2019 will continue to be a significant year for the staging industry in California.
The recent article dated Feb 9, 2019, by Jacob Passy, ‘For residents of the Bay Area and its surrounding communities, it could get more difficult to find a home at an affordable price’, points to tech companies expected to go public this year and looking for housing in San Francisco Bay Area.
Slack Technologies has been a forerunner in San Francisco-based tech companies having just gone public this year to be followed by giants like Uber, Lyft, Airbnb and Pinterest.
How will this impact the real estate market and staging market in San Francisco and Bay Area?
On one hand, these IPOs churning up Silicon Valley millionaires looking for new homes could lead to an increase in the property prices in the San Francisco Bay Area. On the other hand, a better neighborhood can lead to an overall increase in the value of your own home and real estate. So it comes down to accepting and preparing your neighborhood for the impending changes.
Having said this, the need of the hour will be for home sellers, realtors and home stagers to prepare themselves to offer luxury staging/high-end staging. Staging will have to transition from ordinary de-cluttering to an art form for luxury home staging.
The realtor along with the staging company will need to understand the prospective buyer’s fundamental thought process in selecting a luxury villa.
A high-net worth homebuyer looking for a large home in neighborhoods like Palo Alto, California will be looking for a furnished home that provides him with the property’s full potential, highlighting the unique features of the property.
A luxury home stager has to learn ‘to stage to perfection.’ To grasp the staging design, it is important for a stager to work closely with the realtor to understand the local area. It is pertinent to take into account community requirements, the demographics of the potential buyers, the preferences, signature styles of the rich and famous etc. This may require much more than a walk-through of the property. Here, the stager may need to innovate on the latest styles with personal touches to offer a more tailored-made program. Luxury staging may also require custom manufactured products, which blend with the other high value/high-end home accents. Sometime the stager may even require working with an interior designer.
At a luxury level, the home has to mirror the lifestyle of the buyer. Sometimes in high-end staging or luxury staging, the stager may not require taking back the furniture and furnishings when the home sells. The homebuyer as a part of the sale may retain the unique design created by the stager.
Staging is an art, which needs to unceasingly evolve to the changes in the property market. 2019 is a promising year for realtors and home stagers in the San Francisco Bay Area.