How To Find A Good Home Staging Consultant So you've looked around your home, looked at your timeframe to sell and realistically looked at what resources & skills you have to get your home ready to sell.
You've seen the TV shows where the House Doctor waves her magic wand, the house doctor team whirl in and whirl out leaving a greatly improved property.
But what do you do if you can't entice the House Doctor herself to come to you and makeover your home? Well taking a quick look at the internet and typing in 'Home Staging' or 'House Doctors' into a search box will give you literally hundreds of thousands of results.
So how do you go about choosing a reputable and effective home staging consultant from a dodgy get-rich-quick merchant or a someone who just wants to dabble in interiors? Here are my top tips to choosing and using a good home staging consultant who will get you the results you desire...
a fast sale at a good price.
Tip 1: Know what it is you want/ need to achieve! This may sound obvious...
'Sell your home' but take a look at your property realistically.
I always recommend that you start with a pen and paper.
Walk through your property making some notes of the obvious things that you think may need doing.
A good friend or even a friendly Estate Agent could help you to identify problem areas.
Tip 2: Decide realistically what the scope of the work is

• You just need a wash & brush up.
  

• You need a little bit more in the way of painting & decorating.
  

• You need a complete overhaul.
  

Tip 3: Be realistic about your own strengths & weaknesses: WHAT MONEY DO I HAVE?WHAT AM I REALLY CAPABLE OF DOING?WHAT'S MY TIMEFRAME?

With this 'clearer picture' in mind you can also take a realistic view at your own resource:

• How much time do you have to give the project?

• What skills do you have to complete the work?

• What money do you have to put into the process?

• What is the timeframe? Sell by next year or next month!

It may be that although you do have the skills, 'time' is the issue or You have the skills and the time but limited resources...
you are considering doing the work yourself.

• "how long has your property been on the market"

• "what size of property is it"

• "What feedback have you had from the estate agents/ potential buyers?"

• "What are other properties selling for? Is yours realistically priced?"

• "Does your area draw a certain type of buyer? Family/ first time/ retired?"

• "Does your property seem likely to appeal to that buyer?"

There are many other questions that you could be asked but all demonstrate a basic understanding of the process of gauging a new property and it's issues.
You should be getting a 'feel' of the way that the Home Staging Consultant works.
Using the information from 1,2 & 3 you can work out whether you are looking for someone who can:

• Prepare the report to tell you what to do - and you do the work.
  

• Prepare a report and carry out some of the work for you.
  

• Completely manage the whole process from report through to sale of property.
  

Tip 4: Now we come to those Home Staging Consultants.
DO THEY SOUND INTERESTED IN YOU AND YOUR PROJECT? Don't just choose to call the ones with the most attractive website:

• Who are these consultants?

• Where did they train or learn their skills? Have you heard of this training?

• Do they show a portfolio of case studies of their work?

• Do you think that their 'before ' & 'after' pictures make a difference?

• Do they show client endorsements?

• Have they been in business long? Track record?

• Do they give you information on how they charge/ organise their work/ produce reports?

• Did they sound interested in you and your project?

• Did they ask relevant questions?

Tip 5: A good Home Staging Consultant will start to give you advice and ideas before you pay anything: Look at their website, look at their brochure or listen to their conversation...
are they confident that they can help you, are they already talking positively about the project, have they looked at the photos that may be on the estate agents website? Those consultants who are confident won't be afraid of giving you ideas and advice for nothing...
they know that because they do and sound confident, you can trust them!