Blog Post

The New Year is a great time to make an exciting change in your life, and what better time than to move into a new home that is built specifically with your active lifestyle in mind.   This is YOUR year to get rid of that big house, walking up and down stairs, high utility bills, upgrade costs, and all that yard work!   You can give yourself the gift of more free time to enjoy life.   All that and more can be yours when you live in a Cornerstone Homes community in the best places in Virginia.  With a variety of home designs to choose from, the next step will be to sell your current one.  Stage your home – sell it faster! 

At Cornerstone Homes, our Cornerstone Concierge Program is designed to make each part of the moving process easy, including staging your old home to maximize its sales price.  One of our staging experts and team member Ann Pershing, owner of Show Simply Home Staging, is here to assist you with all of your staging needs!

We recently sat down with Ann to talk about why staging is important in today’s real estate market, how she got started in this business, and how she’ll support you during your exciting move to a carefree lifestyle:

Tell us about your background and your company, Show Simply Home Staging:

Most of my career was spent in the insurance business, including management consulting for an in-house consulting firm. We helped our agents with marketing, sales promotions, hiring staff, office setup, and systems. I always knew I wanted to own my own business.

Being married to an Army officer, we moved many times and our homes always sold quickly. Through all the moves, I realized I had a talent and natural eye for staging homes.  After making Richmond our permanent home, I decided it was time to launch Show Simply Home Staging and do what I love. With the creation of Show Simply, I was able to merge my personal and professional experiences and create a brand that reflects simplicity and affordability, and offers solutions to buyers who want to market their homes, no matter the price range.

Why is staging so important for today’s sellers?  

Today's buyers are a generation who have grown up on HGTV and DIY Network — there’s an expectation that homes appear as they do on TV. They are consumers who buy everything online, including cars, groceries, etc. And naturally, they begin to make home buying decisions based on the online listing/photos of a home. Buyers today will literally move on to the next listing with just a swipe. Staging is all about marketing a home.

 “Our Pre-Listing Consultation begins at the curb and continues room by room through your home. We look at your home from a buyer's perspective with a fresh set of eyes. Our suggestions and recommendations are simple and affordable, offering common sense solutions. We never look at your home in judgment… only in optimizing its selling potential. Show Simply uses what you already have and displays it in a way that highlights your home's best features. Our goal is to provide tools to prepare your home for an online invitation with photos that pop and a listing that beckons a buyer. The end product is a home simply ready to show,” says Ann.

 How can staging a home to sell benefit those that are also rightsizing?

Staging and rightsizing go hand in hand.   When you “right size” you are also decluttering and getting rid of items you don’t need or use.   As part of the staging process, you are already ahead of the game when you are right sizing into a new home.  

5 Tips for Staging Your Home

1. Make sure your home is "show ready" before listing. It’s better to wait and list a property right than to throw it out on the market to see what happens.  
2. Hire a professional photographer.
3. Clean, clean, clean!
4. Declutter, edit, pre-pack… less is more.
5. Open blinds and remove most curtains (especially valances). Let the natural light in.
6. Update your paint color scheme — neutral is best! Update light fixtures as well. 

Our preferred stagers are a tremendous asset to our homeowners making this exciting move to a new home and lifestyle.  For more information about our homes and active adult communities throughout Virginia, please call 804-215-0766.  You deserve this new lifestyle.  Cheers to new beginnings in 2020 and make this YOUR time!