Many people ask me where I see the future of home staging, or whether I think it’s a fad that will die out and people will stop decorating their homes to sell quickly and for top dollar.

We’ll eventually get to the point where staging a house is something that you just do when it’s time to sell

Look what happened to “home inspections.” Most people today wouldn’t buy a home without having it inspected first in order to make sure that the roof doesn’t leak, the foundation is solid, the furnace works, etc. There was a time when nobody did home inspections, and now it’s an accepted practice. That’s where I see home staging going.

In fact, I’m already seeing that in certain neighborhoods in Toronto. That certainly wasn’t the case five years ago, but there are neighborhoods like Leaside, Riverdale and the Beach, where a good percentage of sellers always stage their homes when they put them on the market. It’s something they know that they have to do to stand out from the competition. It’s part of the process of selling a home. That will eventually be the case in most locations, especially major cities.

The future for home staging is very strong

It’s not like the world is suddenly going to say, “Let’s just go back to buying really ugly houses.” That’s not going to happen. Greater numbers of people are becoming increasingly savvy about what a difference design can make, yet they don’t have the time or talent to do it themselves.

You only have to look at prime time television to see that. There was a time when HGTV didn’t exist, but even when it first started, it was a real fringe thing. Only certain kinds of people watched decorating shows, and now everybody watches!

Oprah is always talking about decorating and design. There are home makeover shows on prime time networks and there are thousands of decorating (or “shelter”) magazines, so more and more people are becoming aware of the difference it makes when things look good and they aspire to live the lifestyle they see portrayed.

Besides, as more home sellers hire real estate stagers, others will realize they have to follow the practice otherwise their un-staged homes will look even worse by comparison.

Home Staging Marries the Sexy Topics of Decorating and Making Money in Real Estate

As people continue to look for ways to make money in real estate, home staging becomes part of the equation, so that’s never going away. Home staging marries the two sexy topics of decorating and making money in real estate, and people are always going to be interested in those two topics. I don’t see home staging being something that’s a flash in the pan and then suddenly disappearing. I see it continuing to grow.

Home Staging Growth Will Follow a Bell Curve Like Most Services or Products

Product introductions and markets follow what’s called a “bell curve.” The bell curve is like the outline of an upside down bell or a soup bowl that’s turned upside-down. In home staging today, we’re still going up the left side of the bowl. We’re at the introduction phase of home staging, but we’re starting to climb.

When you reach the top of the bowl or bell, and it flattens out, that’s when a market is mature, and it stays that way for a long time before it eventually begins to decline. But as I said, I don’t think home staging is going to decline, because people are always drawn to things that look better. It’s human nature.

There are studies that say people make up their minds about a house within minutes of walking through the front door.

In fact, some people spend less time deciding which house to buy than deciding which big screen TV to buy. It’s crazy. It’s because we respond to a home on an emotional basis. We shop with logic but we buy on emotion. When you walk through a house, you decide very quickly whether you love it or you don’t, and that’s always going to be the case.

Home staging creates an environment where more people are likely to fall in love when they walk through the front door, and that’s not going to change. I see that continuing to increase, and as more people begin to understand that, more people will realize that staging is something that they really need to do before they put their houses on the market.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva ®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Entrepreneur and Home Staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, knows how to make money as a home stager. Discover her secrets to home staging business success in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Free quiz to see if a home staging business is right for you!

[tags]home staging, home stager, make money in staging, home based business, business for decorators, real estate trends, real estate staging, HGTV, Staging Diva, Debra Gould[/tags]