By Beth L. Bliffen – President of Homes Enhanced, Home Staging, Redesign and Model Home Interiors

According to the National Association of Home Builders, “completed homes represent 33% of an inventory of 536,000 units or 7.1 months supply”.  When the goal of every New Home builder is to close escrow on the day of home completion, this statistic is certainly not ideal. 

With sales of newly built homes slipping in May by 1.6 percent, New Home Builders are offering more than “Incentives to home buyers”.  Many of the Home Buyers in today’s market are "Contingent" upon the success of selling their existing home, so if they can't manage to sell their existing home, everyone loses. 

When New Home Builders offer to bring in a Professional Home Stager to stage their Contingent Home Buyers home, in a “neutral model home feeling”, their prospective buyers can envision living in the seller’s home.  When homes are presented in their best possible light, home buyers are better motivated to offer top dollar, and when the home buyer connects emotionally and is able to visualize living there, a sale usually occurs.  The odds of a “staged” home selling are increased, and sell 2-3 times faster than non-staged homes.  It is a proven fact that homes staged by a Professional Home Stager, will and does sell quicker. Therefore, the cost to the New Home Builder is nominal, when compared to the cost of losing the sale, makes my home staging cost effective to the New Home Builder.

New Home Builders understand the value of "home marketing" better then most home buyers selling their homes.  The reasons they are purchasing a new home are, the "models they fell in love with", and the price.  This is what a Home Stager does best……to assist those same buyers in creating their “own model home look”, especially when moving forward and the new house is on the line, and until their existing home sells and closes escrow. No one moves “in or out”. 

Some New Home Builders are staging their “Standing Inventory Production Homes” in addition to their model homes, due to the high carrying costs of standing inventory.  Home staging is one of the most valuable services that a New Home Builder can benefit from.  The cost to stage a home compared to full merchandising by interior designers is and can be the difference of thousands of dollars per home.  One New Home Builder recently saved $15,000 per home, by Home Staging instead of Interior Merchandising.  Also, when a New Home Builder decides not to merchandise model homes, but decides to show “vacant production homes”, to keep costs in line, it is this type of showcasing that prospective home buyers don’t relate to and typically don’t purchase.  When a home is vacant, there is no place for the “eye to rest” and home buyers often walk through and go on to the next house or model home community.  Staged homes appear warmer, less formal and more like “a home” to potential buyers and this usually means quicker sales and higher offers. In fact, many New Home Builders are offering home staging services to their home buyers as move-in gifts.

Home staging is not complicated, but a simple matter of economics.  Improve upon a product and the demand increases.  In a market place where there are fewer Home Buyers (less demand) than Home Sellers, it is imperative to compete by presenting the home in the best of lights.  New Home Builders are competing with existing Home Sellers who may have more flexibility over price, and are not unfamiliar with home staging   More and more of the average population are enlisting the services of Professional Home Stagers because they can see the intrinsic value of not only increasing the value of the property, but also reducing the time a property stays on the market.