Professional Home Staging and Tips

If you’re considering selling a home in the next twelve months, we’d love to come out and tour your home with no obligations. I find it has been a regular part of my real estate practice to advise homeowners on preparing their home for market. Whether your looking to stage a vacant home, or simply get professional advice to work with your current furniture and décor, we’re here to help, and we have a team of professional stagers and designers ready to back us up.

If you’re thinking of selling your home in the next twelve months, Stephen would love to tour your home. Call today to set an appointment.

Stephen FitzMaurice, Realtor
4% Max. to Sell a Home
Cancel Anytime Policy
Licensed Since 2003
503-714-1111

Virtual Home Staging – A New Way to Sell Homes

August 14, 2023

Each year we write a report on home staging, how much it costs, what kind of ROI to expect when you hire a professional stager, and more. We’re turning our attention to virtual staging now, a newer way to sell a home that’s quickly growing in popularity. Along the way, we’ll show some real life examples of virtual staging we’ve ordered for our clients (and we always provide this service – if desired and it makes sense for the home – at no extra charge). See everything we do for our home selling clients here, along with our lower than average commission charge. While there is a bit of controversy in the staging industry about the authenticity of virtual staging,...

Home Staging Sells Homes Faster and For More, 2023 Report

July 21, 2023

We are all familiar with the integral role the internet plays in real estate transactions today. When the first stop for many potential buyers is to browse online home listings, up-to-date information and current photos are essential to success in selling your home. High-quality online photos, and now professional 3D home tours, have become the expectation for potential buyers previewing homes from their computer or laptop, and they can make the difference between your home ultimately being sold or sitting on the market longer as buyers flock to homes with beautiful online photography. As a seller, you may wonder how you can achieve the best possible photos of your home that will lead to the ideal sales price. The answer:...

How Much Does Portland Home Staging Cost? 2022 Report

July 11, 2022

Whether you’ve sold a home or not, you’re probably aware of the practice of home staging. The process of transforming a home into an interior design showcase has become common practice in the real estate world. We know staging works, but considering staging costs and the potential return on your investment, is it really worth doing? To help answer this question, we explored Portland’s professional staging services to see what the going rates are in 2022. We also looked to national experts in the real estate world to learn more. Read on to see about what we discovered and decide if home staging is right for you. What is Home Staging, and What Does it Offer Sellers and Buyers? Staging...

Portland Home Staging Works 2021

May 19, 2021

For years now, the importance of quality online photos has increased, as the internet becomes more and more a main jumping off point for potential buyers. But last year, many predicted that importance to shoot up even further. And yes, that did pan out to an extent. Since the pandemic made folks more selective about viewing homes in person, it’s logical that having attractive photos in your online listing becomes crucial to getting boots in the door. And what helps create attractive photos? Professional staging. Conventional wisdom, plus some statistics, show that staging a home increases chances of a favorable sale. Now that we’ve been through a pandemic year, will staging remain more important than it was before? Will what...

Sell your Home with Virtual Staging

April 5, 2021

Given the pandemic, home buyers are increasingly turning to the internet to vet homes before seeing them in person. But while this trend may have intensified due to Covid-19, it didn’t start there. Why see a ton of homes in person when you can filter them by searching online? Prospective buyers, especially millennials, increasingly look toward online photos in their home search. In fact, according to inman.com, 44% of millennials surveyed indicated that they would buy a home solely based on its online photos. Virtual home staging presents a more affordable alternative to traditional home staging, focusing on drumming up online interest. Today we’ll take a look at how virtual home staging works, what it costs in Portland, and how...

How Much Does Portland Staging Cost?

January 13, 2021

Even if you’re a first time Portland home seller, chances are you’ve heard something about the benefits of staging a home. Staging has become a standard feature of many major real estate reality shows, and it is undeniably fun to watch as lived-in homes are transformed into elegantly styled spaces. But one thing these shows never tell you upfront is how big a chunk staging takes out of your wallet. How much does Portland staging cost? (We are going to tell you exactly.) And are you likely to see a return on your investment? We’ve reached out to some trusted Portland staging companies to find out how much staging is likely to cost. Keep reading for our analysis of how...

Portland Home Staging Works 2020

May 25, 2020

We’ve yet to understand the full impacts of the 2020 pandemic on the real estate market, but one thing that is certain is that more home buyers are looking at homes online. They’re clicking through dozens of photos and sometimes taking virtual tours before, or sometimes instead of, touring in person. That means home staging is more important than ever in 2020. Photographs of an empty home typically do not look as good online, and even in 3D virtual tours, furnishings in the room help the buyer to grasp the dimensions and potential functions of the space. Even that being said, staging isn’t the best choice for every home. I’ll explain more as we go. Latest Statistics on the Power of...

Portland Home Staging: Living Room Guide

April 15, 2019

The Portland real estate market for single-family homes is cooling, and the most recent RMLS data shows 30% more homes on the market than there were at this time last year. Homes are spending an average of 75 days on the market before selling, more than they have in the past two years. Many sellers are having to slash their listing price or accept a low offer if they aren’t able to wait months for a full-price buyer to come along. How can you sell your home more quickly in a buyer’s market? Marketing is #1 (check out our listing package here) but staging is also a key component. Research shows that staging a home can cut the number of...

Five Tips for Holiday Home Staging in Portland

December 7, 2018

Selling a home during the holidays? There are some special challenges this time of year. Among them: The fine art of home staging. Buyers’ agents agree that staged homes sell faster than unstaged homes, but, according to a study by the National Association of Realtors, “Where things get interesting is that 38 percent of buyers’ agents said that staging positively affects a home’s value if the home is decorated to the buyer’s taste.” Because every buyer has their own individual tastes, the fundamental rule of home staging is to go for the broadest appeal, especially when it comes to holiday decorations. When buyers walk in, you want them to easily imagine your home as their own Portland getaway — no...

Portland Home Staging Tips – Make a Small Home Feel Spacious

November 16, 2018

Portland real estate activity sees a definite slowdown in the wintertime. Coupled with a cooling seller’s market overall — some markets are in fact favoring buyers — sellers are going to need to work a little harder. Thankfully, there’s the art of home staging. It’s more popular than ever in Portland, the best way to help get buyers excited about homes of all shapes and sizes. This month we look at one of the major staging challenges in a number of Portland homes: a small footprint. Although the average square footage of new construction is declining again after an explosion that happened in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, for a while very large homes were the norm around the country....