Jason Saft Revolutionizes Luxury Home Staging: Award-Winning Designs That Captivate

Great question! What I love so much about working in the niche field of real estate design is the ability to work with so many different aesthetic styles simultaneously. One of my greatest senses of pride in our work comes from the ability to approach each as if they truly belonged there. 

While each home has its own unique identity that visually speaks to its audience with a high level of specificity, the core of each project is a highly refined system and process that is always evolving.

I love to visit museums, galleries, and all sorts of shops wherever I go. I like to soak up inspiration everywhere and incorporate that into my work. I am a strong believer in that if you have passion for culture and learning about other cultures, you can easily weave all sorts of different elements into your own work. There is so much to learn from observing and immersing yourself in your craft.

It’s critical to ensure that the moment the doors open, the people walking through are fully engaged. I start with the art, something that immediately draws the eye in and excites. I also consider every detail, from how the light hits to how the room smells. 

I was a real estate agent for 20 years, which is how Staged To Sell Home came to be. Those two decades working with home buyers taught me firsthand what engages someone and what turns someone off.

One of the ways in which I push boundaries is by showing people how they can live artfully in a home. I seek out and work with a lot of new artists to showcase their art in a variety of formats that keep people in their homes longer, they bond with the home as they explore and interact with the space.

A lot of staging is very generic furniture & decor, all neutral. After a while it blends together and is forgettable. I buck the trend by creating homes that feel like the best version of themselves and show home buyers just how special their home can and should be.

As a 20 year year real estate veteran, I have a deep understanding of what agents need as a marketing partner. Agents are looking for someone to help them execute and market the home to a new audience. 

For example, my approach to transforming the property recently acquired by Jann Wenner from Perry Ellis was to blend historical significance with modern luxury, a process that required close coordination with the new owner.

Additionally, my work on a NoHo apartment highlights the importance of blending modern aesthetics with practical luxury, achieved through continuous dialogue with both the developers and homeowners. Each project is a partnership, ensuring that the final result not only meets but exceeds expectations.

We have a nice Instagram following @StagedToSellHome, and I spend a lot of time focusing on the agents, their work and their properties.

I love to visit all types of properties. I go to tons of open houses, look at the way people live in these homes, and take notes. Whenever I take on a new project, I'll reach out to agents who have sold comps in the building and talk with them about who came to the listing and to give me a sense of who the buyers were of the last listing.

Whenever we take on a project that has languished on the market, I spend time interviewing the agent about how all the past showings have gone to gauge feedback and build out a design plan to mitigate the flaws and double down on all the selling features to make them shine even brighter.

I’m very fortunate to live and work in New York City. The population is so diverse and there is such a deep appreciation for art and culture of all kinds. I try to learn as much as I can about other cultures, heritages and movements to incorporate those identities in my work. When you love and appreciate the uniqueness of other cultures, it becomes easy to thoughtfully work elements into your own work.

The details are both macro & micro in each project. I’ll approach the room as a whole and walk and rewalk it once all the main furniture has been laid out, then I’ll view the art and ensure it’s all at a level that keeps the eye moving around the room. Finally we build out vignettes on each surface and view them from a variety of angles to ensure they are photographed correctly. 

Lastly, in order to finish I’ll take a break from the space, go for a walk or take a few minutes outside and then try to reapproach it with a final edit on every surface. I’m hyper fixated on how each home looks and feels, I take pride in training my eye to hone in on every detail with a critical eye.

There are five key criteria by which we measure the effectiveness of our work.

1. Days On Market: How many days are there from listing to first offer? 

2. Sale Price: How high over asking did the apartment sell for?

3. Furniture Resale: We often get inquiries about purchasing many of the pieces, sometimes all of them. The true measure of success, though, is when we get inquiries from people who didn’t purchase the apartment but got our contact info and reached out to buy furniture or have us design their home. 

4. Collective Feedback:  We talk with our agents to see what the feedback is like on the space. We know we did it right when we hear multiple times how people could not believe it was staging until they noticed there was no food in the home. 

Referrals: When buyer’s agents see our work and ask the listing agent for our contact info for their own projects, we know we are well positioned.

As the home staging industry evolves, I see the idea being more welcomed within the design community. While the two are often grouped together, they have very different approaches and processes. Home staging is something the upper echelon of the design world has shied away from. There is a perception of home staging that it’s like the fast fashion of the interior design community, but lately, some of the most significant names in the design industry have been creating sales model galleries. Minds like Josh Green (Waldorf Astoria), Sebastian Zuchowicki (100 East 53rd Street), Paris Forino (33 Park Row), and India Mahdavi (One Highline) are some that come to mind.

As Jason Saft continues to innovate and shape the future of luxury home staging, his attention to detail, passion for design, and commitment to excellence ensure that each property he stages not only stands out but also sells. With accolades from industry leaders and partnerships with elite brands, Saft’s work serves as a blueprint for the future of luxury real estate. Whether collaborating with developers, agents, or homeowners, his visionary approach promises to keep Staged To Sell Home at the forefront of the industry for years to come.