Last Updated on April 19, 2021 by
In most cases, you cannot buy staged furniture since home staging is done by staging companies and not the realtor. Furniture used in home staging belongs to the company, and sometimes it may be rented. The only way one can acquire this furniture is by reaching out to the staging or furniture renting companies to find out whether they are up for sale or not.
Where Do Home Stagers Get Their Furniture?
Home staging companies could have a variety of sources for their furniture. It could be from a local store, national furniture providers, and in other cases, from the rental company associated with home staging activities. In other cases, some furniture designers reach out to home staging companies.
Since home stagers have chances to showcase different furniture designs, hence helping them market their furniture. Both parties have a winning chance since the home stagers use free stylish furniture, whereas the designers get to market their furniture designs through home staging.
How Do Home Owner Find Staging Furniture?
The following are some tips on how you can find staging furniture;
You should consider visiting the local stores through online vendors, especially if looking for unique furniture pieces. Some of the stores to visit are IKEA, home Sense, and Marshall, which often offer their clients terrific deals such as Black Friday sales. Sometimes the Columbus Underground announces the top ten home décor shops annually, giving you a clue where to start looking for quality and affordable furniture for home staging. Other online furniture sellers such as Amazon offer plenty of interesting items for staging décor.
Carrying out thorough research on furniture rental companies: renting furniture for staging is the best option as one is not likely to be left with stagnant furniture in case of any changes. Buying staging furniture as a staging company could be risky, especially in the current world where trends change in a blink of an eye.
You are likely to be left with new and unused furniture, causing a lot of losses. For this reason, you should consider checking out furniture rental companies. However, it would be best if you were very keen on the quality of their furniture and their reliability on delivery. Consider checking other people’s comments and reviews before selecting a furniture rental company and how fast they address their issues.
Getting furniture providers with the standard rental process; working with well-structured businesses provides a more predictable outcome. For example, when you order a furniture piece from IKEA, the quality will still be the same regardless of the store location. A home stager needs to have consistency in their furniture, which is highly dependent on their suppliers. Most furniture rental companies have the same rental process, including furniture delivery of between 24-48 hours.
Checking out affiliated partners of the home staging associations: one of the biggest advantages of affiliating with home staging associations is that you can access other rental companies. Such associations bring in big volumes of clients to furniture providers, and in most cases, they offer discounts to their members. They also tend to take your home staging business more seriously hence provide you with excellent services. The Real Estate Staging Association(RESA) is among the largest home staging associations in the United States. You are likely to get quality items ranging from rugs, artwork décor, furniture, and other items for your home staging company from these associations.
Understanding conditions for furniture rental companies, you need to know exactly how much the rental companies charge for their furniture as it helps with cost control. Otherwise, you are likely to find out at the end of it all that there were unanticipated costs that ate up all your profit margin.
Some of the crucial questions to ask include; whether the displayed costs include both deliveries and pick up cost? The length of the rental period? What are the costs of an extended lease? Whether there will be costs involved in moving up and down the furniture? Are their rental charges inclusive of all accessories such as a bed that should come with a mattress and linen?
Should Home Stagers Rent Or Buy Furniture For Staging?
The decision on whether to purchase or hire staging furniture should depend on your expected Return on Investment (ROI). When it comes to buying or renting, you should consider the following;
1. Cost of purchasing the furniture.
2. What is the storage fee cost and the cost involved in moving the furniture to desired locations?
3. Costs involved when renting.
4. What did you expect to spend on the staging furniture?
After putting all the above into consideration, you need to think of another scenario. Supposing there is a furniture piece you intend to buy or rent. Its leasing price happens to exceed its buying price. For this reason, you will buy the furniture piece since you expect to use it a couple of times.
But then, there are changes in trends and fashion, and after some time, you find yourself not using the piece anymore. For such an item, you are likely to suffer loss considering the item might have been expensive. Therefore, the decision on whether to buy or rent home staging furniture is dependent on other factors.
You should consider buying an item if it is small and can be carried home if no longer in use. Such items include flower vases, mirrors, pillows, and liners. Other large items such as beds, cabinets, and tables should be rented. Additionally, when you are only starting up your home staging business, you wouldn’t want to spend all the capital on inventory. Renting furniture, in this case, should be considered and buy only the basic pieces. After you have received several projects, you can decide on your signature furniture pieces and décor worth your investment.
Why Should You Stage Your Home?
When you decide to sell your home, the most important thing you think about is the highest amount it will attract and how fast it can attract a buyer. For this reason, you ensure that the home is presentable and is designed to be showcased, with its best features being on the forefront to impress potential buyers. You need to stage your home for the following reasons:
To Impress
Staging a home is similar to dressing. A well-staged house makes the home look its best for potential buyers. A home is likely to stand out, especially if other houses on sale are not staged.
For A Quicker Sale
A staged home is more visually appealing than other unstaged homes. It provides more potential of being home to prospective buyers by highlighting its strengths and reducing visual weaknesses and faults. It also provides clients with the connectedness with the property, creating a mentality of them living in the home, which an empty house cannot achieve.
Attract The Ideal Sale Price
Statistics have shown that staged houses usually go for better prices than empty unstaged ones. Staging a house enhances the potential of your home, which increases its value. An increase in value translates to you receiving the stated price and, in some cases, even higher. Since staged houses attract buyers fast, your home is unlikely to depreciate due to spending too much time listed on the market.
What Are Some Home Staging Tips That Are Not Furniture-Related?
Sometimes you may decide to stage your home yourself instead of going for home staging companies. For this reason, a lot of work is required to make sure the property is pleasant looking. The following are some important tips to consider;
1. You should ensure that the home is always squeaky clean, especially during showings. Keeping the home clean does not necessarily mean only vacuuming the floor and cleaning the bathroom. It means cleaning above and below everything, such as under countertops, shower curtains, and everywhere else. You should ensure that everything is aesthetically pleasing. Additionally, lighting up a home makes it more welcoming as it emphasizes its cleanliness. Some staging companies use additional lampshades when staging a home, as many people prefer well-lit and bright homes.
2. The other thing is to clear all the clutter in the house. Cleaning without clearing the clutter creates a messy look in your home. An uncluttered home is more visually appealing and more inviting as it portrays its potential beauty.
3. It would help if you also depersonalized the home. Achieving this involves taking away family wall pictures and children’s artwork. The buyer may have a different taste from you. For this reason, any item that appears to be personalized should be removed.
It would help if you also considered making minor repairs that may cause a home to depreciate, such as small holes on the wall. Some buyers may negotiate for a smaller price due to such minor damages.
Conclusion
Homebuyers do not keep or buy staged furniture since the furniture and décor used belongs to the staging company and not the realtors. However, you can make arrangements with the home staging company for referral on the stores where they got the specific furniture pieces. Additionally, some home staging furniture does not even belong to the home staging companies. Some lease them from furniture renting companies making it difficult to sell staged furniture.
