Home Stager Strikes in Portland Maine!

Here are some excerpts from another home stager, this time in Maine. It looks like home staging is finally catching on over here on the East Coast!

Rebecca


Friday, July 7, 2006

In real estate sales, all the home's a stage

By TOM BELL, Portland Press Herald Writer

Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

It took years for Tom Cannon to build up his collection: tribal masks from Nepal, a straw hat from Vietnam, a batik print from Senegal, a South Pacific imp, a 3-foot statue of the Hindu god Shiva.

All of these he displayed in his cozy West End condominium, which has been on the market since last fall and remains unsold after more than 50 showings.

Enter Paula Jalbert, who was hired by his broker to "stage" the condo.

Jalbert was blunt. The Hindu god, the imp, the hat, the masks - they had to go, she told the 48-year-old bachelor.

She also banished the Oriental rugs, which made the rooms darker, personal photographs and any painting that seemed eclectic or abstract.

Home staging, which first became popular on the West Coast, has only recently moved to the East Coast. In Massachusetts and Connecticut, some real estate companies have in-house stagers who are sent out to redecorate a home as soon as it is listed.

Any house on the market should be clean and uncluttered, she said. The decor should be mainstream so it appeals to the widest possible audience.

She says homes sell faster if the owner's personality is sucked out.

She charges a flat fee of $200 for "staging consultation," which includes one walk-through inspection and a to-do list. She charges $65 an hour for additional staging services, such as bringing in furniture and decorating a home.

"The market is such that you have to do every last possible thing you can do," he said. "The more you can do right upfront the better."


Staff Writer Tom Bell can be contacted at 791-6369 or at:

tbell@pressherald.com

Staff researcher Julia McCue contributed to this report.

technorati tags:home+staging, real+estate, realtors, home, selling

News Video on Home Staging

This is a FAB news story by Matt Belander of KeloLand TV in North Dakota.
There's even a video of the article, just click on the title link above.

Superb!
Rebecca


It's called home staging, and it involves all of the simple things people can do to get the most money when selling their house.

"Our emphasis is really on the first rooms you come into," she said.

Kranz and her team of staging-specialists start by taking almost everything out of the house.

Decorating is kept to a tasteful minimum, and Kranz tries to use furniture and accessories the homeowner already has. The goal is to place just enough around to make the house look lived-in, but still allow room for the buyer to mentally move-in their own furniture as they tour the house. You don't want decoration to distract from what you are really trying to sell.

Many times, Kranz says she finds "less is more" is the best way to approach staging a home.

"In the bathrooms its really important to clean all of the surfaces, so you want to pick up all of the rugs because when you have rugs on the floor you can not see the floor and that eats-up the visual space," she said.

She says other style no-nos include toilet seat covers, busy wallpaper, family pictures, and brightly colored paint. The whole process of staging a house can take anywhere from a few hours to several days, depending on the size of the job, which also impacts the bill.

"Typically say a 2,500 square foot house will run anywhere from $250 to $1,000. It just depends on what the client wants us to do," Kranz said.

But the result is worth the price for many people: a professionally-styled home that's designed to sell.

Home staging is just starting to catch on in South Dakota. Kranz is one of two accredited staging professionals in the state. But she says more buyers and realtors are slowly learning about, and taking advantage of the service.

Matt Belanger
© 2006 KELOLAND TV. All Rights Reserved.

technorati tags:home+staging, real+estate, realtors, home, selling