Real Estate Staging

There is a new phenomenon, originating in the US, whereby a house is prepared for sale by a professional person skilled in interior design, real estate and what people look for when buying a home; it’s called Real Estate Staging.

Well…maybe it’s not so new, but certainly the term is!

I’ve been doing Real Estate Staging for a number of years for clients without giving it a formal technical term such as this – and with great results!

By combining Feng Shui into the equation, not only can we address the visible, tangible aspects of the property, including the condition of the house, the placement of furniture, colour scheme, cleanliness and decor, Feng Shui can also determine such things as:

– flow of qi (life force energy) – how do people enter the house and move around? When open for inspection, an agent can be advised as to how to direct the people through the house, and a location to end the inspection which will maximise the saleability of the house.

– placement of furniture – not only based on good Feng Shui principles, furniture may be placed in a way that activates the most auspicious qi, so the people not only like the look of the house, but also the way it feels.

– choosing an area for the auction – by staging an auction in the right location, higher bidding can ensue. I have seen this work a number of times with great success.

BEFORE

AFTER

My most recent case of Real Estate Staging was a couple of weeks ago, when I inspected a house for a client, which, when I first saw it was in a great state of dissarray. The client worked very hard on bringing the property up to standard, painting, cleaning, window dressing and then the day before the auction, I went to check and there was a miraculous improvement. But not only that, instead of holding the auction at the front of the house, as is to be expected, the auction was held at the back – rather unusual but in this particular case, the back was a more prosperous location…and it worked!

The client was expecting around $320,000 – and got $410,000!!