Brandees Home Staging and Redesign :: Home Decorating

Articles On Home Staging

1. NBC 10 News Report
"Home Stagers Make House More Appealing To Buyers"
Published: April 28, 2005 By Lauren Cohn
Original article can be found by clicking here.

Selling your home can be stressful, and getting it ready for potential buyers to walk through can mean a lot of anxiety.

NBC 10's Lauren Cohn watched as home stagers transformed a home in 24 hours. Home stagers freshen a messy house to speed up the sales process.

Kim Gatto's home in the Mayfair section of Philadelphia was such a mess, you couldn't even see parts of the floor and countertops. Gatto said that she, her husband and three children have been stressed about selling the house.

"My husband and I work (and) travel a lot. With kids, it's too much to try to do on our own," Gatto said.

Gatto gave up strategizing on how to prepare her home for potential buyers. She decided to hire home stagers at a cost of $800.

"One thing will be focal point, see if it needs paint, what clutter is there, assess what condition it's in," explained Brenda Hoover, a member of Home Selling Solutions.

Before the home stagers moved in, the dining room was full of stuff, the kitchen had broken floor boards, the countertops were full and the walls looked dingy everywhere -- they desperately needed a fresh coat of paint.

"(The) rooms are small, we need to open up space, take out what's not required and showcase what it is intended for," said Judy Wakely, a member of Home Selling Solutions.

Wakely and Hoover got to work and 24 hours later the difference was amazing. You could walk straight through the house from room to room. They cleaned up, organized and threw items away. They also fancied up the place, making the dining area look completely different.

"It looks 100 percent better," Gatto said.

The wood floors were polished and the upstairs bedrooms were unrecognizable from their original state. According to Hoover, here are the best tips for making your home more appealing to potential buyers:

- Get rid of clutter.

- Depersonalize rooms. Get rid of photos and drawings. The buyers want to picture their own stuff in the room.

- Neutralize the rooms as much as possible. Get rid of trendy furniture and loud colors on the walls. Make it look like the buyer's furniture will fit.

- Showcase one focal point, like the fireplace.

- The only smell should be a clean one. Scents -- even baking sweets -- are bad for people with allergies and only serve as a distraction.

- Put fresh white towels in the bathroom.

The key is to make a good first impression. "I'm impressed. It will make my job easier," said Robert Wolf, of Millennium Realtors.

Wolf was so impressed, he put the house on the market for $129,0000 -- a lot more than the Gattos expected. It turned out that paying $800 for home stagers was worth it. The house sold in one day for the full asking price.

2. MSNBC Exclusive Article
"Professionals Set The Stage For Quick Home Sales"
Published: September 25, 2006 By Gayle B. Ronan
Original article can be found by clicking here.

As the number of unsold homes on the market rises, prospective home sellers are trying to beat the days-on-market averages. But before they lower expectations along with their selling price, there is a far less costly option to consider — "staging" the home for sale.

Home staging is simply the merchandising of a house to capture the hearts and bids of potential buyers. The objective: making a good first impression.

“The way you live in a home and the way you sell your house are two different things,” said Barb Schwarz, who created the home staging concept in 1972. She has since developed an accreditation program for staging professionals — known as ASP — and is president and CEO of StagedHomes.com.

If the concept seems like just another fee layer guaranteed to inflate selling expenses, think again. A 2003 HomeGain Survey found that home staging paid for itself — and then some — by boosting the final selling price.

According to a 2006 StagedHomes.com survey, homes listed for sale without staging spent an average 4.5 months on the market; homes staged before listing spent less than 1.5 months on the market. The average time for a staged home to reach a ‘sales pending’ status was about a week. And staging boosts the estimated sales price by 3 percent, according to other industry surveys. On average, certified stagers charge $1,900 per listing, Schwarz estimates, although that varies widely depending on region.

While no independent national surveys have been conducted to substantiate these industry claims, anecdotal evidence suggests the ranks of staging adherents are growing.

Pat Vredevoogd Combs, president-elect of the National Association of Realtors and a Grand Rapids, Mich., Realtor, is among those who prefers that her listings be staged; she even pays for clients’ first hour of consultation with a stager.

“Sellers are too used to their homes," said Vredevoogd Combs, who has personally used stagers to sell her own homes. "They just cannot see them through the eyes of a buyer.”

Lori Corken, a realtor with RE/MAX in Denver, not only uses stagers for all of her listings, she covers the cost.

“Once you decide to sell, you need to detach," she said. "The home is no longer about you, but a house that needs to appeal to its next owner.”

The stager makes that leap for the homeowner by figuring out how to showcase the best features of each room, she said.

Staging should not be confused with interior design.

“Decorating means personalizing your space — staging is about depersonalizing it,” explains Schwarz. “Nor is staging about selling people stuff — people have too much stuff already.”

Staging is more about putting that stuff away, and literally getting it out of the way of prospective Realtors, buyers and appraisers. Ultimately staging is about helping prospective buyers see themselves occupying the space.