By Debbie Boggs, Julie Young and Andress Eichstadt

The award-winning home stagers at BY Design Home Staging share their top home staging strategies to sell your home in any market.

Why and when did you start BY Design Home Staging?

We are Debbie Boggs and Julie Young, two long-time best friends who started BY Design Home Staging in 2007. The name of the business is an abbreviation of our last names, Boggs and Young. BY Design combines what we love – home design and helping people! Little did we know just a few months after we opened, the 2008 recession would hit the real estate market hard. Thankfully, staging is important all the time, whether it is a buyer’s market or a seller’s market, and our business has grown every year since. In 2017, Debbie’s daughter, Andress Eichstadt, joined the company, and she is now a co-owner. Debbie’s sister, Michele, has also been a stager for BYD for about a decade. Working with your best friend/daughter/mom/sister/aunt is so much fun, and the business has thrived because of the love we share for each other. Now Andress’ young daughters have their own play space in the showroom/warehouse and love to help out. It is truly a family business run by San Antonio women!

BY Design was named SABOR affiliate of the year in 2021 and Top 10 Home Staging Team in North America in 2022.

Why is it important to stage your home in the San Antonio area?

As interest rates continue to rise, our real estate market is cooling down. A year ago, homes flew off the market as soon as they were listed. Now, we’re seeing a rise in days on the market, and sellers throughout San Antonio are taking price cuts on their listings. It doesn’t have to be that way! Home staging raises the perceived value of the home and is proven to shorten the amount of time it takes to sell. BY Design staged homes sell 31 days faster than the average San Antonio listing. Our stagings also sell for an average of $27,000 more. That more than covers the average $2800 it takes to stage a vacant home. In fact, BY Design clients see an average 881% return on their investment in staging.

What are three things sellers can do on their own to prepare their home for a showing?

After your home is professionally staged, we recommend doing a few things before each showing so all prospective buyers see your home in the best light, literally and metaphorically. Turn on all the lights, open curtains, and raise blinds. Give the whole house a quick clean, making sure beds are made, and mirrors are sparkling. Lastly, make sure your home smells good. We recommend grinding half a lemon in your garbage disposal and turning on a lightly-scented air freshener. Staging is all about the senses. Of course, sight is covered by beautiful design, but we always think through sound, smell, and touch, too.

Can you share your favorite staging design tip?

Creating an emotional connection between the buyer and the home is the most important thing that staging does. When buyers fall in love with a listing, they make higher offers, and they are more likely to make it through a scary inspection report or low appraisal. One of our favorite ways to create that emotional connection is to put a mirror in the entryway. As soon as a potential buyer enters the home for a showing, they’ll see themselves in the home. They can truly see how great their life will be once they move in. This is powerful! It helps build that emotional connection, which eventually leads them to the closing table. They’re more likely to ignore any negatives in the listing if they are emotionally attached in a meaningful way.