FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Because you want to SELL! Staged homes sell faster and for more money. Not every buyer is a visionary – most need help feeling comfortable in a property for sale. A good stager can stage a property and appeal the home to potential buyers while also providing the home to the target demographics.

Staging to sell (vacant homes) -

We believe in “Connecting People to Spaces” Since no two homes are the same, neither should the staging approach. We view your home through the potential buyer’s perspective as well as the view of the camera in order to stage your home in a way that reflects the market, neighborhood, and which speaks to potential buyers.

Consultations for occupied homes -

We also offer pre-listing consultations for owner occupied homes. During the up to 90-minute home tour we cover recommendations on how best to showcase the home for market while the homeowner takes notes. We recommend cost-effective updates and repairs for the best return, curb appeal, decluttering, room flow, staging ideas, depersonalizing, and much more. Our Realtor partners have been referring our consultation services to their client for years with outstanding results!

Staging is NOT decorating. Decorating is personalizing, whereas Staging is depersonalizing a home to prepare it for the unknown buyer. That is why it’s important to hire someone with specific training on preparing a house for sale. When the focus of the Staging becomes about things and not your house, then you are working with a decorator and not a trained Stager. A stager will add warmth and style to the empty spaces with just the right furnishings and decor. Our staging will make buyers feel at home and allow them to imagine themselves living in the space.

Staging is an INVESTMENT in getting a house sold. The investment in staging is always less than a price reduction. A certified ASP™ Stager has been trained to work with a seller’s budget and time frame to properly stage a house.

We like to ask our clients, “Can you afford NOT to stage?” When compared with the other costs associated with the sale or purchase of a home, staging is very reasonable. In most markets, a staging consultation detailing what needs to be done to stage the house for sale is less than the appraisal or a home inspection report.

The staging fee varies, as every property is unique. The fee depends on the number and size of rooms to be staged, the amount of furnishings the home calls for, location, and accessibility.

The national average number of days on the market for a Non-Staged Home is 22 Days. The average for a Staged Home is 11 Days. That’s right: staged homes on average spend 50% less time on the market. A staged home increases in selling price by 6.9% according to national averages. You can read more on some of the staged home selling statistics at www.stagedhomes.com.

Look for a stager that:

• is a member of a trade organization specific to staging (i.e. RESA, the Real Estate Staging Association). Imagine has been a member of the local chapter of the Real Estate Staging Association since 2008.
• has credentials in home staging. The Imagine team is well trained in design, staging, and customer service. We love learning and keeping up to date with the current staging trends!
• has worked in your neighborhood and/or price-point before – We’ve staged cute starter homes from $350,00 to $3+M waterfront estates. To date, we have staged in all price-points, all over the Portland metro area.
• makes you feel comfortable – We are your team of experts, who pride ourselves not only in our work and our results, but in the relationships we forge. We are here for you!

Staging matters in every market. A home that is staged and priced in market will sell quicker than any of its competition.

Before! We don’t stage a dirty house. We should be the second to the last company in the home with only the photographer behind us! In the interest of efficiency and time management, we ask that the house should be free off all contractors, Realtors and homeowners before we begin.

This varies based on the size of your home and what is needed to market the property to its' best potential. We recommend calling us at least 2-3 weeks prior to listing in order to schedule the required consultation and staging date. Imagine requires anywhere between 4-6 hours at the house on the staging date.

Our customer satisfaction, client retention and statistics prove we care about how quickly and profitably your home sells. We stage all our homes to fit the perceived lifestyle of the potential buyer and make sure that the home FEELS as great as it looks when buyers walk through it. Our team of professional stagers take a personal approach to selecting the perfect inventory for the style of your home in order to Connect Buyers to your Space!

We strive for customer satisfaction and thrive on attention to detail in all the work we do. We train annually at the nation’s best workshops to keep up with current trends and products. We are an experienced staging team that produces proven results we are sure you will love!

Pricing is often a large part of the decision. However, there are a couple of other considerations as well. Anyone can hand out their business cards and say they’re a ‘stager’. These hobby stagers may be uninsured and inexperienced in analyzing the buyer demographic for the neighborhood, the scale and flow of the house, and might not have the resources to do a home justice.

Cheap usually means cheap and may not be showing your home at its’ very best in order to receive the best offers that we strive for.

While we are not the cheapest, we do offer an award-winning & professional service. With backgrounds in staging since 2008, we know what buyers are looking for when searching for a house. We’ve staged over 1,000 vacant houses in the past 10 years, many of which have sold at above the list price – one at $85K over asking!

We encourage you to ensure that your house is being staged by a legitimate business and not by a hobby stager.