Staging Advice from Dallas’ Top Luxury Stagers

I scrolled through luxury home listings last Friday, as I do every week, particularly looking at homes priced at $3 million and above in my search for a worthy Monday Morning Millionaire. Most properties desperately needed staging. I heaved a sigh and thought about how we could help Realtors convince their clients to do what is necessary to market these luxury homes that look, well, not so luxurious.

If you missed my 2022 kick-off post, please give it a look and take it to heart. We have luxury homes sitting on the market at 400 and 500 days. We have millions of dollars in price reductions on some of these. It’s time to make some decisions and face reality.

Every Property Deserves a Staging Consultation

Sure, some deals have fallen through. We are in a pandemic. Sellers are difficult and overvalue their homes. However, none of that excuses bad photography or lack of staging expertise.

First and foremost, remember that every single property deserves a staging consultation. A consultation is the most significant return on investment you can make in preparing a listing for sale. For a few hundred bucks you get an experienced, professional stager’s brain. Often they will write you a report and you can hand it off as expert advice and hope your clients will come to their senses and do the required work. 

Occupied Homes Need Help, Too

Occupied homes always need help, no matter what interior designer made a house your home. Vacant homes must be staged. Period. End of story. If your client does not get it, it could be time to part ways. If you are a Realtor and don’t get it, may I lovingly suggest another profession that better suits you? Vacant home staging is a necessity.

If you choose not to, you are going to be in a situation where a listing is on the market for two years and you will have had to lower the price by several million. No one is going to be happy.

I called up the stagers that work on our luxury listings to get their insight. I suggest you download this post and put it in your listing presentations. That way, you can weed out the bad clients immediately.  

Donna Klein of Klein Design & Staging

Vacant Homes

The objective of staging a vacant home is to appeal to the largest scope of buyers by emotionally engaging them into attaching themselves to the home. Staging provides a product that shortens days on the market helps create multiple offers and a higher offer. 

• In general, we believe light upholstery with colorful accessories and abstract art for contrast and attention offers a striking impact. You want to create spaces that feel luxe and invite and entices buyers to want to live in the home.
• Stage with symmetry and non-specific decor so all buyers can visualize themselves living in the home. 
• Stage to highlight all unique functionalities of each room how every area has a use. This removes all question marks for buyers. 
• Maximize the square footage and create flow throughout the home by thoughtful space planning. 
• Use consistent lighting throughout the home. We recommend a minimum of 2700 Kelvin soft white.  Use a couple of medium to large live plants to keep the stage feeling fresh. Layer the staging enough to make it feel warm with a designer presentation. 

Occupied Homes

The staging objective is to emotionally engage the broadest pool of potential buyers within the first 5 seconds of stepping into a home or viewing it online.

• Create a fresh and neutral canvas by painting neutral colors and removing dark and dated wallpaper.
• Remove heavy, obtrusive, and dated lighting fixtures. Cap off the ceiling box if other room lighting is sufficient in their absence or replace them with inexpensive fixtures from large box stores or online Apps. Having consistent, soft, and brighter illumination is critical. Use a minimum of 2,700-3,000 Kelvin soft white bulbs throughout the home. 
• Use decorative boxes & baskets with lids to manage your “daily use” clutter to stay tidy and fresh for home tours. 
• Create symmetry in your home to provide a psychological balance and peace for those viewing your home.
• Use neutral bedding, towels, pillows, throws, and candles. 
• Add a few medium to real large-scale plants. This helps create the perception of a luxurious, fresh and well-maintained home. 

George Bass of George Bass Stage & Design

Every year I feel there is a pocket of sellers that don’t read and are not adequately informed of what to do to prepare their homes for sale. They are intelligent but not aware of what to do in their own homes. So many people do not realize when their home is on the market, whether vacant or occupied, it will need regular maintenance, inside and out. It has to look and smell good 24/7.

Vacant Homes

• Agents have to be honest with their clients. If they know the house needs significant attention to detail, like new carpet, new paint, don’t sugarcoat the truth. Everyone loses if the agent is not forthright and honest. Sometimes the stager is the bad guy that has to point out the challenging items. Everyone has different tastes, but you have to remember staging is not design.
• Time is of the essence. We do not have the luxury of time but be realistic. It’s not happening overnight. We have schedules—book in advance and respect timelines.
• Call for a consultation first. Suggest staging first. Keeping a house on the market for weeks or months, lowering the price, and then suggesting staging will only lead to a disgruntled client.
• Trust that your stager knows the right furniture for a property. It’s not about the Realtor’s taste or the sellers’ taste. It’s about what will draw the buyer, and stagers know what will attract them.

Occupied Homes

• Remove Oriental rugs, tapestries, heavy draperies, sheers, large brown furniture from the 1990s, religious artifacts, and collectibles. 
• If you are trying to make a spare bedroom look like it’s functional with only a few items, don’t. Just clear it out.
• When you start the decluttering process, make three piles, storage, donations, and items that need to be thrown out.
• Remove all of the family photos. Buyers don’t want to see your family, and they don’t want to fix nail holes.
• Remove litter boxes. Make sure there is no animal hair on your furniture and the house does not have animal odors.

Julie Guidry of J Guidry Design

Vacant Homes

• The furniture needs to belong in the price point of the home being staged. You have minutes to wow the buyer, and hearts aren’t moved by beige. 
• Don’t have unrealistic budgets. You cannot correctly stage a multi-million dollar house for $5,000.  
• New stagers pop up every day. They aren’t designers and have zero experience. Use a stager that has experience.
• Do not expect a stager to overcome an outdated home. The point of staging is to give the buyer a vision. Expecting a stager to overcome heavily-textured walls, dirty shag carpet, and ceiling murals in a multi-million property is entirely unrealistic. Sellers must be on board with doing essential updates.

Occupied Homes

• Consult with an experienced stager about the home’s current condition and contents and what needs to change before the property goes live.
• Hide your clutter. It tells the buyers you have no storage. 
• These days, everyone is a stager. Don’t be fooled by low prices. You get what you pay for. A poorly staged home gets a meh from most buyers. You want them falling all over themselves to sign a contract when they walk in the door. THAT is how you sell a house. 

Elizabeth Schramme of Staged Collective

Occupied Homes

• Just because you spent a lot of money on something does not mean you can’t get rid of it or that it’s in style
• Frequently, it is more beneficial to remove things from the house rather than bring in more items.
• White bedding is always the cleanest look.
• Investing in landscaping in the front exterior, even in winter months, is a must.
• I know we are in Texas, but the deer mounts need to go.  
• Pulling furniture like a sofa off of a wall a bit will make the room look larger.
• Red needs to be avoided typically in all furnishings, especially for photography.
• Fresh florals in photographs add a lot without much cost.

Vacant Homes

• Even in a hot market, staging a vacant home is often the difference between a property receiving multiple offers. It also aids in buyers overlooking flaws in a home.
• Staging vacant homes makes them appear larger.
• Using rugs to help differentiate spaces, like open plan living areas, potential buyers can better visualize how to use a space.  
• Art is so important when staging, which is why I like using large-scale original pieces to make the homes feel more tailored and pulled together. 
• Neutral furnishings with pops of color in pillows, art, and accessories will appeal to the largest buyer group and is applicable in all styles of homes. 

Lisa Stapp of Staged by Stapp

Occupied Homes

• Clear your personal items out. No one is buying your wedding photos or children’s art.
• Keep it simple. Make the home easy to navigate and understand by eliminating unnecessary furniture pieces like extra consoles or oversized pieces. Not every space needs to be filled.
• Clean it up. Anything that is visibly dirty gives the impression there could be many more hidden dirty places.

Vacant Homes

• Use statement pieces to grab attention and set your home apart. You don’t need a lot.
• Use color 
• Use graphics. 
• The staging must work with your spaces and the style of your home, not against it.
•  Don’t use mid-century modern items in a traditional home.
• Not all staging is equal. If the staging price is lower, it doesn’t mean it’s better.  
• Use live plants. Living things bring energy, and energy is attractive!

My Two Cents on Staging

Occupied Homes

• Remove kids names from the wall of their room
• Round rugs have no place in a home, ever.
• Banish collections of anything.
• Store the recliner.
• Don’t put rugs over wall-to-wall carpet
• Stripes, chintz and paisley scream 1980s
• Get rid of dried flower arrangements.
• Exercise bikes in ANY room but a home gym scream that the home has NO GYM. It’s an immediate objection.

Vacant Homes

Hire an experienced stager and listen to them.