I live with my family in merry South Austin; we got here from Southern California just as soon as we could. In 2008, we sold our Los Angeles home during the great financial meltdown. Our realtor said that in such a tough market, it absolutely had to be staged. The very reasonable quote from a professional stager was 4k (the property had a small guest house, plus studio). I wanted to stage it myself, but my realtor was skeptical, explaining that many sellers think they can stage, but it usually doesn't work, since it is nearly impossible to see one's own home objectively. Yet, he loved the completed results! In fact, each realtor who viewed the property assumed I was a professional home stager!

 

Once I saw the benefits of home staging and understood it was an uncommon knack, I began to investigate the field. All my life, I'd been rearranging the rooms of friends and family, helping people complete one-day makeovers, figuring how to do big things on a budget, within a deadline. Any investment property we sold, I staged. Where others might despair, might see a wreck; I saw a dream waiting to be realized. With training and education, I learned how to make radical aesthetic changes in as little as a day's time. Thus was born Keep Austin Staged.

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In the ensuing years, I've added redesign and styling services for homeowners who need a little inspiration or an afternoon miracle. It's been a great thrill to confront fresh challenges and find perfect solutions for homeowners, sellers and realtors. In our view, a design solution is not simply:

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red lamp + red vase + red pillow

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Why? Because, that sort of "boxed package staging" is outdated for today's hip, informed buyer and does little to recommend a house as a home. The KAS team approaches each listing as a custom design, visually resolving potential negatives and highlighting positives. Time and again, we have seen an unstaged or owner-staged property sit up to seven months on the market with no offers, but once staged, these listings often receive multiple offers within a week!

 

Staging is virtually magical. It sometimes feels like a superpower! I love to think of the thousands of dollars - even tens of thousands - our work might make or save for every client with whom we have the privilege of working.

(Check out our testimonials on Houzz.com, Angie's List and Yelp!)

We've staged homes from 200k to 4mil. We approach them all with the same goal:

We are not finished until we ourselves want to live there. There is a certain moment when everything clicks. The moment where I'm ready to move in, even though my team and I were behind the magic and know the secrets of the space.

If feels like: "I never want to leave." 

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Isn't that what you want your next buyer to feel, as well?