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You have already heard about the many benefits of staging a home to sell: it ensures an excellent first impression, shows buyers their potential home, makes a home stand out in a crowded luxury market, and much, much more. But did you know that the money you spend on home staging is tax deductible?

The IRS considers home staging a part of advertising the home, and any fee that Stage to Move invoices (including rental furniture—anything you do not buy yourself with the intent to keep after selling) can be subtracted from the proceeds from selling your home for tax purposes. According to certified public accountant Rob Unger, “Since a home stager prepares your house for potential homebuyers, the IRS considers the service as an advertising expense, as long as the home stager has been hired for the sole purpose of selling your home. [S]taging costs are a legitimate selling expense for both primary and secondary homes and are therefore tax deductible.”

The costs of staging are subtracted from the proceeds of the sale of the home and decrease the total realized profit. If the home you are selling counts as your main home, the first $250,000 of gain ($500,000 if you are married and filing jointly) is not taxable. However, if you sell your home at a significant profit over the non-taxable amount, the deduction for home staging—which can add thousands of dollars to your selling price—becomes even more valuable.

Lastly, basic repairs, maintenance and upkeep on your main home also do not qualify as advertising expenses and cannot be deducted, even if Stage to Move recommends them. But the critical aspect of Stage to Move home staging—having a RESA Top Ten Real Estate Stager create that magical feeling that makes buyers swarm—is tax deductible, which makes the benefits of home staging unmatched when it comes to selling your home.

Supply is about to increase significantly. The supply of existing homes is already increasing and the number of newly constructed homes is scheduled to expand in the upcoming months.  So now is the time to sell, and to make your home stand out so that it sells more quickly.

First, know your audience.   Pick the target buyer by asking yourself: what type of person is drawn to your city/neighborhood?  Maybe you live in a quiet suburban home surrounded by retired couples.  Or maybe you live in a top-notch school district in a neighborhood filled with young children riding their bikes and playing basketball in their driveways.  Either way, you want to cater your staging for this demographic by working with a professional stager to create a lifestyle that potential buyers are looking for in your home.

Second, use the color red to emphasize your home’s positive features while deemphasizing its flaws.  Staging strategically with red will direct the buyer’s eye to focus on the home’s unique value.  REALTOR magazine writer Melissa Dittmann Tracey writes, “…a red accessory on the fireplace mantel or a vase of red flowers on those sparkling granite countertops can help you get buyers’ eyes right to where you want them.”

Lastly, and similarly, play up your home’s advantages, even if they are not universally liked.  For example, pools can be make-or-break features for homebuyers, depending on their preferences.   Accordingly, stage your pool area to attract even those who think pools are nothing but a money-sucking maintenance project by adding some new outdoor furniture, decorating with a bit of well-chosen greenery and ensuring that the entire pool area is in pristine condition. 

Standing out in a luxury market can be difficult, because you are competing with the cream of the crop in terms of home selling.  Without staging, buyers may miss out on your property’s best features, such as your beautiful hardwood floors, ample room size, or detailed architecture.  Moreover, buyers will not be able to see the potential of making your property their own.  

Stage your home professionally with Stage to Move to make your home irresistible to future buyers.

Maybe you and your spouse have retired and decided to downsize.  Or maybe you’re ready to start a family and sell your small house in favor of a larger one with more bedrooms.  Either way, it may have been a while since you’ve put yourself in the shoes of a seller or a buyer, and you may not be totally confident in putting your home on the market when you don’t know what the market is looking for.

If you’ve been following our blog, you know that there are some things that attract every buyer: well-lit, spacious rooms are one example, as are high-end kitchens and baths, and hardwood floors.  However, you might not know that women and men differ in what features most appeal to them.  Women, who account for 85% of all consumer purchases, respond most passionately to a home’s aesthetics: flooring, interior design, appliances, layout and functionality.   They are attracted to features such as big closets, dedicated laundry rooms, two-plus car garages and a great place to socialize, whether in a comfortable den with a fireplace or around the kitchen island or counter.

Because female buyers like to envision places of entertainment and activity, it is important to make family spaces look welcoming and user-friendly.  Position sofas and chairs into conversational groups and float furniture away from walls to create a perception of spaciousness.  Items such as decorative pillows, towel sets, baskets, and vase/bowl fillers can also spruce up an otherwise nondescript living area.  

Men, by contrast, are more interested in a home’s space and dimensions.   Says Jessica Riffle Edwards, Coldwell Banker Real Estate’s consumer specialist, “The guy may be saying, ‘Oh, man, look at the size of this space,’ and the women would be saying, ‘Oh, gosh, look at the hardware on these cabinets.'”

Most important to both genders, however, is a neat and well-kept home.  Buyers prefer homes that are low maintenance.  If they see too much they will to change, or will need to fix, they will move on.

Did you know that 90% of homebuyers cannot visualize the potential in a future home?  This is the principal reason why home staging is so important—it shows buyers what the home could look like should they decide to make an offer.  The goal of staging is to create a stylish, neat, warm, inviting, move-in ready home that screams, “Buy me ASAP!”

Here at Stage to Move, our success speaks for itself.  Yashmin Lloyds, a sales associate at William Raveis in Greenwich who recently worked with Stage to Move owner Kara Woods to stage a home for sale, writes,  “Kara’s sophisticated and elegant design approach really showcased the positive features in the home and gave prospective buyers an idea of what it would be like to live in that space. I strongly believe that the chic and inspired staging played a large role in the successful sale of this home.”  Similarly, Jane Whitman of Darien, who received three offers—two over asking price—after working with Stage to Move, says, “Thanks to you, my Mother’s home, which could have been a tear down, now has new life and looks amazing. I cant thank you enough for breathing new life into our childhood home and helping us to sell it.”

If that hasn’t persuaded you, here are a few other reasons to invest in home staging:

–More showings: real estate agents are more willing to show move-in ready property to their clients than property that is not.

–Reduced negotiation: by identifying and fixing design flaws, stagers reduce the issues that buyers use for price negotiation.

–Competitive edge: a well staged, inviting home will stand out among competing properties of similar value.

–Wider appeal: a successfully staged property will appeal to a majority of potential buyers.

The U.S. Housing and Urban Development reported a staged home sells for up to 17 percent more compared with a non-staged home.  Give us a call today, and see the difference that staging can make for you.

Before

After

Why do first impressions matter so much?  In our everyday interactions, first impressions can make or break a relationship.  “We judge books by their covers, and we can’t help but do it,” said Nicholas Rule, Ph.D., of the University of Toronto.  So what does this mean for you, a home seller?  Buyers won’t assess your home by their first impressions, right? Don’t they wait until they have seen all the features and amenities a home offers before making their judgments?

Wrong.  Believe it or not, most buyers form an opinion about a home within the first 7-10 seconds of arriving.  This means that staging your home’s exterior is just as important as staging the interior.  Real estate agent David Herbon recommends starting by taking a picture of your whole home from the curb to help you see the home from the buyers’ point of view (and figure out where your curb appeal is lacking).   Check all aspects of your home’s exterior.  Is the paint chipping?  Is the roof in good condition?  Does the lawn need mowing?  Is the driveway clean?  These details can translate into thousands of dollars saved when buyers fall in love with your home as soon as they arrive.

Once they step inside, however, your work is not done.  The goal is to keep your home open, bright and spacious.  First and foremost, eliminate any lingering smells—pets, smoke, perfume, last night’s barbecue, etc.—and make sure your home is property lit, increasing the wattage of bulbs and accenting with table lamps and reading lamps if necessary.  Clean thoroughly and add a few fresh flowers to a neutral vase.  Most importantly, don’t skip rooms—it can make potential buyers lose momentum and kill a positive impression. 

On average, 13,397 homes are sold each and every day in the United States alone.  Make yours stand out by creating an unforgettable first impression for potential buyers.

The “dog days of summer” are upon us.  Summer is slowly coming to an end, but the housing market continues to climb, meaning that those of you looking to sell your home (or in the process of selling it) need to step up your game if you want to remain competitive.  Here are a few last-minute tips to keep your home market-ready:

1. Pay attention to your landscaping.  Is your grass brown?  Are your flowers dead, limp, or overgrown?  All of these things can detract from your home’s curb appeal.  Statistics show that buyers make up their minds within six seconds of walking in the door of a prospective home, so make sure you give them a positive impression right from the start.
2.  Brighten things up.  Summer sunshine brings out the best in all of us, so make sure it also brings out the best in your home.  Remove window draping, open the shades, and let the light in—it will make your home feel more inviting.
3. Stage your outdoor areas as well as your indoor ones.  If you have a beautiful porch or patio, now is the time to embrace it.  Designed to Sell designer Lisa Porta recommends a few DIY projects: Sand and stain an outdoor deck and furnish it for entertaining; freshen up an old patio by lightly painting them, spraying them with water, and then dabbing them dry to give them a rustic outdoor appeal.  Similarly, if you have a pool, show off the pool’s best features and downplay any signs of maintenance.  Get rid of excess toys, update your outdoor furniture, add some greenery and, most importantly, ensure that everything sparkles.
4. Blast the AC—but not too much!  You don’t want prospective buyers to be turned off by a hot and sticky summer day.
5. Keep things shining.  Summer is the busiest moving season, so make sure your home is spotless and show-ready at all times.

Ever wanted to start your own business? Maybe you’ve always loved to decorate, but never thought you could make a career out of it. Or maybe you’re a creative individual who always wanted to go back to school but never found the time. Either way, it’s time to branch out into something new, especially a career that can propel you to success in a very short time—home staging.

Take Linda Kofoed, co-owner of Monarch Staging and Design, as an example. A year ago, she took The Academy of Home Staging’s industry-leading Advanced Home Stager Certification Training, offered by Stage to Move’s own Kara Woods, in New York City. After forty-plus hours of personalized instruction, classroom discussion, workshops, and three hands-on field exercises, Linda was prepared to embark on a new career path and start her home staging business right away. A year later, Linda Kofoed is excelling in a high-end luxury market. Here are a few pictures of a home she recently staged:

Moreover, there has never been a better time to enter the field of home staging and redesign. AOL career guru Marty Nemko listed home staging as “one of the best jobs for 2013 and beyond” in January of 2013, calling home stagers “a de rigueur part of preparing a home for sale.” Home values are on the rise; the NAR’s stats show that almost 20% more homes sold in 2013 than 2012, and the median price of a house in the United States is up 10%. Sellers and agents have caught on to the home-staging trend, thanks to social media sharing sites such as Pinterest and Houzz, and are relying on professional home stagers more than ever to give their clients an edge-up. According to an April 2014 Zillow survey of real estate agents, hiring a professional home stager was the second highest-listed top home improvement project for sellers.

If you are considering a new career and love to decorate, home staging could be your path to success, and there is no time like the present to enter this lucrative field. Kara offers a unique dual-designation course, culminating in certifications in both home staging and interior design, in New York City only. Her next six-day class runs from September 15-20, in New York City. Call 1-203-733-3037 today, as spaces are limited.

For more information, see our “Training page”: https://www.stagetomove.com/training.html#

Find out more about The Academy of Home Staging at: http://www.theacademyofhomestaging.com