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 http://www.dekora.com/pdfs/DEKORA-Winning_The_War.pdf  

 

 

WINNING THE REAL ESTATE WAR

10 Tips From Home Stagers

By Julie Cazzin

Part 1: Introduction

Last spring when Jim and Heather Thompson decided to

sell their home in Vancouver, they realized they knew little

about how to get top value for their biggest possession.

"We were talking about our life savings," says Jim, 47,

who works as the head of sales for a technology

company. "But I was really clueless as to what sells."

The Thompsons enlisted the help of John Carter, cofounder

of DEKORA, a "home-staging" firm in Vancouver.

Carter spent a day going through their home room by

room and drawing up a list of suggestions aimed at

maximizing their house's appeal for prospective buyers.

After discussing his proposals — which ranged from

removing some shrubs in the front yard to powerwashing

the driveway and walkways — the Thompsons gave

Carter's crew the go-ahead to implement some of his

ideas. Total cost: $4,000.

We know what you're thinking — $4,000 just to get your

home ready for sale? — but consider the results. After a

single Sunday showing early last year, the Thompsons'

home attracted three offers, all of them higher than the

couple's asking price of $649,000. Three days later the

Thompsons agreed to sell their residence for a $41,000

premium over the listed price. While a hot real estate

market helped, the Thompsons are convinced that

Carter's primping and attention to detail was a big reason

for their house's runaway success. "Our place fetched the

highest price of any bungalow sold on our street — ever,"

says Jim.

Home stagers like Carter claim they can help anyone get

a premium price for their home. Practically unknown in

Canada even three years ago, stagers are now a

presence in the real estate markets of Toronto and

Vancouver and are popping up in many other cities as

well. These home professionals — many of them former

decorators or real estate agents — specialize in knowing

what motivates potential buyers. They use all the tricks of

the trade to help homeowners come out on top in the

perpetual battle between buyers and sellers. "Getting a

house ready to live in and getting a house ready to sell

are two totalldifferent things," says Carter. "Decorating is

about making a home comfortable for you and your family;

staging a home is about merchandising properties. It

involves making a house clean and clutter-free so people

can connect with the home. Done right, it helps your place

sell faster and for more money."

How much more? Coldwell Banker Realty tracked 2,772

properties, ranging in price from $229,000 (U.S.) to $4.8

million, in eight major U.S. cities. It found that while the

average home was on the market for nearly 31 days, the

typical staged home sold in just under 14 days. And while

the average home sold for a mere 1.6% over the seller's

asking price, the staged homes went for a hefty 6.3% more.

Home stagers perform their magic by playing up the best

features of your house and minimizing the worst. They

rearrange artwork on the wall, pack up your prized bowling

trophies and clear out your son's high chair. Most stagers

charge about $100 for an initial consultation; you then have

the option of executing their suggestions on your own or

hiring the stager to do it for you at $100 an hour.

We asked Carter and other home stagers to share their 10

best tips with us. Want to get top value for your home? Sit

back and listen up:

Part 2: Tips

1. Make an impression

Prospective buyers make up their minds about your house

even before they get out of the car. To ensure they have the

right idea, clean up your yard, rake the leaves, shovel the

snow, and sweep driveways and porches. Get out the rags

and cleanser and spend 30 minutes scouring your front

door, porch, railings and steps. Then tuck away all your

recycling cans and bins at the back of the house.

Debra Gould, who owns the Six Elements home-staging

firm in Toronto, says it's important to avoid planting negative

associations in buyers' minds. When attending an open

house she had to climb several steps to get to the front

door. "I couldn't help but think that this could be a nuisance

with groceries," says Gould. "Then, when I finally got to the

top, the recycling bins were sitting right there on the porch. I

immediately told myself, 'Imagine carrying one of those bins

full of newspapers, cans down several slippery steps.' I

couldn't see myself doing that, so I left, knowing it wasn't

the house for me."

2. Unclutter

Clutter eats equity, say stagers. So purge your closets,

empty cupboards, box up small appliances. Rent a storage

locker to keep what you want, then toss the rest. "I give

storage boxes to my clients and tell them to edit, edit, edit,"

says Theodore Babiak, a Toronto real estate agent with

Royal LePage. "I suggest they take some of their books off

the shelves, reduce the number of CDs or DVDs, pare

everything down."

The stager's motto? Be ruthless. When Tamara Roberts

was selling her Vancouver condo last year, she paid $150

for a one-hour consultation with home stager Carter, who

gave her a detailed to-do list that included instructions to

leave only one thing on the kitchen counter (a bowl of crisp

green apples) and to remove fridge magnets and small

area rugs. "Everyone knows to unclutter," says Roberts,

"but John brought it down to specifics. He even had me

keep a storage container under the bed so I could throw

my pajamas and bedtime reading in there so buyers

wouldn't see it." The payoff? Her condo sold in one day for

$6,000 more than her asking price of $339,000.

3. Impersonal works

You want buyers to imagine themselves living in your

home, not to feel like a guest in it. So stash anything

connected to your family or personal interests. Hide your

son's hockey trophies, store family photos, remove all

traces of day-to-day life. "If someone goes into the

bathroom," says home stager Gould, "and the rim of the

tub is covered with shampoo bottles while people's

toothbrushes are lying around the sink, it's hard for that

person to imagine that this could be his or her bathroom.

The buyer becomes very conscious of being in someone

else's environment. That won't get you an offer."

4. Keep it fresh

Barb Schwarz, president of StagedHomes.ca of Concord,

Calif., has been staging homes for 30 years and she says

a disturbing number of home sellers don't realize that their

home … um, smells. "There's nothing worse than stepping

into a house that smells of smoke and pet odors," says

Schwarz. The easy solution is to keep your windows open

for 10 minutes a day. This strategy works better than

deodorizers, says Schwarz, since a lot of people have

allergies to artificial room fresheners. The oldest trick of

all? Leave chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven. Yes,

it's hokey, but the smell does do wonders to help buyers

bond with your home.

 

5. Declare war on grime

Cleanliness helps put a buyer's mind at ease since it

suggests that you've probably taken good care of your

residence in other ways as well. So clean everything:

walls, door handles, light fixtures and pantry cupboards.

At Carter's suggestion, Jim Thompson, the Vancouver

home seller, hired a professional cleaner to scour the

inside of his home and a contractor to powerwash

windows, walkways, eavestroughs and pathways.

Toronto home stager Gould recommends you pay special

attention to the furnace room since every home buyer

wonders what shape the furnace is in. "If the furnace looks

clean, it looks newer," says Gould. That goes for the fuse

box and electrical panel, too.

Hall. "When those are dark, it gets depressing for buyers

going from room to room."

6. Hire a handyman

Dripping faucets, cracked tiles and mouldy caulking

around the bathtub can knock thousands of dollars off the

price of your home. "I have a lot of clients who say, 'Well,

that's a little problem, the buyer can deal with it,' says

Gould, who makes a practice of walking through sellers'

homes and compiling a list of what needs to be fixed. "And

I say, 'No, if it's a little thing, then we should deal with it.' "

7. Color it up

Your single best investment may be a fresh coat of paint

in key areas of your home. "Paint your front door and put

some urns with brightly colored flowers on your front step

or just inside the entryway," says Jane Hall, a Toronto

designer and owner of The Voice of Color in Toronto.

"Those things make a house seem cared for, different

and important."

8. Reduce furniture

An easy way to create a sense of space is to get rid of

some furniture. Moving a sofa and end tables into storage

can give a small room some much-needed breathing space.

So too can storing the table and chairs that normally sit

In your kitchen, piled high with mail, magazines, books

and groceries.

If your furniture dates from the Mulroney era, consider

packing it away and renting a few modern, stylish pieces or

borrowing a couple of well-chosen pieces of wall art. "Keep

it clean and simple," says Carter, "like a hotel room or the

show room for a new house."

9. Light me up

The brighter and sunnier a space, the easier it is to sell.

Start by investing in a good window-cleaning service.

Stagers say clean windows let in as much as 30% more

light than grimy ones. Then thoroughly clean the shades on

your light fixtures, change light bulbs and add floor lamps if

an area seems dim. Dump those energy-saving 60-watt

bulbs and go with higher wattage lights for maximum

illumination. Finally, when it comes time to show your home,

make sure all the lights are on. "Hallways especially should

be lit," says home stager

10. Add a touch of humanity

A couple of planters on your front porch, a vase of flowers

on your dining room table, even a simple rose in a bud vase

can warm up a room. This is where you can let some of

your creativity show through. "You want to get away from

making rooms feel dull and sterile," says the home stager

Gould. "Flowers and plants are good for that." Candles

help, too.

Apply all these tips and the final results can be stunning. "I

could never have achieved anything as effective on my

own," says Thompson, the Vancouver home seller. "The

stagers helped me turn it into a show home. And even

though this might sound silly, all the changes made it so

attractive that it sort of made me want to stay."

Such feelings are common. Stagers say a few homeowners

actually change their plans and take their residences off the

market once they see how good their old places can look.

Many decide to stage not just their old homes, but their new

ones as well. "Home sellers will often ask me to come to

their new home and work some of my magic there because

they don't want to go back to their old way of living," says

home stager Schwarz, who's prepped more than 2,000

homes in the U.S. and Canada. In fact, Schwarz notes that

a lot of home sellers don't even want to see any of the stuff

they've put into storage because they discover they've

never missed it. "They want to live fresh, clean and clutterfree.

It's a wonderful thing. Because staging is, above all, a

cleansing experience."


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Scotch Plains, New Jersey  Specializing in Staging and Redesign