I recently had the opportunity to attend a local REIA meeting where the presenter was a professional staging company. A staging company will come into your renovated flip or rehab project and add furniture and design elements to help the buyer “see” the potential of the space. This has a huge impact on the buyers to help them imagine themselves living in that new home. It helps them figure out where the furniture will go, which wall the bed would be on, how they will make the dining spaces work, and even visualize a potential office space in a nook or larger hallway.
The results shared were that these staged homes sell faster and usually for more than listed prices. That is a great thing for house flippers and rehabbers. But how can a landlord use this technique to rent an apartment? As a landlord, I want to have the turn over and make ready for an apartment done as quickly as possible. There have been many instances where I am just moving out the tools and cleaning supplies as the new residents are moving in the first boxes.
A home staging contract can take up to three (3) months and cost several thousand of dollars to rent the furniture and decorations to stage a home. You can then take professional photos of the space and use those to market the listing. This is a great idea that has a fantastic return on investment if it can result in tens of thousands of dollars to the bottom line of your rehab project.
For rental apartments we are looking at hundreds of dollars for monthly rents, not thousands. It would be great to be able to stage an apartment to get those high-end marketing photos, but then that’s all we need. The goal is to get rented as quickly as possible, let alone the expense of three months keeping the apartment empty while the staging furniture sits there looking pretty. We need to move inventory fast and collect rents. You can never recoup a lost month of rent.
So how can a landlord benefit from such a great marketing technique, without breaking the bank or losing months of rental revenue?
So how do you do it?
The professional stager pointed out the main rooms that need to be enhanced for the sale. You could probably guess kitchens and bathrooms, right? But here is a list of the rooms that can potentially increase the likelihood of closing the deal if they are properly staged:
- Kitchen
- Bathroom
- Master Bedroom
- Office/flexible spaces
- Living Room
So how can I reap the benefits of home staging without backing up a truck load of furniture and bangles? Portable storage bins! Yup, it is that simple. I suggest picking up a few medium-sized clear, see-through storage bins and use these as a quick, and portable, method to do micro staging projects in your rentals. Pick out each room you want to stage and pick up a few items that can easily be stored in these bins. Then, when you are ready to do some quick staging to spruce up your rentals, you are ready to go on the fly. Toy can move them into the rental in a few minutes from your car, stage the apartment for some great photos, and even leave them in place for showings for a extra added touch renters do not see in a typical showing.
The Kitchen
The kitchen is pretty simple. You want to have a clean working space on the counter tops without clutter. Typically no more than three items on the counter. This could be a decorative canister set, a cookbook place on a book stand opened to a colorful photo of a recipe, and a little green. You can find mini plants or even fake plants at a home decor store like Michael’s, Bed n Bath, or HomeGoods. It is not too hard to make the space feel lived in without a truck load of furniture.
For a micro kitchen stage you should consider having:
- A selection of two or three canister sets so your pictures won’t all look the same
- Two or three fake green plants, or real plants make a nice house warming gift
- A few cookbooks with great pictures and a book stand
- Possibly a small portable folding table and table cloth with a few folding chairs
- A few decorative place settings with cloth napkins, placements, silverware, and a glass
You can decorate the counter tops with the cookbook, canisters, and a little green. Place the table in a convenient spot to show them where they could place the kitchen table. Then set it up with the table cloth, a stylish place setting, and your marketing materials. This staging space can now double as a place for potential renters to fill out a rental application.
The Master Bedroom
No need to move in a king-sized bed to show a renter it will fit. All you need to do is show the renter the space is large enough to accommodate that size. A simple solution without cluttering up the space and breaking your back is to have two small folding tables, the kind of serving trays you use to eat in front of the TV, and place them as night stands the distance apart to span a king-sized bed. Or, if you can find a set of night stands that are relatively easy to move, you can use them. Finally, a few inexpensive lamps on the nightstands will enhance the concept.
Here again is a great opportunity to introduce some green into your living space. A floor potted plant, real or fake, will help make the space feel lived in.
If you have great looking floors, shine them up with a product like rejuvenate. Not so much, a colorful decorative rug placed where the bed will go will suffice. Again, this is not a full-blown staging effect we are going after here. We just want to help the potential renter visualize the space, all on a shoestring budget.
The Bathroom
Another room to enhance the viewer experience is the bathroom. For starters, it must be immaculate. Not only should it be super spotless clean, but it should smell clean too. After you have it clean and ready to stage, then a few knick-knacks can help to personalize the space. A fancy soap dispenser on the sink top and one of those mini green fake plants on the other side if space is tight. If you have a double vanity then consider placing a medium sized green plant between the sinks. If there are shelfs in the bathroom, then a few sea shells or small framed tropical pictures or vintage bath themes will make the space warm and inviting.
Finally, you cannot go wrong with big fluffy white towels, hands towels, and face cloths. Take a few minutes to place them in a pleasant decorative presentation. Fold and place towels on the towels holders and for an added touch of class, you can tie a decorative ribbon around the towels on the rack with a nice big bow in the front.
Short on Time and Sweet on Results
So there you have it landlords. You can do all of this in a few hours in your rentals and have a competitive edge to get your vacant units rented. Take some great marketing photos, and get that apartment rented, and down the road you will still have great photos the next time you need to rent that space. If the renter loves the decorations then offer to include them in the rental to close the deal.
A few last words on the other rooms in the apartment. Always have a plant available to add some green. A medium to large floor plant in the corner of a living room adds character. You can also use the same end table and rug techniques from above to help visualize the furniture set up in the living room.
A small table with you laptop (for staging only) will help identify a possible office space. As a final touch you can hang a few colorful generic pictures over where you would place the couch, bed, or larger furniture. The ides is to suggest the space without breaking the bank or you back. Get it staged, get a renter, and start collecting those rents again.
Do you have any other ideas on this topic you could share to help our online community? Please chime in to share a comment or review. All feedback is welcomed!
Warmest regards,
Brian Lucier
Belaire Property Management
Regional Property Manager
(978) 448-0669
info@belaire.co
www.belaire.co
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