We recently listed our home for sale, enlisting the services of Joanne from Everything Beautiful Design for staging. We are a large, busy family with a lot of accumulated 'stuff' in an average sized home. We had a figure we needed to sell our home for, and had some concerns about reaching that goal.
On Joanne's first visit, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I had heard that home staging could be helpful to selling a house but had never worked with a stager or decorator before. Joanne came while we were in the beginning stages of packing and organizing, and our home was in a somewhat chaotic state. She made me feel at ease right away, was able to overlook the chaos, and see the potential beauty that my home held, even when I couldn't see it myself.
Joanne and I spent some time going room to room through the house. She took pictures and measurements and made suggestions on what to pack and put away to enhance the rooms and make the house 'staging ready'. Not once did she make me feel uncomfortable or judged about any messy areas. Her pleasant personality was so easy to work with.
Following that first meeting, Joanne put together a 24 page report complete with pictures that gave me a checklist of suggestions for each room - everything from changing lightbulbs to painting/removing wallpaper. It was interesting to see the home through someone else's eyes. Seeing the report felt overwhelming at first, but Joanne's encouraging words made it feel a little less difficult.
Once we were ready to list and schedule our open house, Joanne spent a day setting up our home. She brought an entire van load of home accessories and quietly went about decorating and setting them up in my home. She gave pointers about the best angles/lighting and no detail was overlooked. Her decorative accessories are classic, beautiful, and very tasteful, and she truly enjoys her work. I watched in amazement as my home was transformed into a beautiful showplace. In fact, I took pictures and sent them to my husband, who was shocked that it was our home.
Joanne's simple changes made such a huge difference. We were able to use pictures from this day in our online realty listing, which I believe attracted a lot of attention to our home and open house. I am happy to say that our open house was very well attended, and we had multiple offers over our asking price immediately following the open house. Many people who came through commented on how beautiful the home looked, and I attribute that completely to the staging process that Joanne took us through. We are so happy with her work, and highly recommend her to anyone who is looking to sell their home. Let her help you with the entire process, beginning to end, and like us, you will be so glad you did.
