Home staging can give sellers an edge

 It was a nice home, four bedrooms and three baths in the San Gabriel Valley.

But Michelle Pimentel, owner of Empire Home Staging Solutions in Rancho Cucamonga, couldn't believe what she saw when she walked through the door.

Wallpaper. The house was covered in wallpaper top to bottom. Even some of the ceilings were wallpapered.

If this house was going to sell, she knew the "Gallery of Wallpaper" had to go.

That is what home staging is all about, she said.

A professional home stager puts your home in the spotlight, from neutral wall colors that show off the size of your home to the exact amount of furniture and accessories that shows off your home's potential.

"We prep homes for the competition," said Pimentel, president of the Citrus Valley regional chapter of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals.

Whether it's preparing a report recommending how to stage your home or doing the staging for you, Pimentel says home staging makes dollars and sense, especially with a down market and a glut of homes for sale.

"Obviously there's a lot of inventory out there," she said. "People will have to stage homes to keep up with the competition."

Home stagers are the outside opinion many people need to realize that the orange carpet they love so much isn't up to the real estate challenge.

"It could be you picked out a god-awful color and you need an objective eye," Pimentel said.

From about $1,500 on up, she'll stage your home from the curb to the backyard fence.

"Every inch," she said. "We will work side by side with you."

Shawn McAffee, owner of Showhomes of Corona, specializes in staging vacant homes.

As part of a nationwide chain of home staging franchises, he has access to the furniture and accessories that give sellers the edge.

"You know a lot of people are selling their homes, and they need every advantage to beat the competition," he said. "I guess the bottom line is, when people walk into a vacant home, it isn't a home.

"My job is to impress them. People walk into a model home, and they say, `I could live here."'

He can even provide a manager to stay at the home and keep it ready to show seven days a week.

A former custom builder who flipped houses until the market went soft, McAffee used Showhomes in Orange County. He says it increased the sale price an average of 15 percent.

How effective is home staging?

According to the Association of Staging Professionals, 94 percent of professionally staged homes sell in one month or less.

A staged home sells on average in 33 days. An unstaged home sells in 165 days.

And that, McAfee says, was before the housing bust.

As for Pimentel's "Gallery of Wallpaper," it took almost a week to remove the wallpaper and paint the walls a neutral color.

Pimentel says it was a home staging home run.

"It sold in one day," she said.

mark.petix@inlandnewspapers.com

(909)483-9355