Home Staging Pennsylvania- Hart & Associates Servicing the Main Line, Philadelphia, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties.

I just got off the phone with an ecstatic Realtor- her most recent property was listed on Sunday, got an offer on Monday, accepted the offer on Tuesday and got a back up offer Tuesday evening. The reason she is so thrilled is not only because this home sold so quickly but because the last home we staged for her also sold in less than a week!

This Realtor understands that in today's market staging a home is essential to getting a faster sale. She also knows that home staging does not have to be expensive. Often times all a client needs is a home staging consultation or a plan of how to best present their home for sale. Once I meet with a client to advise them on how to prepare their home for sale,  they can then complete their home staging home work- this can mean rearranging the furniture, decluttering, cleaning or adding items to accent the home. Once their staging work is complete the home can be listed and shown.

Below are our recent statistics for homes we have recently staged in the Main Line and Philadelphia region. If you are considering listing your home this Fall, I recommend that you begin to prepare your home for sale now so that it is ready to show. Visit our website www.hartstaging.com or contact us for our $tage and $ave plans for every home seller's budget.

Ardmore, Montgomery County PA: Home on the market 2 months, after staging consultation sells to second buyer to tour the property.

Ardmore, Montgomery County PA: Home listed on Sunday, sold the next day to first showing.

Ardmore, Montgomery County PA: Home sells after 3 days on the market.

"House was listed on Monday and sold on Thursday (Friday with counter offer agreed to). Also had another offer on Saturday and all thru the process lots of comments about "beautiful house  - very well presented"!.Thanks much for all your help"

Bala Cynwyd, Montgomery County PA: Home on the market for 6 months. After consult and recommendation to remove wall paper sells to second buyer to see the home.

Devon, Chester County PA: Home sells after 1 week on the market with multiple offers!

Devon, Chester County PA: Home sells in less than 2 weeks on the market.

Haverford, Montgomery County PA: Home sells in less than 2 weeks on the market.

Havertown, Delaware County PA: Home sells in less than 2 weeks on the market.

Merion Station, Montgomery County PA: Home sells to first buyer to look at property (home seller spent 9 months getting home ready to sell and it was worth it!)

Narberth, Montgomery County PA: Home sells in less than 2 weeks on the market.

"The house is under contract, we signed on Monday night and the inspections were Thursday. I will let you know once the deal is completely done. I think your staging had a huge impact on the speed of the whole process,  and the final price. We cannot thank you enough, you are amazing, and I have learned so much about living in a tidier fashion which I really like."

Newtown Square, Delaware County PA:  3.6 million dollar home gets offer after 40 days on market and 10 showings!

Newtown Square, Delaware County PA: Home sells in less than one month with 3 other homes in the same development on the market!

Radnor, Delaware County PA: Contemporary home in traditional neighborhood sells in less than three weeks on market!

"We got an offer, with the buyers' first visit occurring about 2-2 1/2 weeks into the project. We've accepted, and closing will be around the 30th. Thanks so much for your guidance; I know it made a difference."

Wynnewood, Montgomery County PA: Home sells in one week after home staging consultation.

Kate Hart is an award winning home stager servicing clients in the Main Line and Philadelphia regions of Pennsylvania. Visit www.hartstaging.com to learn more about our services and our new Virtual Real Estate Staging Services^tm for every home seller's budget. For all other locations contact us at www.selecthomestagers.com to find an associate in your local area.

Lately it seems like we have been physically staging a lot of occupied or lived in homes- this means a lot of decluttering and packing up client belongings! Typically we do not do hands on staging for occupied homes, instead, we provide a home staging consultation and the client completes the plan that we recommend and then we come back for fine tuning or to add a few accent items.

For our most recent project in Villanova Pennsylvania we were asked to do the physical staging and rearrange the home seller's items to make the home presentable for sale. When I first visited the property to provide the client with an estimate I was surprised to see that he did not have much furniture at all to rearrange. I recommended that we use his items and treat his home like a vacant property and add furniture and accessories to show the best purpose for each space.

While I was there I also made some recommendations on things the client could do to make his home show even better such as remove the wall to wall carpeting that was covering the hardwood floors, remove the dated window treatments and repaint the walls to remove any wear and tear. As I was leaving he asked me if there was anything else he needed to do- Knowing budget was a concern, I casually made a comment that since his bathrooms and kitchen were dated that he needed to consider updating them to make his home more competitive. I showed him the unused space in the hallway between the kitchen and powder room and how the future home owner could expand the kitchen. A few phone calls and emails later we had a deal to stage the home.

When I arrived today I was shocked! The home was not the same home that I had seen a few weeks prior. The home seller had done all the things I recommended- he removed the carpet, polished the floors, removed the window treatments and repainted. But that was not the best part- he had remodeled the kitchen and even took down the wall to open up the space! I was shocked, excited and overjoyed- he had done his home staging homework!

Below are some before, during and after photos of this property. I am so impressed with his understanding of staging and that he needed to do something to make his home stand out in today's market. After we completed the staging he agreed to add a new refrigerator too to make the kitchen even more of a selling feature! See if you can spot how we used the home seller's things!

Still not convinced staging can help you to properly prepare your home for sale? Take a look at the pictures below of a home staging we did in Gladwyne Pennsylvania this week. If this does not convince you to stage your home I do not know what will! Staging can transform even the most "lived" in home into a showplace that appeals to the most potential buyers. Take this bachelor pad for example and consider what we are selling- how someone lives in their home or how buyers want to envision living in a home. Just looking at these pics makes me exhausted but amazed at what can be done in one day. I am also proud of the home seller for realizing that he needed to invest in staging to market his home. Pictures may be worth a thousand words but staging is worth thousands more for home!

If you stay on top of the trends in the real estate and home staging industries you have probably heard of virtual staging. This is where stagers that are savvy with graphic design manipulate photos of vacant properties to make them look like model homes. This helps to show the proper scale, function and layout for each space.

While this concept is brilliant for vacant home sellers that do not want to hire a home stager to physically stage their home, it leaves me wondering:

1. What happens when a buyer goes to see the home in person and there is nothing there? and

2. What about resale home sellers? They typically do not have a vacant home to sell!

As a home staging professional in one of the most challenging real estate markets ever I know that families are struggling to find ways to sell their homes in a down market, get out of debt and move on to the next phase of their lives. Even though home sellers understand that staging is something they must do to make their homes more marketable, finding the dollars to hire a professional seems out of the question when they are faced with short sale, foreclosure, credit card debt or loss of job. Some home sellers make do with purchasing a staging-how-to-book or downloading a checklist off the Internet but we all know that the best book and the most comprehensive list will not give sellers the same advice as a professionally trained real estate stager.

I started to think about how I could help home sellers on a budget without compromising the quality of the services that I offer. I began going online to look at photographs of their homes on the MLS and sending them advice via email. Weeks later I would get follow up emails telling me their homes sold and my advice had helped. Soon I realized that I could help clients virtually and save them money at the same time! Money they need to pay their mortgage, or use to make updates needed to sell their homes.

This new take on virtual home staging is not an entirely novel concept for me- I have offered this service since 2005 when happy home sellers would call and ask me to travel to their new home to help them get set up with the same look and feel as their staged home. With two small children at home I could not easily take off for Florida (although I did this once for Miss America!) or Cincinnati on a whim but I could look at floor plans and photos and get them off to a great start. If I needed someone to look at the home in person I knew I could always refer a local home staging professional.

I am excited to announce the launch our new Virtual Real Estate Staging Services^tm. Aimed to help resale home sellers, it is an interactive website portal where clients from any town, any place can upload pictures of their home and get expert one-on-one home staging advice. If needed we can match home sellers with local home staging professionals in their home town through Select Home Stagers^tmour network of home staging professionals. I think this is a win for home sellers- expert advice, on their time and online. I invite you to visit our website today and learn more about this exciting staging service.

Kate Hart is an award winning home stager servicing clients in the Main Line and Philadelphia regions of Pennsylvania. Visit www.hartstaging.com to learn more about our services and our new Virtual Real Estate Staging Services^tm for every home seller's budget. For all other locations contact us at www.selecthomestagers.com to find an associate in your local area.