Home : Home Matters
Setting the stage for Selling Your Home

January 2006 - Cindy Boykin

"Prospective home buyers make a decision within 30 seconds of seeing a house," Andrea Green said. Thirty seconds! Gee, talk about critical first impressions!

Equity Enhancers, a home staging company, offered that bit of research when discussing their primary responsibility: It is their job to eliminate – or at least diminish – negative impressions that might turn off potential buyers.

Andrea Green, Jason Maxwell, and Daune Hyams (pronounced Dawn) have teamed up to offer their unique services to realtors and home sellers who are trying to move a property. These professionals know that in real estate, it's not the home that matters ... it's the house!

Going from "home" to "house"
Andrea said that once you decide to sell your home, your home becomes a property. "You can't think of it as your home anymore," she said. "We try to stress this with our clients because when we have completed the staging, it's not going to feel like your home. You may not like it – but it's going to sell."

She knows what she's talking about. Equity Enhancers have taken homes that have been on the market for a year or more, worked their magic, and gotten multiple offers within weeks. How do they do it?

Daune said first and foremost they remove the "clutter." She said a house may be beautifully appointed with many, many things, but that may hinder rather than help sell your house. When home shoppers leave your house, they should be able to recall the layout of the rooms, the size of the living areas, the placement of the fireplace ... not the chintz sofa covered with multiple pillows and the oversized coffee table covered with heirlooms.

Andrea concurred. "One of the first words out of our mouths is 'storage'."

Jason reassures clients that the way you sell your house is very different than the way you live in your house. "We're not criticizing your taste or your style. We just know what works for living doesn't always work for selling."

First things, first
Reiterating the importance of first impressions, the team said to pay close attention to the front of your house. Andrea makes this point: "If cobwebs are all over the front porch and it's dusty, you're immediately turned off by that. But, if you walk up to a front door and it's shiny and clean, the grass is clipped, you think, 'Gosh, they took good care of this home.'"

Jason added that it is likewise important to have your address easy to read. He said, "If they can't find your house because they can't see your address, they are already agitated before they walk into the house."

Upon entering the house, the house needs to be well-lit: curtains open and lights turned on. And speaking of lights, a few updated light fixtures can make a world of difference in the appearance of the home. That is also true of kitchen and bathroom hardware. Just adding stylish new pulls and handles really spruce up a room.

Don't take this personally
Preparing a house to be placed on the market is an emotional process, the stagers noted. A house they recently staged was literally filled with substantial collections and decorated with elaborate wallpaper. When they informed the owner that the collections would need to go into storage and the wallpapers would need to come down, she became visibly upset.

Jason smiled sympathetically and said, "She was very emotional about that wallpaper. I walked in when she was in the dining room saying goodbye to her birds on the walls." But if you think about it, wallpaper is essentially art, and art is very personal.

The good news is, all is well. Not only did the owner relent to the changes, but in looking for a new home she will only view houses that have been staged. Her reason: "If I went to the trouble to do this for my buyer, I want someone to do the same for me!"

Peach walls and vintage carpet
Your brightly painted walls and well-worn carpet may work for you, but you should consider some updates before planting a For Sale sign in the yard.

Jason said, "The most important thing for homeowners to know about the selling process today is that you are better off doing the upgrades, rather than offering an upgrade allowance. For example, giving someone a $5,000 carpet allowance does not work that well because you've eliminated all the buyers that don't want to hassle with it. Whereas, you can spend $2,000 and put in a cheaper carpet, and as long as it looks good, people are OK with it. Right there you've made $3,000 up front."

Agreeing, Andrea further explained, "Buyers today don't want to deal with those changes. They want the house to be move-in ready. Even if it's kind of bland, they can live with it until they get their personal touches in. In years past, when people bought a house, they didn't care what the wallpaper looked like or how bad the carpet was because they were going to change it anyway. Today, they don't want to do that."

The value and cost of staging
The concept of professional staging was introduced in 1972 by Barb Schwarz. There are now about 5,000 accredited stagers nationwide. Andrea, Daune, and Jason are all ASP accredited and are current members of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals.

One of the most common questions asked of stagers is, "Do you compete with realtors?" "No, we assist them," Equity Enhancers stated. Explaining how, they said some realtors hesitate to be brutally honest about their client's personal decorating choices for fear of offending him or her. They don't want to risk the listing. That's why agents enlist the expertise of a stager who can be quite frank, but tactful: that's their job.

Jason said, "We staged a house on Kenny Lane in Dallas that was on the market for a year. It was on the market for $689,000. We advised they make some changes ... they ended up spending right at $20,000 to update the property ... and it sold three weeks later."

Regarding cost, it depends on the type of staging needed. Vacant homes requiring furniture and accessories will cost somewhere between $1 per square foot and one percent of the sales price.

Fees are less for occupied homes requiring only consultation, updating suggestions, or professional arrangement. Initial consultation fee with a full report is about $250. Homeowners who wish to make substantial updates can also hire Equity Enhancers to coordinate all the work. For more information about staging, visit www.eestaging.com or call Andrea Green at 972-571-9203.

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