Every week, the Sanctuary team provides estimates and proposals on stagings across Central Ohio. Many times those proposals turn into jobs, but sometimes we lose some. There are several factors that go into making a staging decision, including quality, design, timing and price. But if decisions are made solely on price, we usually don’t win. I’ll come right out and boldly proclaim it: we are not the lowest cost stagers in town. And we don’t want to be the lowest cost stagers in town. We want to be one of the best, with the statistics, reviews, industry accolades and press coverage to prove it. So, if we lose a bid from time to time, that confirms our strategy and goal of placing quality above cost.
Let’s talk about low cost staging for a minute. Just how do some keep their prices so low? One of the easiest ways to “bargain stage” is to leave a lot of items out of the staging: headboards, dressers, rugs, even sofas. All of those things that are a little trickier, and more expensive, to move. You’ll see living room photos with a chair or two and a lamp or a bedroom with a headboard-less bed and a tray table style nightstand. Another way is to use very low cost or older furnishings, items sourced with price in mind, like used furniture from Goodwill or even hand-me-down furniture from friends and family. There is a place for lower cost staging and there is absolutely a market for it, we just choose to focus our business differently, providing a full service staging model.
What does full service mean? It means we visit each home prior to staging using industry-leading tools to capture every piece of information we need to carefully curate and design every single aspect of the staging. From using our state-of-the-art color sensor to read every color on the walls to our laser digital measurer to record precise measurements and plot digital blueprints of rooms, we have the information we need to begin to carefully plan our design and installation down to the last detail.
Once we visit the home, we return to our warehouse and begin the design process. We obsess over things like pulling the right pillows for the sofa to seamlessly connect to the color of the walls to selecting art with just the right colors that fits perfectly above the fireplace – all from our extensive inventory. We then carefully layout each piece that will go into the home to make sure every single item coordinates together to create the look buyers love. Let’s talk inventory for a minute – we store everything in our 4,100 square foot warehouse with over 250 linear feet of shelving filled with current, on trend pillows, art, accessories and furnishings – none of which is more than a few years old. We spend thousands of dollars adding to our inventory on a regular basis to make sure that we have the best looks possible for the homes we stage, and we also purge inventory to make room for new trends.
Once we have hand curated and selected every single item that will go into the home, down to the napkin rings we’ll use, the packing process begins. We carefully wrap, label and bin items to safely make the journey to our staged listing. Sometimes packing for a home can take a couple of hours, sometimes it can take a whole day (yep, those 8,500 square foot listings don’t just pack themselves!). We then coordinate with our moving partners (involving a truck and 2 to 3 man professional, highly experienced, fully insured moving crew) to move in. Move in not only involves the moving crew who carefully navigate doorways, steps, hallways and other obstacles to place each piece of (often heavy) furniture, but also our awesome staging team with years of experience in staging, art and design between them.
Staging day(s) are a flurry of activity as each piece is perfectly placed into the home, accessories are unpacked and arranged, art is hung, pillows fluffed, beds made and steamed and every last detail is attended to. Our goal in staging is for buyers to not even know a home is staged until they peak into a closet and see only a few items in there (and yes, we stage closets too in our luxury homes – Gucci shoe boxes anyone?). Experiencing one of our staged listings is like experiencing good theater…each room, like a scene in a play, should draw buyers in and leave them wanting more. Staging taps into the emotions of buyers and families, from a “man cave” that he’ll love, to a master bath calling her name to a kids room that Junior HAS to have. These emotions translate into offers and successful sales, often above ask.
Typically our stagings take two days. One day is for installing and strategically placing items, and the second day for perfecting, with professional photographers following right behind us to take magazine-worthy photos. In luxury homes, we spend up to a week staging every square inch. We’ve staged golf simulator rooms, man caves/pubs, wine cellars, home theaters, yoga rooms, home gyms, playrooms, etc. You name it, we’ve staged it!
After staging, as stated above, our staged listings are photographed to ensure the best possible presentation on the MLS listing with one of our professional photography partners who bring in professional lighting, lenses and even drones to best capture our staging work. We share the photos and the rights back with our clients and realtors for their use as well.
When the property sells – typically quickly and for the highest possible price – we come back, carefully pack each item we placed, call on our moving partners and move it all back to our warehouse to be put away and ready for the next use.
And when we aren’t staging, you’ll find us participating in professional staging associations, like RESA, HSR and ASCHR, attending design training and seminars, connecting with realtors, keeping our website and social media sites current and sometimes working with the media to promote the importance of staging. Oh, and occasionally, we sleep.
So, what does all of this cost? Generally, our pricing runs somewhere between $1 per square foot and 1% of ask, depending on the size, location, number of rooms and specialized spaces of the home. This investment includes the initial visit, design time, planning and packing, move in, 2 months of rental and move out. That’s well below the cost of the realtor representing the home (at 3%), a price drop (typically averaging around 2%) or the carrying costs of keeping a vacant home heated/cooled, etc. Staging, done well, requires significant time, labor, inventory and overhead to support. It is truly a labor of love and we continually invest in growing and enhancing our business.
So, yes, we won’t win every bid…and we are 100% okay with that! We are proud of each space we create and for the proven results that our clients achieve. And we remain steadfast in never compromising quality for cost. So, if you want the lowest cost, we’d encourage you to look at other companies with a different business model. If you are looking for quality and proven results, give us a call. We look forward to working with you!