Township Journal > News

Home Staging an art and a business

 September 19, 2007

Preparing the home for purchasers, By Amy Stewart

Sparta - Interior designers shape a home around the people who live there. Home stagers shape a home for the people who might live there.

?Home staging is for people who want to leave, so the house needs to feel like the potential buyer could walk right in and make it theirs. Interior design is for people who want to stay, applying techniques to customize the space for their particular and individual style of living,? Nancy Maurer explained. She started Whitehall Interiors and Home Staging just in time for the housing market slump to make it more desirable.

Sellers use Home Stagers to present their houses in the most marketable fashion possible. ?It is best to use a Home Stager before listing.? Nancy emphasizes that preparing a house before it hits the market is the best way to ride the wave of momentum that comes with a new listing, but it is never too late to apply a professional?s expertise. In today?s market, a house must show well on the internet also. ?Eighty percent of buyers look at the internet before physically looking for a house. Home Staging can give a beautiful showing on line.?

?Home Staging is effectively preparing your home to be sold while using a critical eye to make it market ready,? Maurer said. Home stagers use many of the same principals as interior designers, including the use of color and texture, but the industries are very different.

For years people have been selling their homes without stagers but the reason to use one was clear to Jean Salie, a client of Nancy?s. ?We were ready emotionally to move. We contacted Nancy just over two months before we listed. Once we made the changes she suggested, we listed with a Realtor. It has been only three days and we have already had offers on it.? After transforming her home from a lived in residence to a spiffy delight of a showcase, Jean says she still wants to move. ?We went through all of this because we want to sell,? she adds.

?The biggest mistake sellers make is that they think their own personal taste in decorating and use of space will appeal to everyone. Letting go of their individual tastes in a house that may still be their home is difficult for a lot of people.? Nancy goes on to point out that clutter is probably second biggest mistake. ?You are going to move anyway. Pack it up and put it in storage. It will show off the square footage. The biggest bang for the buck is probably painting, coupled with knowing what colors to use where.?

Although it may seem like a seller benefits most from the use of a Home Stager that is not necessarily the case. The seller will benefit from better marketability, with the hope of the highest price possible, but the buyer reaps rewards as well. A house that is staged is usually ready to be moved into and lived in. Without the need for even the most basic of paint jobs or cleaning crews, a new owner can make the house their home immediately and then customize to their own tastes when they are ready without having to undo the previous owner?s likes and dislikes first.

Realtors reap rewards too. Quick sales at better prices are plusses that reflect well on a listing agent. Results shown in the form of turnover and purchase price are evidence to new clients, other agents and brokers of the ability to work with saleable houses in ways that benefit both buyers and sellers.

Nancy has both business expertise and knowledge of interior design. She received training from the NY School of Interior Design and has earned her International Staging Certification. She also sites her course work with Debra Gould ?the Staging Diva? as her most helpful education. ?We are not just guessing at this. There is a whole science behind everything we do.?

Business is growing quickly for Whitehall Interiors. Currently most business comes from owners looking to sell. Realtors are a great source of referrals as well. Nancy became the center of her own little networking group, having access to landscapers, handymen, window and house cleaners, plumbers and furniture rental companies to help her clients with suggested improvements. She also warehouses an inventory of furnishings to help her clients set the house up for showing. Nancy will come in and physically stage a home before it is previewed by Realtors or prior to an Open House. ?I will set the table, fix the towels and fluff the pillows. I even bring fresh flowers. Everything and anything that needs to be happen to give that home an elegant and cared for look I make sure is done. I turn on the lights to brighten interiors and even maximize curb appeal to capture the buyer?s attention and draw them inside.?

Nancy presents to her clients several options to employ her expertise. She offers a two hour ?intense session? where she inspects a house, both in and out, while the client takes notes on her recommendations. An upgraded version of her services allows for a three hour session where she takes notes and presents a full written report of recommendations and a list of priorities. She also provides help, insight and preview staging on an hourly basis.

Whitehall Interiors and Home Staging services Sussex, Morris and certain sections of Warren County. Whitehall Interiors and Home Staging is located in Sparta, and can be reached at 973-978-5195, whitehallinteriors@earthlink.net and can be found on the Web at www.whitehallinteriors.com.

? 2007 Straus Newspapers