Home Staging to the Next Level with Lifestyle Merchandising
By Donna Dazzo of Village Confidential
Did you know that home staging is all about "lifestyle merchandising?” Yes, when you are selling your home, you are actually merchandising a lifestyle to potential buyers.
Recently I graduated from an advanced staging course given by Matthew Finlason, host of HGTV's The Stagers. It was an intense, two-day course attended by only a handful of New York City area home stagers.
This is what I learned:
- Casting a "wide net" with staging in order to attract the broad range of buyers is a thing of the past.
- Crafting a "perfect lure" to attract the right buyer with staging represents a paradigm shift. While it's fine to neutralize a home of its occupant's personality, don't sterilize it.
- Home staging is now known as Target Staging.
- Before you stage, it's important to first learn the demographics of the potential buyer (age, income, marital status, etc.).
- It's also important to focus on the psychographics of the buyer (the industry they're in, their leisure time activities and interests, the profile of retailers in the area which will be an indicator of the profile of the residents).
- Stage this buyer's dream house with colors, shapes, textures, objects and artwork that will make them emotionally connect with the space.
- Stage in order to "tell stories" based upon the buyer's profile.
- Staging is "lifestyle merchandising" and "dialing in the buyer."
- Stage to create a life that buyers can aspire to and relate to.
- Stage so that your company aesthetic shines through, but not to the point where every staging looks like every other staging you do, and most importantly, doesn't look like every other staging out there.
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