I guess this is a me-me thing... (edit/delete)

 Hi fellow Rainers - I'm so proud and happy to share with you an article that was written about me and my company and staging in general this past Friday.  Hopefully, it will increase my business even more and I am really thankful for the free publicity.  All the pictures that were in the Wilmington Star are not shown on this on-line version but this is the bulk of the article.  Please let me know what you think.  Thanks so much.

Pam Ives, Home Staging of Wilmington - www.homestagingofwilmington.com

910-233-1486

Want to sell your home? Take some advice from a local stager

By Lewis Beale
Star-News Correspondent


Last Modified: Thursday, July 10, 2008 at 10:32 p.m. Photo by Melissa Williamson. Nomi Shannon's decluttered den after Pam Ives works her magic.

Pam Ives despises clutter. She also hates getting up early, lukewarm drinks and dog hair. But a room filled with too much stuff, well, that really jerks her chain.

"Clutter eats equity," says Ives, and she should know. As a home stager, a woman whose mission is making a home look good to potential buyers, she has seen her share of needless tchotchkes, overflowing bookcases and houses where every nook and cranny has been filled with plates, bowls, pictures, wall hangings, exercise equipment...

You know - CLUTTER!

Well darn if it isn't Pam's job to rid homes of this plague, this spreading disease of tsunami-like proportions. Which is why she's at the Marsh Oaks home of Nomi Shannon, a writer moving to San Diego who brought in Ives to help give her home a look that will sell. A den filled with books, magazines, artwork, a plastic pig (don't ask) and various ethnic artifacts demands Ives' attention.

Take this drum, sitting squat on the floor. It's a beautiful, handmade piece of Native American artistry purchased in Sedona, Ariz., and has a lamp sitting on top of it.

"I love it - get rid of it!" says Ives, who feels the piece is way too bulky for the room, and doesn't help show it off to best effect.

And that's what Shannon does.

"I thought I had already staged my house," she says, "but after a brief conversation I had with Pam, I realized it could be a little less personalized."

"You live in your home totally differently when it's just your home and when you have it on the market," Ives says. "When you have it on the market, it's like a product on the shelf - and your product has got to stand out."

Particularly in what real estate agents euphemistically refer to as a "buyer's" market - in other words, the kind of lousy home sales market we're in right now. "In a market that has a lot of inventory, you have to position yourself well, whether it's home staging or repairs," says Susan Lacy, president of the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors.

"When we're looking at listing a house, and getting the most marketing exposure, we look at the condition of the house," says Mary Martin of Realtor Network Real Estate. "We say to the seller, here are some tips so your house will look the best it can. What we want them to do is de-clutter, make it more roomy-looking."

Time was, real estate agents did their own staging. But sometime in the 1990s, staging became a separate occupation, partially spurred on by TV shows like Designed To Sell on HGTV. That is how Fayetteville native Ives got into the business. A divorced mother of two, she moved to Wilmington in 2001, where she found work at a local furniture store. The store had an in-house designer, and the staff was encouraged to go to clients' homes and help them decide what furniture to buy.

"I learned about scale," Ives says, "how furniture can be too big for a room, and about focal point. Like if you have a fireplace, and it's not the focal point of the room, something's wrong."

Ives also picked up tips from all those HGTV staging shows, and in 2003 attended a four-day staging workshop in Charlotte. After that she started contacting real estate agents to make presentations, and went online to look at virtual house tours, then would email the real estate agent with staging suggestions.

Most of a stager's work comes from agent referrals. And most of the work falls into two distinct categories: cleaning up all the clutter in a house, or staging a vacant property so it looks lived in. If the seller is still living in the house, Ives will go room-by-room, taking pictures, then send the owner a long email with photos, and explicit tips on what needs to be done. That can mean everything from boxing up unnecessary items, putting flowers in the rooms, checking that there are no animal smells or bizarre artificial scents, to repainting and other repairs. Ives will charge a flat fee for the initial assessment, then an hourly rate if the seller asks her to do the staging (some stagers charge by the square foot) - Ives estimates that as many as half of her clients opt to do the staging themselves. If the house is empty, Ives will rent furniture and other accessories.

Does staging actually make a difference? It seems so. A 2003 study by HomeGain, a real estate Web site, found that staging - which can average from $500 on up - could add as much as $3,000 - $5,000 to a sales price, and a 2005 survey by StagedHomes, a training company, discovered that staged homes sold for about 7 percent more than non-staged homes.

Not that everyone takes a stager's advice. Ives remembers her very first client, a sixty-something couple whose home was filled with ceramic cats, ruffled curtains and an industrial-size water cooler in the kitchen. The wife refused most of Ives' suggestions, the couple had to move before they could sell the house, and eventually reduced their asking price by $20,000. Ives feels her tips could have saved them at least a chunk of that 20 grand, and who's going to argue with her?

"You're moving anyway," she says to recalcitrant sellers. "Pack it up. Get it out of here."

Nomi Shannon is not one of those reluctant types. Ives wants all personal pictures packed away? No problem. Those ceramic storage bowls on the kitchen counter? They're history. All those books in the den? Seventy-five percent will be boxed and stored in the garage.

"There's a pull between wanting your house to look perfect, and wanting to live in it," says Shannon, who gets what Ives is going for.

"Staging is not trickery," adds Ives. "I'm not trying to trick someone into buying your house, I'm just trying to bring out the best things in your house."

Need help?

There is no such thing as a certified stager, or any real national organization for stagers. So if you're interested in staging, it's best to ask your real estate agent for some recommendations, then ask the stager to show you some past work and their fee structure.

Pam Ives has a website, http://www.homestagingofwilmington.com/, and can be reached at pam@homestagingofwilmington.com, or by calling 910-233-1486.

STAGING TIPS

Pam Ives has a whole slew of tips on how to stage your home. Here are a few of them:

1. Think model home, as in - try as much as you can to make it look like no one lives there.

2. Clutter - a big no, no, no.

3. Kitchen counters should be cleaned off, with a maximum of one item per side.

4. No personal photos, no collectibles, no religious items - they're too distracting.

5. The home must smell clean, as well as be clean - that means no pet odors.

 Hi fellow Rainers - I'm so proud and happy to share with you an article that was written about me and my company and staging in general this past Friday.  Hopefully, it will increase my business even more and I am really thankful for the free publicity.  All the pictures that were in the Wilmington Star are not shown on this on-line version but this is the bulk of the article.  Please let me know what you think.  Thanks so much.

Pam Ives, Home Staging of Wilmington - www.homestatingofwilmington.com

910-233-1486

Want to sell your home? Take some advice from a local stager

By Lewis Beale
Star-News Correspondent


Last Modified: Thursday, July 10, 2008 at 10:32 p.m. Photo by Melissa Williamson. Nomi Shannon's decluttered den after Pam Ives works her magic.

Pam Ives despises clutter. She also hates getting up early, lukewarm drinks and dog hair. But a room filled with too much stuff, well, that really jerks her chain.

"Clutter eats equity," says Ives, and she should know. As a home stager, a woman whose mission is making a home look good to potential buyers, she has seen her share of needless tchotchkes, overflowing bookcases and houses where every nook and cranny has been filled with plates, bowls, pictures, wall hangings, exercise equipment...

You know - CLUTTER!

Well darn if it isn't Pam's job to rid homes of this plague, this spreading disease of tsunami-like proportions. Which is why she's at the Marsh Oaks home of Nomi Shannon, a writer moving to San Diego who brought in Ives to help give her home a look that will sell. A den filled with books, magazines, artwork, a plastic pig (don't ask) and various ethnic artifacts demands Ives' attention.

Take this drum, sitting squat on the floor. It's a beautiful, handmade piece of Native American artistry purchased in Sedona, Ariz., and has a lamp sitting on top of it.

"I love it - get rid of it!" says Ives, who feels the piece is way too bulky for the room, and doesn't help show it off to best effect.

And that's what Shannon does.

"I thought I had already staged my house," she says, "but after a brief conversation I had with Pam, I realized it could be a little less personalized."

"You live in your home totally differently when it's just your home and when you have it on the market," Ives says. "When you have it on the market, it's like a product on the shelf - and your product has got to stand out."

Particularly in what real estate agents euphemistically refer to as a "buyer's" market - in other words, the kind of lousy home sales market we're in right now. "In a market that has a lot of inventory, you have to position yourself well, whether it's home staging or repairs," says Susan Lacy, president of the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors.

"When we're looking at listing a house, and getting the most marketing exposure, we look at the condition of the house," says Mary Martin of Realtor Network Real Estate. "We say to the seller, here are some tips so your house will look the best it can. What we want them to do is de-clutter, make it more roomy-looking."

Time was, real estate agents did their own staging. But sometime in the 1990s, staging became a separate occupation, partially spurred on by TV shows like Designed To Sell on HGTV. That is how Fayetteville native Ives got into the business. A divorced mother of two, she moved to Wilmington in 2001, where she found work at a local furniture store. The store had an in-house designer, and the staff was encouraged to go to clients' homes and help them decide what furniture to buy.

"I learned about scale," Ives says, "how furniture can be too big for a room, and about focal point. Like if you have a fireplace, and it's not the focal point of the room, something's wrong."

Ives also picked up tips from all those HGTV staging shows, and in 2003 attended a four-day staging workshop in Charlotte. After that she started contacting real estate agents to make presentations, and went online to look at virtual house tours, then would email the real estate agent with staging suggestions.

Most of a stager's work comes from agent referrals. And most of the work falls into two distinct categories: cleaning up all the clutter in a house, or staging a vacant property so it looks lived in. If the seller is still living in the house, Ives will go room-by-room, taking pictures, then send the owner a long email with photos, and explicit tips on what needs to be done. That can mean everything from boxing up unnecessary items, putting flowers in the rooms, checking that there are no animal smells or bizarre artificial scents, to repainting and other repairs. Ives will charge a flat fee for the initial assessment, then an hourly rate if the seller asks her to do the staging (some stagers charge by the square foot) - Ives estimates that as many as half of her clients opt to do the staging themselves. If the house is empty, Ives will rent furniture and other accessories.

Does staging actually make a difference? It seems so. A 2003 study by HomeGain, a real estate Web site, found that staging - which can average from $500 on up - could add as much as $3,000 - $5,000 to a sales price, and a 2005 survey by StagedHomes, a training company, discovered that staged homes sold for about 7 percent more than non-staged homes.

Not that everyone takes a stager's advice. Ives remembers her very first client, a sixty-something couple whose home was filled with ceramic cats, ruffled curtains and an industrial-size water cooler in the kitchen. The wife refused most of Ives' suggestions, the couple had to move before they could sell the house, and eventually reduced their asking price by $20,000. Ives feels her tips could have saved them at least a chunk of that 20 grand, and who's going to argue with her?

"You're moving anyway," she says to recalcitrant sellers. "Pack it up. Get it out of here."

Nomi Shannon is not one of those reluctant types. Ives wants all personal pictures packed away? No problem. Those ceramic storage bowls on the kitchen counter? They're history. All those books in the den? Seventy-five percent will be boxed and stored in the garage.

"There's a pull between wanting your house to look perfect, and wanting to live in it," says Shannon, who gets what Ives is going for.

"Staging is not trickery," adds Ives. "I'm not trying to trick someone into buying your house, I'm just trying to bring out the best things in your house."

Need help?

There is no such thing as a certified stager, or any real national organization for stagers. So if you're interested in staging, it's best to ask your real estate agent for some recommendations, then ask the stager to show you some past work and their fee structure.

Pam Ives has a website, http://www.homestagingofwilmington.com/, and can be reached at pam@homestagingofwilmington.com, or by calling 910-233-1486.

STAGING TIPS

Pam Ives has a whole slew of tips on how to stage your home. Here are a few of them:

1. Think model home, as in - try as much as you can to make it look like no one lives there.

2. Clutter - a big no, no, no.

3. Kitchen counters should be cleaned off, with a maximum of one item per side.

4. No personal photos, no collectibles, no religious items - they're too distracting.

5. The home must smell clean, as well as be clean - that means no pet odors.