Business Profiles

The Art of Home Staging; An Elegant Touch

Darpan, 23 Nov, 2014

"You only have five seconds to make a good first impression on a buyer when selling your home," says Rita Chohan, founder and owner at 'An Elegant Touch,' a home staging company based in Vancouver. Over the past few years home staging has emerged as a promising prerequisite before a seller puts their property on the market. It is a proven real estate strategy that a staged home will sell for a higher price and significantly faster than an unstaged home.

Currently in its burgeoning stage, home staging is somewhat misunderstood by a lot of people. It is the art of transforming a house from its present state so that it appeals in the best way possible to potential buyers. A smart way to describe it is by perceiving the entire concept as 'packaging.' Despite market fluctuations, staging assists in amplifying the face of your property and darts the selling process while garnering maximum profit to the seller.

Coming from a family of business pioneers, Chohan reflects extensive experience and is highly passionate to deliver her clients with profitable results. Her father, Ashok Sharma, was amongst the first ones to establish a business on Main Street.

"He was one of those people that fought to get the names in Punjabi written on Main Street." Chohan herself operated a boutique on Main Street called 'Ashoka Boutique'. The boutique registered itself as the first Indian boutique in Western Canada and was also the first to bring in ready-made garments from India, thus introducing sophisticated and trendy Indian designs for women in Vancouver. Chohan was the initiator for fashion shows at various events and these were aired on multiple television shows. However, upon getting married, Chohan diverted her time and attention completely towards her family.

Today Chohan stands as a successful entrepreneur with proven staging techniques that when applied will help your house sell faster and for top dollar. 'An Elegant Touch' excels in the following services:

    > Home Staging for vacant or occupied homes
    > Interior Design for Homeowners
    > Color Consultation for new-build or renovations

For realtors, staging serves as an advantage and opens broader prospects for the property in the buyer's market. This is the reason why more and more realtors are opting for staging as a regular practice and are encouraging sellers to look at it as an investment in order to get maximum profit. In case of developers, if there is a condo project or town house project on board "then what we do is we stage one home fully," states Chohan. This works as a display replica and showcases what a buyer can expect.

Conversely for individual occupied homes, Chohan would come in and work with the homeowner to prepare the property for sale. She suggests that adding the slightest change can add a big difference. "You would be surprised that even the smallest things bring out a big difference. It might just be the bedding or some artwork."

What separates 'An Elegant Touch' from other businesses in the industry is Chohan's exquisite style along with her distinctiveness in the staging process. Since the conception of the company, Chohan has laid emphasis on making the home staging process a lot more feasible and affordable. "My style is a little different. I do bring in a lot of glamour and elegance and it looks great," suggests Chohan who is known in the industry and amongst realtors as someone who brings in the 'wow factor' in her designs. It is no surprise that one of her houses was featured on Love it or List it Vancouver.

"If it was an empty house, they wouldn't have chosen it, but because it was staged, it was featured on Love it or List it Vancouver," says Chohan while highlighting the significance of a furnished home. This is for a number of reasons including- an empty space makes buyers focus on negative details, they cannot visualize how the furniture will fit, and your prospective buyer is further unable to observe the flow of one room to another leading them to center their thoughts on other details such as "the ceiling is too low/too high."

Something that is underestimated is the role and power of photographs. Gone are the days when a buyer would literally hunt prospective properties with their realtors by visiting several houses.

In this tech savvy age, buyers have the luxury to sit at home and scrutinize properties and prepare a final list by examining photographs. That is why home staging makes sense because you are dressing your home and doing the basic marketing to get the best price within a fixed time frame. "You wouldn't sell a dirty car so why would you sell an empty home. It (home staging) works really well for homes that are too big and you want to make them look cozy or if the home is very small and you want to make it look big."

Her team will bring in furniture, artwork, beddings and literally everything essential that will make your house catch the buyer's attention within those crucial five seconds. As part of the initial research Chohan studies the demographics of the location and then executes her staging.

The success of 'An Elegant Touch' can be analyzed from the fact that Chohan has over 40 homes staged at the point of writing. Her clients have seen excellent results and often call her back to design the house they move into. "Most of them are repeat clients who come in and say 'we want you to do our house too now, we loved what you did to the previous house'. I take it on."

The moment you decide to sell your house, it becomes a product. The art of home staging will assist in reducing your property's market time which is a key factor. "If your house has been on the market for six months, you have actually lost money." At 'An Elegant Touch' Chohan serves the purpose of maximizing her clientele's equity by adding that vital touch of home staging to your house.