Well-staged properties will achieve more money and sell faster, says a home stager who has spent the last 15 years renovating and styling homes across Norfolk.
Jacqueline Keay and her husband moved to Norfolk on something of a whim, she says, swapping their life in Scotland for a change further south.
“We thought we’d be here for two or three years, but we completely fell in love with Norfolk and everything about it. And 15 years later, we’re still here.”
When they moved they had their then two-year old son, and Jacqueline says she struggled to juggle motherhood with her career as a police officer, so she left the force and discovered her passion for property.
“It’s quite hard to do shift work, with a young child and no family support here, so that’s when I started my renovations. I’ve been renovating properties in Norfolk for the best part of 15 years,” she explains.
“Mainly properties that I’ve lived in and then, later on, I picked up some clients who needed help with their renovations or interiors and it’s grown from there.”
She’s just set up her own business – Nest Norfolk – where she will offer guidance on everything from interior design and renovation to home styling and staging – whether it’s someone’s permanent home they’re hoping to sell or setting up a holiday let.
She’s previously staged homes for local brand Sowerbys and says her own experience in renovations also lends itself to assisting other bespoke developers – of which Norfolk has many.
“I’ve done it myself,” she says. “I know what their expectation is. They want to sell their property, they want to sell it fast and they want to sell it high.”
Having flipped houses of her own, Jacqueline also knows the value a properly-presented house can bring to a sale. “It’s been proven time and time again that staged properties will achieve more money and will sell faster,” she says. “You might have the most beautiful property in the world but it can always be improved by enhancing the good bits and detracting from the bits that are maybe not quite so great.
“No matter what you read – whether it be on American websites or UK websites – they all say the same thing: if you invest in, say, 1pc of your property value, you can expect to return three to six or even 10pc, depending on the market.
“It works in hot markets and when things are a bit slower as well, because the last thing an agent wants to do is tell their vendor ‘we may have to reduce your property’. Everyone wants to sell their home for the best possible price, so doing it properly is what’s going to achieve that.”
Jacqueline says that good-quality pictures of a well-staged home will help encourage more viewings, and once prospective buyers are over the threshold, the most important thing you can do, as a seller, is to create an emotional connection – the nurturing quality of ‘nesting’, which inspires the business name.
Jacqueline says most personal belongings should be kept hidden away – including the dog basket – to avoid people feeling like they are walking into your private space, but it’s important to create a sense of balance: it needs to be homely but not personal and, well-used, the right furniture and lighting can help emphasise the space.
“It’s very hard to connect to an empty room,” she explains. “If you can imagine yourself living in a space, your heart takes over your head and I think that’s really important. You’re not just buying bricks and mortar, you’re buying your life and how you’re going to live. How a property flows and how it’s going to work for you.
“It’s just making people engage a little more with what they’re buying. I mean, it’s a lot of money – as much as most people ever make in their lives – and some people are a bit nervous.
I’ve got more vision than most – I can see the potential – but if you haven’t, if you need help with that, staging is another way of doing that. You can actually show the potential – even more so in houses that might need some work doing. “I’m good at it. I’m like ‘yeah, I love it, let’s buy it, let’s start knocking walls down’, but other people need their hand held. They need to be reassured that this is the right thing.”
But just because you’re trying to sell your home doesn’t mean you need to “ship out”, she says.
“Obviously if someone’s already in a house and they’ve got furniture, we can work on what they’ve already got. Sometimes it can just be soft furnishings and lighting – I think lighting is key in any room. It might just be a bit of rearranging, a bit of styling, and then to give them some advice, from an outsider’s view. How they would see it, coming in. Not everyone wants to hear that but ultimately it’s what is going to sell your house.”
Jacqueline says she has a team of contractors ready and waiting, but admits she always likes to “muck in” herself. “If I can do it myself, I will,” she laughs. “I have no patience.”
But what she does have is excitement for the future. “When you have a job or something that earns you a living, you want to do something that you love,” she says. “I’m really motivated now, so I just want to get cracking!”
To find out more, find @nestnorfolk on Instagram or visit nestnorfolk.co.uk
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