Home Staging—What's It All About?

October 1, 1:07 AMHome and Living ExaminerAndrea Campbell

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If you are planning on selling your home, condo or other residential property, home staging is an idea you need to be aware of as it could make the difference between a quick sale and a long, painful sit-out.

I first heard the term on Bravo’s show with Jeff Lewis and company called “Flipping Out.” Jeff is an admitted obsessive-compulsive and that appealed to me. There are also television features on HGTV devoted to the topic: two I watch on a fairly regular basis are The Stagers and Designed to Sell.

Basically, “home staging” is a form of presentation. It is all about seeing your home from the buyers point of view. Sometimes we are so emotionally bound up in the selling of a home that we forget what our property looks like to someone else.

The Three C’s
According to expert Barb Schwarz, a professional stager who has trademarked the word "Staging" for her company, StagedHomes.com, there are three elements to consider: “Clean,” “Clutter-Free” and “Color.” These selling tips are just common sense mantras in my mind. First, your home should be spanking clean. Items that sparkle like appliances, windows, mirrors, etc. are preferable; floors that are shiny, dust-ball free and squeaky are optimum, and furnishings that don’t look shopworn are just the beginning of clean. Clutter-Free is probably the biggest challenge in any home. We are all drowning in clutter. The collections, the paper, the riches of just about everything are masking the view of style. (I have just started adding de-clutter to my agenda every six months, it’s a continual battle for simplicity.) And Color—which is very subjective. Make sure that if you are painting to make rooms look fresh that you don’t overbook on strong colors. For the uneducated painter, it’s better to opt for subtle and mellow shades of tones and hues.

Tips to Look Up
HGTV has a nice site with a photo series called: "13 Home Staging Secrets" that should help anyone with this daunting perspective. Donna and Shannon Freeman, a mother-daughter team on a show called, Secrets That Sell will help. They are sometimes brutally honest but selling is no time to be shy and offended. Unless, of course, you want to stay where you are. Designed to Sell is another that I like, if only to see a little dynamo named Lisa LaPorta get everyone on track in a limited amount of time. And The Stagers is the newest offering, and it has a different viewpoint altogether as the folks featured are re-designers who work for a firm that gets commissions from buyers needing complete updates. This is the more monied version, as some of the makeovers cost in the range of $6,000-8,000 dollars.

Here are The Basics:
De-Personalize
Some of the basic concepts I’ve been able to glean from the shows are along these lines. First, you must de-personalize. All those knick-knacks and collections you’ve acquired—whether they are small tchatchkes or as large as a guitar grouping or whatever, should be packed up for the next residence. While you have a passion for these items, to others they make be, well, junk, and it prohibits the buyer from picturing their own collections in your setting.

Create Flow
A traffic pattern and just “air” space is really important. Like most homeowners you probably have too much furniture, or pieces that are out of scale for the room to begin with. If doors cannot be opened properly, if potential buyers have to weave and bob to get through a space, they won’t stay to imagine your space as their space. Everyone wants more room—that illusion of space—and more square footage for their dollars. Tip: Minimal furniture is actually a plus and group pieces into settings.

Curb Appeal
If your open house viewers can’t make it past the debris in the yard, or, if overgrown bushes are hiding the façade; or worn accouterments hang off your house, you’ve lost potential buyers before the “walk-through.”

Why Do It or Why Pay Someone to Do It?
• Your realtor will show it more
• You can make more money
• Your home will sell faster
• Your minor investment will add dollar value to your home

For an example of Staging Statistics go here: http://www.stagedhomes.com/mediacenter/stagingstatistics.php

You gotta hand it to Schwarz who explains it succinctly when she says, “Your Investment in ASP Home Staging will always be less than your first Price Reduction.”