"Offering free home staging".  Magic words or at least attractive words to sellers. But those words aren't coming from professional stagers, they're coming from listing agents.  Smart agents who know the real value of this unbelievably effective marketing tool.  Here's advice to sellers who consider signing a listing contract for that reason or sellers who recognize what an important added service that is. Be sure you understand exactly what professional staging services your listing agent plans to provide.  You might get a comprehensive consultation with a Professional Home Stager, a great benefit and a great Do-It-Yourself tool that will mean a (often much faster) successful sale for you.  Or...your agent could be offering a limited consultation with a pro, even offering to pay part of a professional stagers fee if you agree to have the staging done.  To some listing agents offering "Free Home Staging", however, that means placing towels in the bathrooms and a plant on the kitchen windowsill.  I'm NOT implying that the listing agent is trying to mislead anyone, only that the level of education and skill in Home Staging that a Realtor has can range from very little to Realtors who are actually certified or accredited as Professional Stagers.  You might notice I keep saying "Professional Stager", I just want to be clear.  Just as a homeowner would hesitate to have their very skilled, very conscientious plumber install a new roof, or ask the landscape maintenance company to paint the house, hesitate long enough to find out if the staging you get is up to the same quality and standard as you'd expect from a Professional Stager.  A good Real Estate Marketing Team is set up to let the members do what they each do best.

Received an update from the FSBO Blog...yet another article on the importance of staging and the basics.  While the info is very basic, this might be a good link to share with listing clients or anyone even considering selling a home.  http://fsbo.fizber.com/2009/09/30/the-home-staging-cheat-sheet/ . This wouldn't be enough, generally speaking, to help a seller stage a home but it might be enough to prompt a professional consultation.  A comprehensive consultation with a written report (i.e. plan and "honey-do list") is a very effective way to stage a home that has a minimal cost. Sellers need to be motivated tho, to do the work.

Economists and Real Estate professionals are all making a good college try at predicting where the market is going, what's working and what's not. And many of them admit that we're in uncharted territory so predictions can change with the wind.  What is not changing with the wind, are certain "flaws or deficiencies" in homes that will almost always turn away a buyer. A good professional stager will have ideas on how to work with or work around those challenges to still illicit the interest of a buyer.  It requires engenuity, creativity and often, even just a very reasonable budget to make changes that will completely change the look of the room.

Go to this link Biggest Losers: 20 Home Design Features That Send Buyers Running to find a very comprehensive listing of those tough to sell features in homes.  Below you'll find before and after photos of a couple design challenges I was able to help my clients with.  The result on both, was a quick sale!

Ah!  Seventies cedar! This was what potential buyers saw as soon as they entered the house.  It obviously dated the house, made the dining area appear much smaller and squelched interest in seeing what else the house had to offer.  A simple overlay of sheetrock, texture and paint brought this room into the new millenium.

Then in this 1970's kitchen, the space for the refrigerator wouldn't accomodate the sizes of more modern models. In its place was a wire storage rack, commonly used in pantries and garages. Since a new countertop was on the "to do" list, we simply created a space that looked like it had always been there.

 

There's nothing like seeing your ideas on paper come to fruition in a 3-D, real world space.  I recently worked with a Salem OR area business to redesign a retail space: to lighten and brighten and to show off the features (in this case, the merchandise) the business has to offer.  The owner and I met a couple of months ago to discuss what it was he was looking for.  The family business in a vintage, downtown building hadn't had a "space lift" in decades.  He had a contractor but no ideas on where to start and how to accomplish his goals.  It became my undertaking to come up with ideas, solutions, a redesign plan and a process on how to complete the project most efficiently without disrupting daily business operations.  Following my consultation with the business owner and his contractor, I turned them loose to begin the work.  There were frequent phone calls and a few visits to assure that things were on track to meet a deadline for a big promotion that was to begin mid-August.  While there are details to finish up on and some new lighting to install, the results are clearly apparent.  Customers are noticing the new look immediately and staff is noticing more sales and a new ambience in the place. The owner is certain that the changes will improve the business's image as a professional and customer oriented music mecca.

You're invited to follow the blog of the Mid-Valley Professional Stagers to get better acquainted with first-rate, professional stagers serving Oregon's Real Estate Community.

It's often difficult for home sellers to swallow the cost of home staging of a vacant property. It's labor intensive for a stager so the one-time staging fee can run anywhere from $700-1500 depending on the size of the property, the number of rooms being staged, price range and location of the home. There's an additional cost for rental of furnishings and accessories that is incurred monthly, usually several hundred dollars.  I'd say the average investment my clients make for staging a vacant home for three months is less than $2500.

Don't say 'ouch' until you consider the information found in this article in Realtor Magazine (taken from an AP source.  "Maintaining Vacant Property Can Be Expensive"  is typical for sellers who need to leave a home before its sold.  Add the monthly cost of the mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities, lawn care and mainenance.  Odds are it adds up to at least the same amount as a 3-month investment in professional staging.

Based on current statistics from RESA and Staged Homes com, properties that are professionally staged are selling in around 30 days.  The seller in the article had carried his property for nearly 2 years! Had he staged prior to listing, odds are very good that the house would have sold long ago (provided it was priced right).  Hypothetically, if his home sold just two month sooner, he would have recouped more than his initial investment. Say the staged home sold in the average DOM we're seeing for professionally staged homes today...32...This seller would have saved himself over $26,000!!!!  I'm no financier or mathmetician :>) , but that's a return of 10 times his original investment.  "Money Saved is Money Earned" goes the old adage. In this buyers’ market where price and presentation are king, sellers can't really afford not to stage.

You're invited to follow the blog of the Mid-Valley Professional Stagers to get better acquainted with first-rate, professional stagers serving Oregon's Real Estate Community.

From the words of Derek Meyer, a Salem OR escrow officer, you'd think he was a home stager.  He gets it!  There's something mysteriously satisfying about hearing someone else sing the praises of professional home staging.  Thanks Derek.

One of my teenaged daughters recently left home for a summer student exchange program in Costa Rica.  Now... I have forever been a real travelbug so I'm thrilled to hear of her adventures and to learn about the details that define the culture of the small, Central American country. After I read her e-mails, I find myself Googling everything I can about Costa Rica even real estate for sale. Bright colored, stucco homes with courtyards wait in quiet villages for the right family to come along.  I peruse the photos, wondering what retirement in a warm climate would be like...Retirement???? Way too far away for me. So instead, my thoughts drift toward entrepreneurship there...Oh to be the one to bring home staging to the forefront of real estate marketing in some sunny, exotic place where siestas reign as a favorite pastime, barefoot is the dress code and the sound of wind in the palms beats out the sound of rain on the rooftops. I glance now at the pineapple and mangos that grace my fruitbowl, and begin to figure out how to say "Spruce It Up! Home Staging" in Spanish.

Stayton 3/2 Home

Oct 2008-April 2009-Vacant, on the market for 6 months w/multiple price     reductions

April-May 2009-        Removed from the market, replaced carpeting, professionally staged by Spruce It Up! Home Staging.

May 2009-                 Relisted w/ new agent for more than last asking price. SOLD in 3 weeks...cash offer at nearly full asking price!

West Salem 3/2 Home

April 2009- Home was cleaned out and professionally staged by Spruce It Up! Home Staging

May 2009-Listed on WVMLS and under contract in 14 days.

Yahoo news had a short feature today  http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/242/home-accessories-you-dont-need/  about a few of those "Igottahavit" purchases that are simply a waste of money.  As a professional stager, I've walked in so many homes, filled to the brink with enough stuff to fill 3 houses.  There's a line that gets crossed between what can be called "eclectic" and what becomes hodge-podge.  If you have the right things in your home, that function how you need them to, that suit your taste and lifestyle then there's really no need to keep on buying.  And if you surround yourself with things that work for you, you might not be inclined to keep looking and buying.  Professional stagers also do "redesign"-a skill that takes what you've got and makes it work in the space.  No need to buy more igottahavits, an opportunity to purge what you don't use, even make a little cash on a garage sale or craigslist.  Don't hesitate to call on a redesigner to help you make some right decisions-not only money well spent but often results in money saved.

Maureen is a colleague of mine in the Portland OR area.  It's great to hear about the staging successes going on.  I continue to believe that professional staging can get homes sold even in times of slow home sales. This is a great example of how effective a consultation can be...a very good, affordable option for home sellers who are motivated "Do-it-yourselfers"