Photos by Duality Photographic / A&S Homes
Proper staging can make a home much more attractive to prospective buyers.
Thinking of buying or building a new home?
If so, you need to block off Sept. 7 to 29 on your calendar, because you are going to be very, very busy checking out the plethora of show homes the Manitoba Home Builders’ Association (MHBA) will be displaying during its 2019 Fall Parade of Homes.
Presently, in a flurry of activity usually only witnessed at the height of an intense mosquito-swatting year, the many local builders participating in the parade have their designers working at warp speed to have these beautiful new homes finished inside and out.
Just one of those designers riding this crazy wave is my good friend Lynn Fenwick, of Fenwick & Company Interior Design.
I popped by her office earlier this week to learn a little more of what the staging stage is really all about.
It turns out one doesn’t simply build a new home, fill it up with generic furniture and invite the public in for a look.
"Each builder has a brand," Fenwick says.
"Our job is to create each show home to appeal to potential customers attracted to, and appreciative of, this particular brand. But also, (we aim) to do so in a way that draws interest from peripheral brand folks as well."
One’s "brand," by the way, is how customers identify your business, and staging, accomplished via creating a specific look and feel for each home, is done to make the home appeal to the highest number of potential buyers.
So right now, if you watch closely in and around businesses that sell or rent stuff for staging homes, you will see endless numbers of design elves pushing shopping carts stacked with "home stuff," dragging rental furniture to their vehicles, hauling paintings, throws, area rugs, etc., chosen to help set just the right tone, each of those harried elves looking like they haven’t slept in a while... and won’t, for at least two more weeks.
The construction of all the show homes you’ll soon be touring, along with colours, materials and layouts, all targets differing financial brackets, making this staging challenge a specific one indeed.
My chat with Fenwick has left me feeling entertained and informed, and very much looking forward to having a browse through as many of the show homes as possible, just to see how all that magnificent creativity manifests itself.
I can definitely use some new ideas for dragging my own home of 30-some years into this century as well.
Now, to those of you seriously considering the purchase of a new home, Fenwick has offered the following valuable bit of advice definitely worthy of your consideration.
"Of course, buy what you can afford, but also, with regard to heading off ‘ouchy’ future expenses, focus on expensive, hard-to-make changes like flooring and kitchen cabinets," she says.
"Don’t overspend on the kind of things you’ll probably want to upgrade a little more often down the road."
Great advice!
For a full preview of the upcoming Fall Parade of Homes and more information from MHBA, check out homebuilders.mb.ca.
Comments or feedback, love to hear from you!
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