Excerpts from USA Today Article
Staging results in faster sale, richer price
By Noelle Knox, USA TODAY
Fran Freedman took down the family photos and most of her artwork. She had the fence in the front yard ripped out, and she got rid of half the clothes in her closet. And that was just for starters. She wasn't redecorating. Rather, she was "staging" her house for a potential home buyer.With 3.75 million homes on the market — a 7.3-month supply — sellers must work harder these days to attract buyers. Yet oddly enough, the trick to making your home stand out is often to make both the interior and exterior look generic, almost bland. And that's where home staging comes in.
"The philosophy is the buyer must be able to picture themselves living in your home," says Freedman, 65, a lawyer in Philadelphia. "They don't want to see your family photos and your artwork. The décor should be understated so they can say, 'This would be the perfect place for my...' "
Does it work? When Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Los Altos, Calif., looked at nearly 2,800 properties in eight U.S. cities in 2004, they found that the staged homes, on average, sold in half the time that the non-staged homes did. The sellers with staged homes ended up with 6.3% more than their asking price, on average, while sellers with non-staged homes sold for 1.6% more than the asking price.
The cost of hiring a company to stage your home tends to range from $1,800 to $3,800 but can go much higher, depending on the size of the house and the amount of work involved.
Freedman says Tailored Transitions, the company she used, "had a hard time convincing me and my husband to spend the money. People don't spend money on this kind of thing. I'd never heard of staging."
In the end, they spent $2,500 for the interior, $4,000 for the exterior, $500 to rent "props" like less eye-catching artwork and decorative pillows and $500 to move their excess furniture and boxes into storage. In hindsight, she says, it was worth every dime.
They listed their home this month for $949,000, and Freedman says, "I don't know if we would have priced it that high when it wasn't so attractive."
Judee von Seldeneck put her staged home in Philadelphia on the market this month; it sold in one day, for $700,000.
From moving shrubs to planting flowers, to replacing the knobs on kitchen cabinets and ripping up the carpet on the stairs, every change was made to accentuate the house's best features. There were even pumpkins on the porch to lend a homey, inviting look.
Inside, the stagers "put furniture that looked comfortable but not too heavy, not cluttered," says von Seldeneck, CEO of an executive search firm, who's "in my 60s." The books on shelves, colors of the rug, the furniture — all were "geared more toward younger people."
She spent $8,000 on the job and says, "It was the best money I ever spent."
The de-cluttering process is "one of the biggest challenges we find," she says. "Sellers feel it's an indictment of the way they live. You have to remember what you're selling. You're not selling your taste; you're selling tastes the buyer wants to see."
Freedman recalls it was "kind of traumatic" when all her family photos were packed away. Another tough moment was when she stood in front of her closet, wondering what she could throw out.
READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE ON MY WEB SITE WWW.NEWLEAFDESIGNSLLC.COM
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
FYI - For Real Estate Agents
HOW TO CREATE EXTRA SALES EVERY MONTH - STAGE APPEAL
Home Staging broadens the appeal of your listings, which means faster sales for more money. That’s a fact.
Every single person who tours your listing should find it appealing. They should be able to recognize and be drawn to its best features and envision themselves enjoying the space. Your job a listing agent is to help the homeowner recognize the importance of making their home attractive to the widest range of prospective buyers.
What’s the best way to create an atmosphere like that? Home Staging
Address the idea of Home Staging early in the listing transaction with your sellers. Your clients will be grateful for your suggestion when their home generates more interest, sells fast, and fetches a good price. Tell them to visit http:/// http://www.newleafdeisgnsllc.com/ for more information.
You never get a second chance to make a first impression – turn your listings over to New Leaf Design Solutions, LLC you’ll be glad you did!
Home Staging broadens the appeal of your listings, which means faster sales for more money. That’s a fact.
Every single person who tours your listing should find it appealing. They should be able to recognize and be drawn to its best features and envision themselves enjoying the space. Your job a listing agent is to help the homeowner recognize the importance of making their home attractive to the widest range of prospective buyers.
What’s the best way to create an atmosphere like that? Home Staging
Address the idea of Home Staging early in the listing transaction with your sellers. Your clients will be grateful for your suggestion when their home generates more interest, sells fast, and fetches a good price. Tell them to visit http:/// http://www.newleafdeisgnsllc.com/ for more information.
You never get a second chance to make a first impression – turn your listings over to New Leaf Design Solutions, LLC you’ll be glad you did!
STAGING SECRETS..............................
Secrets to a Sensational Room……..using what you already have!”
Are you confused as to how to ‘pull a room together’? Do you want your home to feel more spacious, warn and inviting? Or do you want to shake up your style, contemporize, or organize? You might be tempted to add another chair, piece of artwork or accessory hoping it will magically transform the room-instead the space feels more disjointed and cluttered. The thought of buying all new furnishings is not only daunting from a time perspective, but a very costly endeavor.
The solution is literally surrounding you! By creatively using the possessions you’ve accumulated over the years, you can make your home more visually appealing and comfortable whether you are trying to attract a buyer or just a place where your family will want to spend more time.
By showcasing your home’s best features and maximizing the furnishings, artwork and accessories you already own, your home will reflect who you are and provide an inviting and interesting environment for your guests.
Here’s what we do to help you. First we help you sort through your stuff. Using an adjacent room’s floor or a large counter or table top we begin to sort ‘like’ items according to function, theme color or substance.
Next, we evaluate, keeping in mind less is more! Take a hard look of what you’ve got, be critical. Ask yourself which pieces you still really need and love-the remainder can be stored, donated or rotated with the seasons.
Tips for Staging Your Room
Group like items. Cluster like objects – they’ll stand out more and make a more dramatic impression. Group according to color, finish, or theme, instead of having items spread throughout the room.
Furniture finesse. To maximize flow, resist the urge to push all your furnishings against the wall. Pull the big pieces away from the walls, you’ll be surprised how much more spacious it makes the room feel.
“Track: your lighting. Much like a sailboat needs its sails tacked in a triangle in order to achieve balance and flow, your rooms will benefit from a triangular placement of lamps in order to equally distribute light throughout the room.
Pauses, or free zones. No matter how much stuff you have, you need to have some surfaces free of objects-especially walls and windowsills. To fully appreciate your collections and treasures, there needs to be alternating empty areas to balance the accessorized areas. Crete important ‘pauses’ by utilizing negative space when hanging artwork and arranging accessories. Place artwork or photos on every other wall, and notice the increased focus on the objects.
Cluster plants and pillows. Instead of spreading plants individually throughout the room, group them together for a more dramatic effect. Gathering pillows together pm sofas, beds and chairs adds more color and interest to the room.
Cross-utilize and rotate items. Just because something has always been in a particular room, doesn’t mean it can’t be reinvented and revitalized in a new setting. Think outside the decorating box!! A bench found in the basement becomes a side table to accent the couch. Faux finishings can do wonders to all kinds of furnishings and surfaces.
Are you confused as to how to ‘pull a room together’? Do you want your home to feel more spacious, warn and inviting? Or do you want to shake up your style, contemporize, or organize? You might be tempted to add another chair, piece of artwork or accessory hoping it will magically transform the room-instead the space feels more disjointed and cluttered. The thought of buying all new furnishings is not only daunting from a time perspective, but a very costly endeavor.
The solution is literally surrounding you! By creatively using the possessions you’ve accumulated over the years, you can make your home more visually appealing and comfortable whether you are trying to attract a buyer or just a place where your family will want to spend more time.
By showcasing your home’s best features and maximizing the furnishings, artwork and accessories you already own, your home will reflect who you are and provide an inviting and interesting environment for your guests.
Here’s what we do to help you. First we help you sort through your stuff. Using an adjacent room’s floor or a large counter or table top we begin to sort ‘like’ items according to function, theme color or substance.
Next, we evaluate, keeping in mind less is more! Take a hard look of what you’ve got, be critical. Ask yourself which pieces you still really need and love-the remainder can be stored, donated or rotated with the seasons.
Tips for Staging Your Room
Group like items. Cluster like objects – they’ll stand out more and make a more dramatic impression. Group according to color, finish, or theme, instead of having items spread throughout the room.
Furniture finesse. To maximize flow, resist the urge to push all your furnishings against the wall. Pull the big pieces away from the walls, you’ll be surprised how much more spacious it makes the room feel.
“Track: your lighting. Much like a sailboat needs its sails tacked in a triangle in order to achieve balance and flow, your rooms will benefit from a triangular placement of lamps in order to equally distribute light throughout the room.
Pauses, or free zones. No matter how much stuff you have, you need to have some surfaces free of objects-especially walls and windowsills. To fully appreciate your collections and treasures, there needs to be alternating empty areas to balance the accessorized areas. Crete important ‘pauses’ by utilizing negative space when hanging artwork and arranging accessories. Place artwork or photos on every other wall, and notice the increased focus on the objects.
Cluster plants and pillows. Instead of spreading plants individually throughout the room, group them together for a more dramatic effect. Gathering pillows together pm sofas, beds and chairs adds more color and interest to the room.
Cross-utilize and rotate items. Just because something has always been in a particular room, doesn’t mean it can’t be reinvented and revitalized in a new setting. Think outside the decorating box!! A bench found in the basement becomes a side table to accent the couch. Faux finishings can do wonders to all kinds of furnishings and surfaces.
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