Recently, PJ & Company Home Styling worked with Julia B. Fee / Sotheby's International Realty agent Megan Stilwell Posner and her clients to stage their $1.9 million Irvington home pictured below. We asked Megan for her advice and tips on marketing a home for sale and she shares her insights along with Before & After photos of the home below.

When I first met the homeowners and visited the property it was clear that to appeal to the greatest number of buyers it needed staging. The home is fabulous and the property is amazing, however the interior had been decorated 16 years ago when the homeowners first moved in. It was not the modern design aesthetic that younger, affluent buyer's look for. Instead there were many reasons to cross the home off their list - reasons we could easily remedy with staging. I explained to the homeowners that in order to attract the largest number of buyers to their home, that an investment in updating paint and flooring as well as staging was prudent. It would allow the property to hit the marketplace with a strong position, as a move-in ready property, which is highly desirable.   

    The Irvington home's living room Before & After staging. 

A few days after the listing presentation the sellers contacted me. They liked that I had a number of solutions to help them prepare and market their home. What appealed most is the staging solution I recommended. Patti (Stern) would assess the property and propose updates to the home. Most importantly her team would actually handle the work - managing and executing the entire staging plan. Her turnkey, solution-driven approach was a key point of difference from other stagers and brought the sellers on board.

Previously, the seller's had received a seven page recommendation from another stager but the d�cor choices and execution fell on them. The sellers are unfamiliar with current design trends and unequipped to prepare a home for market to appeal to today's young, affluent buyers. It's overwhelming - they don't have the design expertise to choose paint colors, select fixtures or floor coverings or create a compelling story through design. They needed someone to manage the job, make the decisions and ultimately deliver their home back to them ready for the market, so they are free to address their own priorities.

  A guest bedroom gets a fresh coat of paint and new accents to offer buyers  

a fresh, neutral space.

I agree with Barbara! A home has to be neutralized and staged to look like what buyers see in design magazines. Today's younger buyers only see "what is" and have difficulty visualizing how a space may look with a few simple changes. I often walk buyers through a property and they'll comment that they don't like an area rug or paint color. Those things, which are easily changed or not part of the home at all, influence their decision and often will prevent them from considering a property.

Ultimately, sellers who stage deliver buyers a tremendous value by eliminating the coordination which is involved in painting, switching electrical fixtures, etc. A couple with two incomes will pay premium dollar for a move-in condition home because their schedules simply do not have the time in them to manage such projects.

There are three key points I communicate with my sellers about staging. First, I explain to sellers the difference between decorating for yourself and your family versus staging to sell. Many sellers have taken tremendous pains to decorate their homes for their families - they see their favorite color and personal d�cor as assets and to their families they are. But, when they go to sell the goal is to appeal to as large a buyer pool as possible, which means neutralizing and depersonalizing. Making that distinction between decorating to live in a home and staging to sell a property is a key difference.

Secondly, selling a home is difficult on sellers. They are living in a way they don't typically live, maintaining a 'model home' look day to day. It's an inconvenience and wearing both emotionally and physically if the home is on the market for any extended period of time. Staged homes, typically, sell in a shorter number of days, shortening the discomfort of keeping a home looking perfect.

Finally, a home that is not updated or move-in condition will stay on the market longer and will not yield the highest price. A home is the single largest asset most couples have and staging is a smart investment sellers can make on their way out the door. In my experience, staging is substantially less than any initial price reduction, which must be considered if the property does not receive offers.

The Irvington home has received very positive reaction from agents and buyers. It looks phenomenal and is in move-in condition. The sellers were hugely relieved to have the work managed and executed by Patti and her team - who quickly and with minimal disruption got the home updated and ready for the spring market.

According to the National Association of Realtors, 90% of home buyers begin their search online. That means a properties first showing is online. Having a home photographed by an architectural photographer is key. Like staging, architectural photography is a key ingredient to presenting a property in it's best light. It is crucial to  capture buyers who are surfing the web's attention. I achieve this by utilizing a team of experts who prepare and photograph the property to tell a compelling story about the property and encourage people to schedule an in person viewing.

Megan Stilwell Posner is a Real Estate Professional with Julia B. Fee / Sotheby's International Realty in Bronxville, NY. See all her properties for sale including the  Irvington home and contact her online here.