How do we do it?

We go over your home, room by room, noticing things you probably no longer see because you see them everyday. We find solutions for potential problem areas and enhance the features that increase your home’s value. By appealing to the largest segment of potential buyers, we create an environment that buyers want to make their own. Around every corner we prompt potential buyers to envision themselves: having a romantic evening with their partner, playing games with the family, preparing and enjoying an intimate dinner with friends or having a summer barbeque with the neighbors, etc… We appeal to the home buyer’s aspirations for their life – how they want to live. We create an emotional response that brings you top dollar offers.

Savvy real estate agents will be more inclined to show our homes because they know their buyers will easily envision living in them. A home staged by Chic gives a good impression throughout the process and is more likely to be seen as a well-cared-for property by estimators, inspectors, etc.

What is it, really?

Staging is an essential marketing technique in today’s competitive Real Estate market that enhances property presentation using lifestyle selling techniques to secure top dollar offers from buyers. We use proven techniques to review a property for ultimate impact on buyers. Showcasing your home’s best features takes more than de-cluttering, adding flowers and placing a bed on an angle! It is creating favorable impressions everywhere the eyes rest. Starting at curbside and moving throughout the house to the very back edge of the property, we review everything with an objective and creative eye.

Who do we work with?

* Home owners selling their homes who want to secure the most equity possible in the shortest timeframe

* Home builders and re-modelers who want to maximize the return on their investment

* Savvy real estate agents wanting to earn and keep a reputation for excellent service and exceptional performance

What does it cost?

The simple answer to that question is: “Less then it will cost you to not stage…” It is an investment, not overhead. That said, the fee for staging a house varies depending on the size of the house, how many rooms, the level of furnishings needed to support the value of the house, the size and condition of the rooms and if the house is vacant or occupied. You should expect a minimum fee of $300 for a simple consultation and that can go north of $10,000 for full staging of large, high-end homes. Remember, this is probably going to be less than that first price reduction you may be forced to make if you don’t stage, or the house payments you are forced to make while your un-staged home sits on the market and becomes stale. Your return on investment can be threefold or more. How often can you say that about other investments in such a short amount of time?

Finding out which repairs will help you sell your home helps you create a good, solid fix-it list to work on. A study produced by HomeGain aimed to take the guess-work out of where to spend your repair dollars. According to the study, the top four areas to focus on are: clean and de-clutter, lighten and brighten, stage the home for sale, and landscape the front/back yards.

The Return on Investment (ROI) depends on the repair and, in some cases, which part of the country you live in. “In some areas of the country things cost more and some people don’t care about some things as much as others do in other areas,” says Jessica Gopalakrishnan, Sr. Marketing Manager for HomeGain.

Here’s how HomeGain breaks down the ROI for the top four repairs. Cleaning and decluttering can create a 578 percent ROI (the highest return was 837 percent in the West). The ROI for staging a home was 340 percent (this category ranked second in the South and Mid-West). Landscaping the front and back yards, brought in a 415 percent ROI. According to the survey, each of these repairs range in cost from a few to several hundred dollars but can return thousands in profit.

Rounding out the study’s top-ten list of repairs are: Repair electrical or plumbing problems, replace or shampoo carpeting, paint interior walls, paint exterior walls, repair damaged flooring, update kitchen and bathrooms. Gopalakrishnan says routine maintenance can help too.

“Not washing the windows is something so simple but a big mistake that homesellers make,” says Gopalakrishnan. Another top mistake is covering up or neglecting care of the floors. “If they leave a dirty carpet on the floor that would be a mistake,” says Gopalakrishnan. She adds that a key strategy for staging a home is to, “lift up the carpets and show off those nice floors — give them a quick shine and clean them up first.”

When you make the above repairs costing approximately $5,000 – $8,000, HomeGain, says that prices, for example, on a three bedroom, two bathroom home can result in price increases: in the West, as high as $22,762; in the East, as high as $23,532; in the South, $21,470; in the Mid-West, $20,279.

“With homes sitting on the market longer, homeowners should do everything they can to sell it quickly and at a price they expect,” says, Louis Cammarosano, General Manager at HomeGain.

The survey collected information from 2,000 real estate agents across the U.S.

The online resource also has a “What If” tool that allows users to hypothetically add a room, bathroom, or even square footage to a home to calculate value estimates on residential properties.

Written by Phoebe Chongchua as found in Craig Lilly’s newsletter at http://www.lillyteam.com

As a stager I work with realtors and homeowners to market properties. The principles of professional staging create a story about the house and the lifestyle that comes with that house. That story creates the emotional connection that we all want in the place we choose to call home – and that is quite magical when it is created in a place we don’t actually yet live. It is what makes staging a viable and indispensible marketing tool.

So how does green come into that? Today buyers are looking for green features. In May of 2008, NAR published a report that indicated that 9 out of 10 REALTORS® said buyers are looking for green features and that interest would continue to rise.
• And, in a trend that could signal greater attention from institutional investors, Energy Star buildings are selling for an average of $61 per square foot more than their peers, while LEED buildings command a remarkable $171 more per square foot.
• According to a recent study, LEED buildings command rent premiums of $11.24 per square foot over their non-LEED peers and have 3.8 percent higher occupancy.
• Rental rates in Energy Star buildings represent a $2.38 per square foot premium over comparable non-Energy Star buildings and have 3.6 percent higher occupancy.

Obviously, hiring me as a stager is not going to give you a Platinum LEED rating, so what do I bring to the table? First I can take a look at the home and review the already existing features that are green, and then give the homeowner a list of features they can market as green. My knowledge of sustainability, green features and practices, energy and water efficiencies and conservation, and grants and tax credits available to finance eco-friendly repairs and upgrades will serve my client well as we go through the consultation phase of the staging project. During the consultation I recommend repairs and upgrades that will help sell the property and I use my green knowledge to ensure they know the choices which will up their green quotient. I can also provide them with the sources and resources to get this done through my knowledge of green products and relationships with service providers with a commitment to energy efficiency, durability, sustainable products and practices, durability, value and healthier options for the home.

The information we provide during the course of getting the home ready to sell and the environmentally sensitive choices we help the client make is only the beginning of the impact an EcoStagerTM can make for the seller. Many clients use the information we give them during the consultation when they move to the next home to continue moving towards a more sustainable life. And, the changes we help to implement and the information we help the seller provide the buyer can be the beginning or continuation of moving towards sustainability for the buyer as well. The service and knowledge we provide are invaluable and, for real estate professionals, making an EcoStagerTM part of your team is the best value you can provide for your clients.

“Green construction is a construction project built to a standard higher than building codes, they last longer are cheaper to operate, sell for a premium, use fewer resources and have a lower impact on the environment.”Source: Alliance for Sustainability, Mike Holcomb / 2007

Chic Home Interiors does Home Staging, Interior Redesign and Training in Staging, Color and Green Build Science. Our training arena is all of North America, while our design and staging is in the San Francisco Bay Area only. Visit our new Green Website.

“Staging is not decorating. Decorating is optional, staging is mandatory in order to sell the house for the most possible money in the shortest amount of time,” says home staging instructor Joanne O’Donnell. O’Donnell has been teaching courses on how to stage a home to be sold for several years. The concept first became known in 1972 by then-Realtor, Barb Schwarz who realized that homes would sell for higher prices if they were prepared to sell first. Today, hundreds of thousands of real estate professionals, decorators and sellers have come to understand the once-little-known term staging that was coined by Schwarz.

O’Donnell recently taught a course in San Diego, Calif. In the course were two mother-daughter teams, Realtors and even a lawyer. “When we put your home on the market it is no longer your home; it is a product and we’re marketing it,” O’Donnell told the students. Home stagers start by viewing the seller’s home inside and out. O’Donnell encourages the students to walk through a home that they plan to stage with the seller, being sure to take notes of items that need to be moved and/or removed. While home staging may improve the looks of the home, O’Donnell is careful to point out it is not interior decorating. Instead she says it’s much simpler. “You can’t go out and buy new things for every problem that you have with a house,” says O’Donnell.

She tells the students to be problem solvers, reminding them that her clients are selling their homes and they don’t want to spend a lot to do it. Really home staging is about de-cluttering and making a home desirable to the masses. “Clutter eats up equity,” O’Donnell frequently reminds the students throughout the course. “The whole idea of staging is that you want to market to the largest number of people to get as many offers as possible,” says O’Donnell.

There are five key points that must be applied when staging a home. O’Donnell refers to them as the Five C’s of Staging: the home needs to be clean, clutter free, have color, be creatively staged, and finally stagers have to compromise with the sellers, because, of course, many sellers continue living in their homes while they’re being shown. “People don’t see that a lot of things that are in their houses are part of themselves and when you try to sell a house you want to make it as neutral as possible, not necessarily in the colors, but in the way it’s presented,” says Gerin Canin, a lawyer from New York who is transitioning into a home staging career. Canin believes home stagers play a vital role in real estate. “I think that when people sell their homes they don’t necessarily see their house as a potential buyer would see their house. They become attached to things. [The seller] doesn’t notice things that other people would notice. So I do think it’s important to have an opinion from someone else,” explains Canin.

Here are a few home staging tips from professionals.
For the Inside:
• Clear the clutter.
• Put away all electrical cords and extra appliances
• Put away family photos
• Think open space

For the Outside:
• Shutters improve the look
• Paint/Power wash
• Plants, high, medium, low — with lots of color
• Decks — even small ones can be a big improvement

Author: Phoebe Chongchua