Target Marketing & Lifestyle Staging: A New Paradigm in Home Staging
Why Stage
When selling a property, real estate agents use a broad range of marketing tools to attract buyers. Home Staging is increasingly becoming one of the most successful of these tools for many of the most successful real estate agents. They recognize that staging a property has a return on investment of as much as 500%
At a recent Real Estate Staging Association (RESA) panel discussion, staging advocate and top NYC agent Deanna Kory, SVP at The Corcoran Group stated that she “stages every listing in one form or another”. Kory went on to say “ A home that is staged and properly presented is a home that will sell for a lot more money. And often the prices that are achieved exceed even my expectations.”
Once a home has been staged, it will show better, it will photograph better, it will look better on the Internet and in marketing brochures. A National Association of Realtors survey estimates that 90% of potential home buyers now start their search for a new home on the Internet. Better looking photographs attract more potential buyers. A sale can vanish with a single click of the mouse!. Nickian Home Staging can maximize a home’s appeal to as many buyers as possible. The more appealing a home is, the more likely it will sell quickly and for more money.
A New Staging Paradigm
The home staging industry is changing to be more effective. There is a new paradigm shift, developed in part by Matthew Finlason, host of HGTV’s “The Stagers”. Nickian Home Staging has successfully embraced the techniques employed by Finlason after attending his Advanced Staging and Marketing course. This new model makes it critical to target your buyer when preparing a home for sale. Home staging has evolved from simply de-cluttering, de-personalizing and neutralizing a home, in an attempt to appeal to the widest range of buyers. This is a somewhat one size fits all or blanket approach, which under many circumstances can be counter-productive. We are now moving towards better understanding the target buyer and focusing on what these buyers want. It is about creating an installation where the dreams and aspirations of the buyer are addressed. Nickian Home Staging is at the forefront of this new trend using Target Marketing and Lifestyle Staging concepts.
Step 1: Target Marketing
Target marketing involves breaking down a market into segments and then concentrating your marketing efforts on one or more of a few key segments. Imaging pitching a baseball to the batter with your eyes closed or practicing archery with a blindfold on. In both cases, being prevented from seeing your target would make it almost impossible to hit. This concept is also true in real estate. Selling a home without knowing who your target market is, will prevent you from reaching your objective. Target marketing is the key to increased sales. You need to know the answers to the following questions to successfully market your property:
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Who is your buyer?
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Why would they buy this home?
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What is their demographic?
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What is their psychographic?
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What is the demographic and psychographic of the neighborhood?
Step 2: Lifestyle Staging
Once we identify the target buyer of a property we zero in on their lifestyle. We combine our research, analysis of the likely buyer’s demographic and psychographic profiles with our design aesthetics. Once all that research has been done it is critical to know how to translate this information into a meaningful and successful staging design plan. When staging a home, we are telling a story, mindful of the dreams, aspirations and lifestyle of the targeted buyers rather than presenting a neutralized, sterile looking presentation. Every piece of furniture, artwork, and accessory that we use in our story is carefully and thoughtfully selected. Home buyers buy a lifestyle.