Tailored Transitions: Real Estate FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)

For more information, please contact us at
info@tailoredtransitions.com or 215.242.3700.

Why Do I Need to Stage or Have My Client
Stage Their Home?
Homes sell on average 18% higher than un-staged homes. On
a $1 million home, this extrapolates to an additional $180,000 with
only 15 days on the market.

Who pays for staging?
The seller pays for staging.

How long is a house staged?
The term of a staging contract is generally two months. Rarely do clients
need to extend the contract for another month. Homes prepared by tailored
transitions usually have an accepted offer in only a few weeks on the
market. We generally remove our inventory after a successful inspection.

What if I, the seller, don’t like the staging?
That may be a very good sign. Tailored Transitions is not trying to please
the seller aesthetically (although we try to please them in every other way).
Tailored Transitions carefully targets the staging to appeal to the probable
buyer of the property. Very often the differing tastes of the seller and the
probable buyer are what demand staging for a quick sale.

Why do we need to stage? When we bought
this house, we just walked in and bought it in
1972.
Times have changed. The average buyer nationally is 32 years old. These
people have been brought up under the influence of advertising in a way
that previous generations have not. Even if they know a home is staged, it
feels good to them, it delivers a myriad of visual clues that tells them that the
property is worthy of them.

Can I stage my own house?
Sure, you can try, and you might be able to do it, but the odds are against
you. Someone walking into your house for the first time notices more in 30
seconds than you have noticed in two years. Self-staging is like self-editing.
It is possible, but it is very difficult.

Why don’t I wait to see if my house sells first
and then hire Tailored Transitions if it doesn’t?
That is a strategy, but in the real estate market where the price point of your
house is defined by the whim of one buyer (two if you are lucky), it is
strategic to enter the market in the strongest position that you can. Your
number of days on the market is directly relative to your bargaining position.
It is important to make your property strategically appealing to the largest
number of potential buyers as quickly as possible.

Staging seems so stilted. It is not the way we
lived in the house.
Exactly. Staging is not how you live. Staging is idealized vision of real life,
and not necessarily your real life;Tailored Transitions carefully crafts a
property to appeal to the aspirations of a statistically probable buyer.

Isn’t staging indicative of my homemaking
abilities?
Not at all. Staging is the realization that home buyers can be swayed by the
same tenets used in advertising. We are projecting a lifestyle onto a target
market.

Why do I need Tailored Transitions?
Moving is counted up there with death and divorce as one of the top three
stress factors today. Professionals help you through every major life
transition except, historically, moving. Tailored Transitions helps you
manage one of the most difficult of life passages—a passage that has the
potential to be one of the most rewarding.

How Do I Start My Own Staging Business?
Tailored Transitions has its own Transitional Coordinator Training Program.
Successful graduates become Accredited Transition Coordinators and
receive templates and a tool kit to start their own business. We offer both
classroom and field work. Click here for more information about Training.

Ten Helpful Hints
to Sell Your Home

Empty houses and full
houses don't sell as well as
staged houses.

Have the windows and
carpets cleaned
professionally.
Mulch and edge the garden.

Remove all foliage blocking
the house. If you can't see
it, you can't sell it.

Buy a new front door mat
and paint the front door.

Declutter, declutter,
declutter.

Take 1/3 of your belongings
out of every room.

Pack up all personal
collections and photos.

Repair all minor
problems,such as old paint,
torn linoleum, cracked walls
and plumbing issues.

Take down any curtains
that block light.

Have the house cleaned
professionally.