I was working on a new page I wanted to include in my real estate agent packet today and I thought of a concept I wanted to present to the agents I will be seeing soon. It reminded me of something I learned when I first got into the real life, adult, make-your-own-living world. I was working with the display department in a national retail chain. My boss told me we would be setting up a table to place items that were on sale in a certain department. He told me to pick up one of the folding tables in the storage room. He told me where to place the table, showed me the items which were to go on sale and left me on my own.

When I drug the table to its proper location I remember thinking how ugly the metal folding legs were, not to mention the scuffed up tabletop. I found one of the heavy, dark blue, full length table skirts and placed it on the table. I arranged all the sale items in lovely ways and did the best I could with the variety of objects at my disposal. I was pretty pleased with myself. I had made the assortment look pretty good. I can still remember the dismay on my bosses face when he came to see the display I had set up.

What my boss taught me was a lesson in marketing I have been able to use over and over all these years. We were displaying SALE items. They were marked down. They were cheap. We wanted to dump them, we wanted to get rid of them. The first thing he had me do was remove the table skirt. The second was to dump the items atop the table in a scrambled and not too neat way. Our goal was to show the customers that this table was full of bargan items. When we had top of the line, new for the season item we worked hours placing them in just the hot spots for the store and in just the right way for the item. From that thought came this way of telling about Home Staging.

Home Staging is a way to help market real estate. Below is an example of the merchandising of shoes. The concepts used to market shoes are also used to market homes.

This is a nice pair of shoes. They are valuable to keep one's feet clean and warm. They are just sitting on the rack and are not perceived to have much style or pizzazz. If the price is low enough some people will buy them.

This pair of shoes will sell in the low end of the price range. Do you hear the words "price reduction?"

This is the same pair of shoes. They are valuable to keep one's feet clean and warm. They have been decorated. They are hard to see. Some people will buy them if the price is right because they can see around the tie and notice they are a nice pair of shoes. It will be difficult to find someone with the vision to see these shoes as valuable.

This pair of shoes will stay on the rack for a long time before they are discovered. Do you hear the words "can we retrieve this listing?"

This is the same pair of shoes. They are valuable to keep one's feet clean and warm. They have been staged. Many people will buy them because they are easy to see, they are perceived to be more valuable because someone has taken the time to present them in a pleasing manner, and they exude style.

This pair of shoes will sell quickly and for top dollar. Do you hear the word "WOW!?"

rooms b.y. root is a Home Staging company owned by Yvonne Root and located in the central portion of Northern Arizona. rooms b.y. root serves Prescott, Prescott Valley, Dewey-Humboldt, Black Canyon City, Mayer, Camp Verde, Cottonwood, Sedona, Flagstaff, Anthem and all points north.

Yvonne knows how to stage homes and even what to do with the shoes in those houses. Why, put a dryer sheet in them, of course. It will help with odor problems.