We’re truly delighted to introduce you to Vesta — assuming you haven’t heard of them already — with this installment of our Q&A series featuring the best creatives and curators working in the Los Angeles real estate design, development, and sales markets. One of Vesta’s core lines of business is luxury staging and we’ve had the pleasure of partnering with them in that capacity over the past few years — and we can’t speak highly enough about their design sensibility and service. They’ve proven to be collaborative and their designers are incredibly talented. Craig & David Homes first worked with Vesta on a house we built to resell, where we acted as developers in the Melrose district adjacent to West Hollywood, eventually selling it significantly above the asking price — the photo above shows the staged dining room of that house. View more photos here. We recently caught up with Brett Baer, Ryan Dranginis, and their team, inviting them to share Vesta with you in the Q&A session that follows. Cheers.
Q:How might you qualify/quantify the value of staging when it comes
to selling a home?
Traditionally, staged homes sell at prices 10%-15% higher and do so in 20% less time than unstaged ones. But the bigger story is that the process for home-buyers is a highly aspirational exercise, inspired and tactile, in which an emotional decision to buy — or not — is made. Staging brings emotion to the space and gives it context. The right design shows the buyer how rooms will be used, defines spaces and makes a home relatable. Vesta-staged homes paint the picture of how the buyer can live in the home, which is dramatically different than having to tell them.
By staging your home, a seller can mitigate the potential need to lower the sales price one might be tempted to do to incentivize a sale, thereby reducing carrying costs and freeing up capital. In this sense, the cost savings can be as significant as the increased sales price. Taking the time to go to market “right” ensures the best sales outcome.
Q:How do you approach working with clients? Can you describe the process and how Vesta makes design decisions?
Vesta’s client approach varies based on our clients needs. Some of our clients have a “get it done right, you’re the expert” approach, while others have a defined esthetic and wish to give a high amount of input to Vesta’s design team. In both cases, we start by showing the client a portfolio of work we’ve done in spaces that have similar design objectives — architectural style, price point, geography, target homebuyer and shared design inspirations. From there, we’re either let loose to deliver our design, or we drill down into specific spaces, talk about the furniture from our collection, the fabrics and the character of the rooms, etc. For most properties, the important spaces are the master bedroom, the family room/kitchen, dining room, the formal living room and the exterior spaces. It’s vital to get a consensus on these spaces, and build from there. Ancillary spaces are incredibly important, but they need to relate to the core spaces so that there’s a continuity in the design of the home. If there’s consensus on how to furnish the most important spaces, the secondary spaces flow from their design.
Q:What makes Vesta unique among LA staging companies? C&D Homes especially likes Vesta’s selection of art.
From its inception, Vesta is a different kind of staging company. Core to Vesta is our focus on great design, and instead of simply acquiring currently trending furniture at showrooms and trade shows, we design and curate specific pieces which result in a refined and more current esthetic look. Our designs are inspired from some of the most avant garde, and groundbreaking designers. We purchase in very small batches — so that our look is unique, evolving, and site specific. While the typical staging model works by buying furniture and circulating it 40-50 times, Vesta’s focus is on delivering a design that homebuyers want to live in which results in more furniture being purchased and additional room to procure new inventory. Our model is similar to fashion where we deliver products that are current and may change depending on location, trends, and season.
