actually going to be more like $7 000 and if it’s just done then they’re going to be signing a contract. We just want the buyers to come in and have as few negatives as possible and as many positives as possible and just keep them nodding their heads.
JULIE: What other type of things do you do? I know you said putting make up on, so for example, what would that be?
CHRISTIE: Really when I stage a house, one of the biggest keys is to get the rooms balanced and functional. So the people that I’m staging for may have great furniture and the colors might be great but it just needs to be balanced – some things just need to be taken out. We really want a flow of energy to go through the home. People can come into a home and think “wow this feels really great” and they’re not even sure why but really the home purchase if often made emotionally and so it’s that feeling that you get when you walk in a home. You may say, “Oh I want this, this, this and this” but then you walk into another home that may not have necessarily all of those things, but as soon as you feel it you’re connected with it. So we do a lot of things that you really can’t quite put your finger on – sort of like advertising. We really get the rooms balanced, we have the right focal points accentuated and we have the right colors. We do a lot of upgrading, just very inexpensively. So if there’s a floral sofa with ruffles on it we put a tan cover over it and put maybe some modern pillows over it and a modern piece of art and all of a sudden that room is ready for our target buyer, which is usually a younger buyer. So that’s the kind of thing I mean when I say putting a little make up on. If the countertop is…
JULIE: Pink?
CHRISTIE: Okay, say the countertop is pink. I just did a pink bathroom the other day and the couple really did not want to, they just said, “No, the countertop is not in the budget.” So what we did is we just brought some charcoal grey in with it with some black and white pieces of art and it just became a very sophisticated place. So what that will do for the buyer is let them know that – they might fall in love with the pink bathroom but most of the are going to say, “I don’t really want the pink bathroom but this is kind of fun enough, it is funky enough the way it is right now. I can live with it for a year until I get it changed.”
JULIE: I see, I did have a customer last year who did have pink countertops and that was the big question that she had and also I had: Should we invest in granite or quartz because we know that’s the finish that people are looking for nowadays? And this was a pink Formica in the kitchen. She chose not to upgrade that, we did upgrade the carpeting and flooring in that house and repaint everything and it really looked nice. And of course we took into consideration the color of the countertops as we picked the wall colors and the flooring colors, not that we picked anything in the pink range, but we picked something neutral that would coordinate well with it.
CHRISTIE: Kind of tone it down.
JULIE: Yes. When you were talking about balancing the room I got this image in my head of the master bedroom with the gigantic bed because someone is very tall or very large and so they have this extra-large piece of furniture there. And I was thinking that’s what you were talking about when you talk about balancing the room, maybe they need to move that bed out of there for the sales process, what do you think?
CHRISTIE: Yes the master bedroom is second only to the kitchen in importance to the buyer. So if the master bedroom is small I would recommend, if it’s a huge bed and it’s taking up most of the space, moving it out and putting a queen sized bed in – and that is something we can do. If the buyer is opposed to that we can figure out some other options; we can put mirrors in the room, we can put soft curtains in the room. I’ve stayed in plenty teeny tiny hotel rooms in Paris that have the bed about the same size as the room, there are ways to make them look absolutely fabulous and we can do that. So again, my first choice would probably be to put a smaller bed in, but if the buyer is not willing to do that or can’t do that we have other solutions.
JULIE: So I know a lot of home sellers these days are maybe not really sure what staging is or what it costs and maybe feel a little resistance to the idea of paying for that service. So my question to you is: Is staging really worth if for the home seller and why?
CHRISTIE: Staging is absolutely worth it. The way that that I look at staging is it is like the cake at the bake sale – the one that doesn’t get staged is the one that’s not frosted. Sometimes you see these people that are putting in a new heater, they’re putting in a new roof and doing all of these things that are fabulous for the house. And they are great ingredients for the cake but if they don’t put the frosting on it the person is not going to get emotional about that cake. And again, that is what I said sells and we both know that, it’s just going in on that emotional feeling. Of course all of those things that they’ve done are awesome but they are not going to give the first impression that the staging does that gets you connected and makes them want the house.
The National Association of Staging studies show that staging helps sell a house sell three to four times more quickly and for a much higher profit. So all of the realtors that I work with use me as a stager because they know that their client is going to get a higher price and that they’re going to sell more quickly. It’s kind of like going on a first date, you don’t to answer your door with your hair in curlers, you’ve got it get it all right before you go on the market. I think some of the most difficult houses that I go into are homes that have already been sitting on the market and then they call us in three of four months later and say, “It’s not selling.” And often, when we stage those houses, more often than not they sell immediately – right away. But, meantime they have had to drop their home a huge amount and so staging is just such a small amount in comparison. So to spend that small little bit of money to stage to make more money, so to save yourself all of the headache and hassle is just totally worth it.
JULIE: So are we talking in that range of say one to five thousand dollars to stage? I mean if someone had to drop their price $5 000 then the staging would have been worth it in the beginning right?
CHRISTIE: Absolutely. And not only because they have to drop it but they could have gotten $5 000 more in asking price, so many of the houses that we stage get multiple offers and that drives the price of the house up. So basically we will stage houses that are completely empty and for a completely empty house that is about $3 000 to bring in the furniture and the curtains and the art and the plants, the rugs and the accessories to make it look like a really interesting, inviting home. And then for somebody that we’re going in to give a consultation where we will just give them all of the information we write up a prioritized list. We charge about $300 for that and that includes a list of everything that we believe will help them sell their house for more and a final fluff before the photographs are taken. And then if they want to rent anything from us then we can give them the prices and they can make their decisions.
But I would say that I think some people have the impression that all of this is like interior design and it’s going to be really expensive and they find out that it’s not. It’s really cost effective and it’s fun, we have a great time with our clients and they end up, more often than not, asking us to come to their next house and help them with their next home. But it is a great deal, it’s the thing that shows, you will get bang for your buck because you can see it and the buyer is connected immediately to that.
JULIE: Wow! So about how much time before the house go onto the market should people start looking at what needs to be done? I can’t tell you how many houses last year that people have called me and said, “We want to be on the market at the end of this month and here’s our huge list of items that needs to be complete.” And then there’s this race to get everything done. So how much time do you think people need to get ready for market in general?
CHRISTIE: Well I think the rule of thumb is to let your realtor know, let your stager know, as soon as you think you might be moving – even if that’s a year out because it’s such a joy to be able to come into a home and let
