 and welcome to episode 357 of the Private Property Podcast. I'm your host, Usaman Domo Akumalo. It's the Thursday edition of the Private Property Podcast. If you're joining us for the first time, welcome to the show. You're tuned into the only daily property show in South Africa catering to your property needs. Make sure that you catch up with all the great episodes that you have missed out on across our social media pages right here on Private Property. And to our regular viewers on Facebook and Instagram and on YouTube, welcome back. You know how we do it every single weekday. You and I have an appointment at 7 p.m. We're always in conversation with a property expert who helps us navigate our property journey. And it doesn't matter where you are on the property journey, whether you're looking to buy, to build, to sell, to rent. We're certainly here to help you along the way. And we talk about helping you along the way. You know that we also have awesome programs every weekday at 8 p.m. that you can tune into right here across Private Property's social media pages. As it is a Thursday, Malimogba brings you the farm and podcasts, tackling all things agriculture. And that comes to your screens every Thursdays as well as on Tuesdays. And Mondays and Fridays, you can look forward to Chad, who brings you the Home Shoppers show, where he always takes us through incredible properties that you can find on www.privateproperty.co.za. And on Wednesdays, Estie Carson brings you the First Time Home Buyers show, which is always in conversation with people who have not only walked that first time home buying journey, but have gone on to grow their property portfolios from strength to strength. And of course, there's myself, Zamaat Doha, Kumalo, always holding your hand as we make better property decisions. And of course, you can follow myself on Twitter as well as on Instagram at Zamaat Doha underscore K. But one of the great things you know that we love doing on Private Property is running amazing competitions. We've racked up one that we've been running for the past few weeks too. Watch out on our social media pages. We are going to be kickstarting a new competition that you can look forward to. And because we love making sure that we only spend a chance of walking away with something, especially as we also build up to the festive season and build up to episode 400. That's going to be coming up in December. So we're quite excited for hitting that 400 mark episode. And we want to make sure that we obviously take you along with this as we get excited and start prepping for that. And this evening, we're going to be looking at something that I'm very excited about because I like things that look good. I think if anything, I'm very big on making sure that we have just homes that look good, but also when we want to sell our homes that will make them look good. We're going to be looking at why sellers and agents should consider home staging. And I'm joined by Vanessa de Villiers who's the owner at Space Energy Home Staging. Vanessa, good evening and thank you so much for joining us on the show. Good evening and thank you very much for having me. It's such a pleasure to have you on the show this evening, Vanessa. And then before we even look at the benefits that home staging provides the sellers and of course agents, let's look at what home staging essentially is. And the benefit of these women may not have a sense of what it is we're talking about, what exactly is home staging. Thank you very much for that question because that's actually quite an important one. People in South Africa don't understand the concept and they don't realize that we are actually in South Africa. It's very big in the States. And home staging is the beautification and the styling and furnishing of empty houses in preparation of show days. So we've got a whole warehouse full of furniture. We choose the furniture to suit the style of the house. We go and place it. And then the agents are able to show the potential buyers what the properties will look like with furniture in it. And to our viewers at home, I think one of the things that's happening to all three of us, and when I say three, I mean myself, Vanessa, and my colleague behind the scenes, we know that it's rainy season and some of us unfortunately are not having the greatest weather behind the scenes. So if you hear or ever see that our signal is slightly sketchy because of that, so don't be alarmed. I want to let you know because for a moment that I had lost my sense and I remember, no, I know that part of the silly rainy seasons does mean that unfortunately our connectivity gets affected. So we do apologize for that if it affects the connection throughout the show. Now, Vanessa, one of the big things is you highlighted how this is not something that's particularly big or as big in South Africa relative to other markets. I mean, in the States, as you pointed out, it's massive. I mean, to the point where with social properties, they almost know that part of the home buying journey or the home selling journey rather is making sure that you have a staging company that comes in and they do their job and it aids in your property getting sold. Perhaps, you know, share some light for us on how you found home staging aiding in a property selling faster because I'm sure some people are still not quite understanding. Well, we've got a nice home. Maybe all I just need to do is just, you know, clean it up a little bit. You know, how does bringing in professionals to stage that home aid in that property selling faster? The potential buyers don't want to see the home owners, the current home owners, living in the property. They want to see themselves in the property. So we depersonalize the property completely. We take away, you know, if it's an occupied staging, we take away any photos. We really make it basically where people can visualize themselves living in the property. And that's why it's very important because you don't want to walk into a house and see that this is where somebody else lives. You want to see yourself living in there. You know, you want to become one with the property and not know that you're going to be sharing it with somebody. Yeah, yeah. And I think that's something that we, you know, we underestimate quite a lot that you don't want to see somebody else's personality. And I think sometimes when we look at our own respect of homes, we add so much, you know, character and personal texture to our homes that when somebody comes and uses it, they don't want to see that. They really want it to be as pleasing to the eye but also neutral enough that they're able to see themselves there as opposed to it being so personal that they struggle to kind of place themselves in that particular property. And of course, I am seeing all the love that we're getting on our social media pages, especially on our Facebook. Polina of course is watching us. There won't only be Magonda Adela. Adela Albertini is also watching, sending through those green hearts. And of course, I see some of the love that we're also getting from our viewers, Farana Siddiqui Sins. Are you looking fabulous as always? Thank you very much Farana. Maniana Eva. Also watching some of those green hearts and Buhle Maduna sharing that she's actually been doing her hair today. So she's feeling a bit tired. Of course finding out how you are doing this evening. One of our regulars, Marcus Shanang is also watching and keeping the conversation going there on our Facebook page. And if you're joining us, we are in conversation with Vanessa de Valiers, who's an owner at Space Energy Homestaging. And we're looking at why sellers and agents should consider homestaging. And especially in this market, I think everybody, anyone who puts their property up on the market at the moment, wants it to sell as quickly as possible. And the price point that they would ideally want it to be listed in or certainly the price point that they want to have. And Vanessa, talking of obviously wanting your property to sell fast, what would you say is often the average selling price for a home that is typically staged? Because some people might be like, well, I probably just have a normal apartment. I don't think that's something that I need to stage. Any experience, what typically tends to be then that the average pricing for properties that do get a home station company in to assist in them selling their property. We've had properties from about 700,000. But I would say more from about 1.2 million upwards. And the most expensive one that I have staged was 25 million. So we also work with the client's budget. So if the 700,000, I think they don't want to spend that money, we will work with their budget and make it as easy as possible for them so that they can also afford it. And I think, Vanessa, on that, what advice would you give, especially Salis, who are perhaps looking at or considering having a home station company when it comes to working with the home station company? Because as you said, I think many of us just aren't familiar with it. And even on the slightly higher end, even at a 1.2, 1.5, or even a 1.8 million mark, people are still not particularly used to it. What advice would you give a seller who's on the fence when it comes to using the services of a professional home station company? In the current market, there is just so much stock on the market and you've got to put yourself, you've got to differentiate yourself. You've got to be different. People don't go into houses anymore and on a Sunday afternoon drive around the neighborhood anymore. They actually look at the photos that's on your website and your competitors. And then they'll decide whether that is the house that they want to go and see. So you've got to set yourself apart from all the houses that are out there. I mean, I know that in Bryanston, I think there's over 2,000 properties that's in the market at the moment. So if the photos don't look good, and that's another thing, they must do professional photos. They can't just take photos with their phone because their phone's taking a photo of just a toilet. People don't want to see what the toilet looks like. We all know what a toilet looks like. So they've got to take professional photos and it must be appealing to the people. There's got to be curb appeal and it must be inviting. That is the place I want to see because I can see that there's a flow of the furniture. You know, the houses are all quite open plans. So it's very difficult to place furniture in the open plan areas. I mean, we as professionals, we sometimes have a problem with that. So can you imagine now somebody that doesn't have that, they can actually view and see how the flow of the property will be? I am in conversation this evening with Vanessa de Villiers who's the owner of Space Energy Home Staging. And we're looking at why studies and agents should consider home staging as we take your questions and comments this evening. And we are going to go to Facebook who's also watching. What a question coming through from Howard Mugazzani asking what packages does Vanessa give? And most importantly, what are the costs? Do they charge per square meter or per the type of property, whether it's a townhouse versus an actual house versus a flat or freehold? And what's the criteria when you enter the house? So I think Vanessa, take us through all sort of home staging packages typically are put together because I think one of the things and when you started this off, you highlighted it is we're still not particularly familiar with the service offering. And so when we look at home staging and the cost involved and how that cost breakdown typically is, can you take us through how it works? So I will quote the property per room and I have got a fixed cost because we did work out when we originally started what the cost would be. We put like in a lounge we will do the lounge suite, a rug, coffee table, TV unit. I've actually got some fake TVs because we don't want to put a TV in the property. And a lot of daycare we play a lot with daycare just to make it look beautiful. If you look at my website, you can see you make sure that there's a lot of plants in it. And then there's a fee for that. Then that's what the bigger houses will say that for lounge will charge say 10,000 rand. For a smaller unit it can start anything from 5,000 to say 7,000 rand. So we will charge per room then the seller can also decide if they want to stage all the rooms because it's not necessary to stage all the bedrooms because the woman of the house is going to buy the property. She normally looks at the living areas definitely the kitchen, the patio in South Africa we live towards the outside so we must make sure that that flow is beautiful and then definitely the main bedroom. So for a big house you're looking at say from about 30,000 onwards depending on the amount of rooms and say for a two bedroom unit we can start anywhere from about 10,000 to 18,000. And I think Vanessa when we then look at the average selling time because we are also in the business of wanting to make sure that the property sells at the right price point and as quickly as possible what do you typically find is the average selling time of a property that is staged versus one that isn't where you still have the owners personal stuff and even personality in the property. So I can tell you just from my experiences that a lot of clients put the houses on the market and then they're not successful and then they get us into come and stage the property for them. My suggestion to them is is to remove it off the market for at least two weeks to three weeks we will then stage it and then relaunch it at a different price make it slightly less so that they can attract more buyers and they can get a fresh look to the house it's not the same old house it's new, it's fresh and people then go I'm interested in that house. So I would say that to give you an idea the properties that we've staged before was in the region of about say that's been empty for two months to six months I'd say that in my experience that those properties if they price correctly they are sold within two weeks. And that's pretty impressive, right Vanessa because as you were saying the market right now is flooded with quite a lot of properties and often when people go on www.privateproperties.co.nz we're looking at the pictures first before we arrange before we arrange anything of any sort we're not going to chance it and go to a place when the pictures are bad because they're just other properties in that same space in that same complex that look better, that are staged better that even have better quality pictures and so all these things come just no longer the time and the era where you would as you were saying on Sundays sort of go around and go to different open houses and so all these extra touches are so crucial when you're looking to sell your property and I want us to look at then you know Vanessa when in the event where we're looking to use the services of a home staging company what are some of the key things that we need to consider because you know as we keep saying this is the thing we're not particularly used to so what are the key things that we should be considering when it comes to you know procuring the services of a home staging company. Just to give you an idea we normally view the house first purely just because I also want to get the feel of the house and to get the size of the furniture that we're going to be placing in there you will also notice from our pictures that you'll see on my website that I try and have a personality for the house so I can stage up to 35 homes which means that I have got a huge amount of furniture and not one house we'll use elements that are the same and of course we've got as interior decorators and designers we all have a style that we work with but we try and get the house to have its own identity you know if you have sets that you move from one house to the other house it's the same look over and over and over and there's no I almost want to say that the houses will have a bit of an identity crisis because they're all looking exactly the same so that's what we try and do is not to have the houses look exactly the same, it's very different just to go back to your other question that fear that I told you that is normally for six weeks the fear that I gave you the 30,000 that would be for a period of six weeks the agent also time to have a bit of a break and not sit at the property for four weeks and one after the other they can at least have one or two breaks and go and show other houses as well sorry I just wanted to mention that I forgot to mention it previously and more of your questions and comments especially on Facebook page that I see we've got a man who will tell you I think a minimalist setup would be apt for a staging project but I think Vanessa is the expert any thoughts? thoughts on going minimalist I know that it is one of those things we do stage we do stage minimalistic if you're walking to the house it must invite you if it's a lounge I don't like to put furniture in the walkway it must be open so if it's an L shaped couch or a day bed it must try and be on the other side not in the opening side of the room so we don't clutter a house at all when we stage very much minimalistic yes I should make a career there's some money to be made so how does one how do I become a home stageer so how do people become a home stageer Vanessa I think it's also one of those career prospects that not a lot of people even thought was possible never mind actually then going all the way and whether joining a firm or even starting your own I'd like to say I'm not going to say tell you anything but of course oh well you need to have a bit of capital it does take a lot of money to build up your your assets you can do it clearly you can go and buy secondhand furniture and you can have it reupholstered and get your style it's very important that you must get your style get some inspiration from Pinterest get inspiration from other home stages join home stages on Facebook and then yes the retailers don't give you furniture anymore because there's been a lot of damage to their furniture so they prefer not to do that they'll just say flat no they won't give you so you've just got to build up your own stock decide what you want you've got to have a 3-seater couch 2-seater couch, day beds L shape there are a lot of places that you can buy cheap beds you go to the retailers that offer affordable linen, go white linen spend money on scatters but you don't have to spend a lot of money you can do it reasonably easy but do it smart have a color palette that can talk to each other bring texture into your place use use fake plants so that because they don't die and then they're also affordable yeah what else is there secondhand furniture that you can recover that's probably your best place to start because furniture is very expensive and you do not get money for your secondhand furniture so go on Facebook marketplace and start buying furniture that you can use we've got Prince Jonas Mazubu on our Facebook account asking is there a company that offers sellers minor repairs or facelifts and deco for a percentage of the sell price and we're speaking about this briefly so are there companies that instead of paying the upfront staging purchase price after the fact unfortunately that can't work because you know we can't do it at risk for the client maybe on the handyman work is if you paint the house and that maybe they can do it because the house will eventually sell but as far as the home stages are concerned we can't do that because we've got overheads we've got people that work for us I mean I've got a truck I've got three guys that work for me on a full-time basis and these salaries need to be paid if I do it on risk all the time there will be no money coming in I do believe in my product and we've been very successful in it but what if the house doesn't sell and then we don't get our money which unfortunately we can't do so the answer is no we can't and I think when we look at that the earlier point that you're making with somebody who may want to go into inside and that is obviously after Martha's question perhaps Vanessa can you share with us some of the trends that we should probably be looking out for that are slowly on the rise when it comes to home stages when I pick some of them up when I go to private property and see some of the properties that are put on I think one of the things that some developers unfortunately are doing is they also have a very similar house set so all the show houses are pretty much the same and sometimes to the point where even different developments that are not by the same developer everything almost looks the same so as much as you wanted to be neutral but the moment it all just looks too similar you also just struggle with it a little bit would you like to share with us just some key trends that you've picked up when it comes to especially home styling so we've I don't know how long it's probably about 10 years it's been very grey everything's been grey every tone of grey we see every tone of grey and that's going which I don't know I think there's mixed feelings about it and what I'm going to say to now is probably also going to have mixed feelings terracotta and the warmer colours are coming back so the browns and the blues the beige is the new palette not everything's beige exactly the problem now is obviously all our furniture is grey and we have to recover everything but slowly slowly they've been kind to us they'll take a top colour and they'll put a grey next to it so if you look at the Plaskon they always show the two colours so you can work with the greys and the torps and the beiges you can work with it together so people must just start looking out for moving away from the greys that's definitely it's more training now towards the warmer colours I think one of the things just from a stylistic perspective is we're also as of this the velvet type chairs or even the sofas and just having them that pop of colour sometimes it might be whether it's a turquoise or blue but just adding a little bit of personality not too much but just to also give people at home a sense of oh this is actually even what's possible for you from a colour perspective so not having things to be too neutral pop of colour in some rooms or in one of the rooms just so we're able to at least get a good sense of what it would look like if we were to do the same but yes you wanted to add I just wanted to say what we do is we bring in all the elements you make me stage we bring in steel we bring in glass textured fabrics sorry I didn't understand your question textured fabrics, velvet and the most and a very important thing is there's got to be plants it's got to be green and what I use as well quite a lot and you'll see it on my photos on my Facebook or my website is I love black and white absolutely and on photos black and white really really pops I think Bono Crohn is never going to go out of fashion you're always going to be able to work it and rework it in different ways it still looks stylish it still looks in season it's not like one of those things that will think this is going to go out of season but Vanessa before I let you go any final steps for our viewers at home especially the sellers because I think agents are able to get a good sense of urging their clients to go the home station route but you obviously as a seller need to agree to it and see it as an investment and see it as a means for you to sell your property within a particular timeframe and even within a particular price point any final tips for our sellers at home and especially as we go towards the till end of the year when it comes to them using a home station company in selling their property make sure that the home stage knows what she's doing a lot of home stages are not trying to say things that I shouldn't say about my competitors their furniture is not high end enough they use look at what their furniture is is the furniture clean is it on trend does it work with the style of the house which is very important you can't put a French look in a Tuscan house it doesn't work so just make sure and also your curb appeal so for the sellers I just want to say make sure that when the potential buyers approach the house make sure that your garden is clean that it looks fresh that your front door is clean have some plants by your front door just make sure that in the stage that assists you with that all aspects from outside to inside got a last question coming through here from Udindisi Chabela on Facebook saying such a brilliant idea do you work in partnership with estate agents I do so I have a lot of estate agents that actually call on me and introduce me to their clients I would say that in my experience and I've been doing this now for five years I would say only one estate agent actually paid for it and it was for the development and they knew they were going to make a lot of money and the buyer or the seller or the developer didn't want to pay so the sellers would like the estate agent to pay but they can't because they know that the owners must always pay for the staging so yes I do work with a lot of estate agents that is recurring business we're going to leave it there this evening Vanessa and if you want to get in touch with Vanessa we have shared the link to the website down here below so you can get in touch with them if you want to stage your own home get a sense of the offering and of course even the consultation because I think you want to be able to search and the website is fantastic it will give you great insight into what you can expect Vanessa we're going to leave it there this evening thank you so much for joining us on the show thank you very much for having me have a good evening and that is Vanessa de Villiers who is the owner at Space Energy Home Staging Wrapping up the Thursday edition of the Private Property Podcast with myself as I'm going to do my own I'll be back on your screens tomorrow evening rocks certainly closing off the week tomorrow but if there is any so you can look forward to the farming podcast with Umba Linoca at 8pm until then, hope you stay home and stay safe that it