagine their own child living in (and loving) the space. If it’s a young professional, we might shoot for a more contemporary vibe, with a high tech home office space. For retirees, we might use a second bedroom as an office, but we’d include a small daybed too, so the grandchildren can spend the night. These are just a few of the subtle ways that we make sure to tug on the buyers’ heartstrings with each home we Stage.

This children's bedroom was designed to make mom imagine her own children living in this home.

Interesting Finding #3:

“Couples say that no one ‘wears the pants in the relationship’ in terms of major financial decisions …”

Close to 70% of respondents said that when it comes to major financial decisions (such as the purchase of a home) it’s a mutual decision.

Now this one surprised me a bit because from what I’ve always heard, women tend to influence the home-purchasing decisions more than men. Of course both have input, but generally women tend to feel more strongly about buying one home versus another, and this is where proper Staging can distinguish one home from another. When comparing two homes, both may have the same square footage and number of bedrooms, the same hardwood floors or granite countertops, but the one that “feels like home” is the one that will get the sale (price being equal of course)! Creating those special details that make a buyer fall in love with a home is what Home Staging is all about.

Staged homes create an emotional connection with buyers

Living Room Before

Do these blinds scream luxury home to you? No, they didn’t to me either. First thing on the list to go: vertical blinds. For budgetary reasons we could not install custom window treatments (especially on the large bay window in the front of the room), but simply removing the dated blinds helped immensely. We used inexpensive tension rods to add drapes to the side windows and left that beautiful bay window free and clear so buyers would be able to see the Observatory when they looked out.

Living Room After

On a side note, there was an issue with buyers having to look at the busy traffic passing by out the bottom half of that front window. Solution? We brought in two ultra-high-back chairs to block the lower half while opening up the beautiful hillside views above.

Bay Window View

As I continued my preview of the home the next thing I noticed was the powder room and its dueling vanities.

Powder Room Before

See that cute built-in vanity? Now granted it’s not the latest in bathroom decor, but it was clean and had some charm. But what’s up with the other vanity that butts up against the first one? It makes this room look like a botched makeover. I suggested they rip out the wood vanity and replace it with a pedestal sink. After all this is a powder room – no storage required.

Powder Room After

Now isn’t that better? We used the homeowner’s stool that had been relocated to the kitchen, some art and decorative accessories to bring out the room’s charm.

If you follow my blog, you may already know one of my many mantras: “Paint the paneling!” So you can imagine what I thought when I walked into this bonus room near the pool. This was a huge room with an attached bath and laundry room and a separate entry. A perfect place for a mother-in-law, a guest or a renter. But with all that dark paneling and the outdated ceiling fan it was completely unappealing.

Guest Suite Before

They painted the paneling and replaced the fan with a ceiling mounted light fixture and voila! Now, I would never have chosen white as the color – too stark. But hey, at least they painted! With furniture, art and accessories, we’ve just added tons of value to this space.

Guest Suite After

These were all relatively simple and inexpensive changes that made a HUGE difference in the saleability of this home.

The result?

We finished Staging on the Sunday of July 4th weekend. They had their first offer by that Wednesday and another shortly thereafter. We have already picked up our furniture less than a month after the initial Staging because the buyer was so anxious to move in!

Yes I said 500 square feet! The home consisted of a tiny living room, a small bedroom and bath and a surprisingly large kitchen (for such a tiny home).

Now if you’ve ever read any of my other posts on Staging loft style spaces, I’m always saying there are 3 important things that buyers are thinking about when they walk into a small or an open floor plan type space:

1) Where will I eat?

2) Where will I watch TV?

and

3) Where will I work?

If you can’t show a buyer a space for each of these 3 things they are never going to purchase the home.

Well you may have noticed I didn’t mention a dining room in this place, so #1 was something to be tackled.

Though the kitchen was relatively large and did have a bar for a couple of stools, that wasn’t a comfortable or realistic space for eating an actual meal. So we had to utilize some of the already small living room for a dining space. You’ll see in the photo below how we accomplished that by using a small scale drop leaf dining table and 2 chairs in front of a beautiful window.

Dining Area

Now for #2 – the all important TV…

There wasn’t much of a choice as to where to place the TV in this home. There was only 1 wall that was long enough to hold a sofa, which meant that the TV would have to go opposite that wall. Luckily there was enough space on that wall for a console table and a 42″ plasma.

Living Room TV

On a side note, as if this wasn’t a tough enough room to Stage, on the opposite side of the sofa you’ll notice a heater vent which stuck out into the room so the sofa could go no further than this heating unit, effectively cutting off some usable corner space. On the up side, it’s a convenient place to set down your drink.

Living Room Sofa

So this is how the entire room (including living/dining and TV space) looked once it was Staged.

Living/Dining Room

Now for the last crucial element for Staging a small space…a place to work!

Since there is no 2nd bedroom in this bungalow, a full home office space was out. Luckily the previous owners had given us something to work with:

Master Bedroom

Built-In Office

This cabinet was built for a small TV (in fact the top shelf was built on a slant which made it very tricky to get my vase and plate to stand up straight). But on the bottom there was a pull out keyboard tray and a space for a small chair or ottoman. Home office space – check!

Since I know you’re dying to see the rest of the home, here are a few more photos. As I mentioned the kitchen is quite large and the bedroom and bath were a good size as well.

Though this was a challenging space to figure out, I was very pleased with the outcome. What might have scared buyers off when it was empty is now a completely livable, warm and inviting home. It just needed a touch of imagination!