Not all staging is equal. Keys to success at an elite level include paying attention to detail, working with speed, and keeping an open dialogue.
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Some homesellers opt to forgo staging when putting their property on the market, believing instead that the home will “sell itself.”
Laurie Messman | Two Blu Ducks
But most agents — especially in the luxury sector — will tell those sellers they’re sorely mistaken.
“I think that’s a big mistake, because this is just the way it is,” Laurie Messman, of luxury staging and design studio Two Blu Ducks, told Inman. “Staging is here in the world of selling real estate, right now, period. Things have been tried; virtual staging didn’t have remotely the success anyone thought it might.
“People are still physical. We’re physical beings in a very physical world. And I think that for people who really don’t want to stage, you have to, because you’re immediately taking yourself out of the competition, because if you look at what’s in the market, they are staged.”
Good staging can serve to both highlight a home’s good qualities and minimize its less appealing ones. And it can make a crucial difference when it comes to the final sale price, Khaki Wennstrom, a Compass agent who founded the exclusive luxury network Métier Maison, told Inman in an email.
Khaki Wennstrom | Métier Maison
“Our team collaborates closely with listing agents and their clients to conduct a comprehensive review of the home, analyzing market comparables, buyer behavior and the property’s unique strengths and weaknesses,” Wennstrom wrote. “From this analysis, we recommend the right designer who will help with strategic design upgrades and staging decisions aimed at achieving — and justifying — the seller’s targeted price.”
Of course, not all staging is equal. And there have been times when Two Blu Ducks, for example, has been called in to save a botched job. Some of the keys to success at an elite level include paying attention to detail, working with speed and having an open dialogue with the seller and listing agent.
Accounting for the home’s history
Interior staging at “Maravilla” by Vesta Home | Credit: Marc Angeles & Tiffany Angeles, Unlimited Style Photography
It’s important for staging to complement the original architecture and history of a property. Otherwise, staging efforts might feel a bit off. However, this type of constraint can also present challenges, Messman said.
When Two Blu Ducks recently took on a project — staging a unit at 640 Park Ave in New York — designers had some interesting constraints to work with. The building itself is historic, built in 1914 with a limestone facade and just 12 units, one per floor. Meanwhile, the unit the group was called on to stage had not been updated since about 1980, and it had not been lived in since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“So, it was frozen,” Messman said. “And apartments don’t do well when they’re not lived in. So it was a grand home, and you could just hear the champagne glasses clinking from 1980, the parties that must have happened and so on. And what we needed to do was have somebody come in and feel that they could make that home their own.
“We had to respect it — this is an architectural building of note — and we had to bring it into current times, where people could see the forest through the trees. Obviously, we had to take care of countless condition issues and had to stay on a budget, because everybody has one.”
The property also spanned more than 6,000 square feet and included a grand piano that had to be moved three times. All those factors are a lot to contend with. But ultimately, after hanging over 60 pieces of art throughout the home, the team created a more modern, livable space that recognized its history.
“And in the end, we have a home that you walk into that does not feel old or dusty or musty, but that does kind of hearken back a little to the moment,” Messman said.
Vesta Home, a staging company with offices in LA, New York, Florida and San Francisco, recently staged one of Frank Sinatra’s former estates, where this exact challenge presented itself.
“I think that one of the hidden powers of our designers is to take that interplay [between history and modernity] and to really bring modern style and freshness to a house that has its vintage details,” a rep at Vesta Home said.
Working quickly
Vesta Home has more than once had to complete a staging job under uncomfortable time constraints.
In one case, the homeseller owned some explicit — but expensive — artwork that had remained in the home as part of the staging process. That was fine — until a sensitive prospective buyer came along.
Julian Buckner | Vesta Home
“Then we get this call in the middle of the week, ‘Hey, we need you to come right now, take down all of the owner’s art and put up your art,'” Julian Buckner, founder and CEO of Vesta Home, told Inman. “‘We’ve got a bunch of folks from the Saudi royal family flying in, and they are not going to want to see any art with nudity in it. We’ve got to switch this out.’ And their jet lands in like four hours.”
Somehow, the team made the switch happen.
Time constraints always make projects more challenging, Buckner added, explaining that his favorite projects are those in which developers bring the company on at a project’s conception and they can customize every detail.
“The biggest challenges are the ones where they are expecting that level of customization, but they’re like, we want to list it in a week,” Buckner said.
Remaining in dialogue with sellers and listing agents
A property staged by Laurie Messman at 936 Fifth Ave, New York, New York | Credit: Ed Menashy from Evan Joseph Studios
Understanding the goal and scope of a staging project is also important to success, experts told Inman.
Ruthie Assouline | Douglas Elliman
“I think a stager really, really needs to partner with the brokerage team and understand what the property needs to achieve the goal, which is to be sold,” Messman said. “And sometimes, you wind up saying ‘no.’ I’ve had to say no to projects that I wanted because I didn’t think the scope was correct for the project.”
Being in alignment on vision, scope, timing and budget is essential to ending a deal successfully.
“There is a much higher level of collaboration between the stager and the agent, because staging becomes part of the overall brand positioning of the property, not just a cosmetic step before photography,” Ruthie Assouline of The Assouline Team at Douglas Elliman told Inman in an email. “[Clients] don’t want to know or hear about everything that goes wrong in between; they just want the finished product, delivered to perfection. These clients also understand the value of investing in presentation when the asset is significant.”
The power of ‘complete customization’
Elevating a staging project with complete customization helps wow both sellers and potential buyers.
Adriana Hoyos | Adriana Hoyos Design Studio
“Going above and beyond means curating every detail, from custom furnishings and art to textures and lighting, so the home feels effortless and refined,” Adriana Hoyos, principal at Adriana Hoyos Design Studio, told Inman in an email.
Vesta Home has its own line of custom-built furniture, in addition to staging and interior design arms within the company. And on some of the development projects where they’re budgeted into the project from the get-go, Vesta is able to create something really special.
“Anything is possible…, ” Buckner said. “We’re making custom theater seats that match the velvet on the theater walls, and really a high level of customization. We love that.”
Flexibility with items for sale
A property staged by Vesta Home that was sold fully furnished | Credit: Lila Trejo from Studio Trejo
In addition to giving prospective buyers an idea of the livability of a home and its potential, good staging can also become a big selling point when luxury furnishings, art and more are available for rent or purchase.
Messman said that Two Blu Ducks’ clients tend to either want nothing or everything when it comes to the products the company supplies for homes. Some clients will want everything, but only for a certain number of years, during which they rent the property fully furnished before occupying it themselves.
Vesta Home has seen an increased demand for rental furniture, with more executives moving to and fro for a set number of months or years due to their work. And in LA, for instance, some families who were impacted by the wildfires last year are continuing to rent homes and furniture while they plan their next move.
But the level of items available for rent or purchase doesn’t stop there.
“If you wanted to go even further than the furnishings, we have household packages that get you everything down to the towels and the vacuums …” Buckner said. “We’re national, but really our drill down is the local expertise, is knowing every neighborhood and what sells in that neighborhood.”
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Email Lillian Dickerson
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