From The Patriot-News
Designer can help to set stage for home buyer
Thursday, April 22, 2004
BY PATRICIA MOORE
Of The Patriot-News
You need simple lines on a neutral canvas, a bare-bones aesthetic,
an objectivity that borders on indifference.
And absolutely, positively no carpet stains.
If you want to sell your house for top dollar, designers say, think
of it as a work of art-in-the-making, a blank sheet. The buyer is
the artist, the seller is the paint and muscle, and the finished
work is a signed sales contract.
This art form, if you will, is called staging, and it is starting to
catch on in the midstate thanks in large part to such popular TV
shows as A&E's "Sell This House" and HGTV's "Designed to Sell."
As the calendar heads into the biggest home-selling months, May and
June, staging is sure to grow more popular even in a strong seller's
market. Once fully understood, it's a valuable tool for getting
ahead of the competition.
Staging fetches top dollar:
"Staging means creating a home environment that will sell," said
Roger Hazard, designer, professional stager and star of "Sell This
House."
Lisa LaPorta, designer and co-star of "Designed to Sell," agrees.
"It's about presenting your home to the buyer in such a way that you
can ask for top dollar," she said.
Tracy Susick, a Saegertown home designer, has her own definition.
"A stager works for the seller by thinking like a buyer," she said.
Even though your name remains on the mortgage, the house,
philosophically speaking, is no longer yours. It belongs to the
person who will be buying from you.
Put away family photos:
Call it the anti-decorating.
Prospective buyers do not want to see your house as you have lived
in it. They want a plain background on which their imaginations can
sketch their own lives.
"How you sell your house is not the way you live in it," LaPorta
said on the phone from New York City, where she and "Designed to
Sell" co-host Clive Pearse were making the rounds of talk shows.
So put away the family photos, the framed certificates, the
refrigerator magnets and grandma's afghans. Pack up the computer,
last season's clothes, your collection of bobblehead dolls and a
good portion of the kids' toys.
And, maybe, half your furniture.
The things that make a house your home are just clutter to others.
Don't assume a would-be buyer can see beyond personal items to the
good bones beneath. The client is just as likely to base his
decision on your ratty old futon as he is the stately fireplace in
your master suite.
Listen to the designers:
"Ninety percent of the time, prospective buyers are working from
emotional reactions," Hazard said.
"It's not about the homeowner's personal items or interests," said
Cheri Petrina, a designer from West Hanover Twp.
"Staging depersonalizes a house to appeal to the broadest range of
buyers possible," said Beth Fowler, a designer and home stager from
York.
Staging doesn't necessarily turn your home into an impersonal hotel
suite, but it's close.
Time to update your home:
Is your house cluttered? Dirty? Out of date?
A fresh coat of paint, a new slipcover for the sofa or an area rug
in the family room can suddenly bring your home into the 21st
century.
"If you haven't updated in the last 10 years, you need to know the
current trends," Hazard said on the phone from New Orleans, where he
was taping an episode.
For instance, he said, dark, floor-to-ceiling drapes are no longer
in vogue. Natural blinds or drapes in light, neutral colors are in
at this time, he said.
The same with paint. You might love the red faux finish in your
dining room, but a buyer might find it garish. Better to go with
white or something light.
"Neutral colors give a bigger canvas," Hazard said.
"I recommend dramatic and warm colors -- not strong colors -- but
neutral at the same time," LaPorta said. "I would not pick sunflower
yellow, but would go down the color palette to [a yellow] that's
softer, grayer, beigier."
Just as art goes through periods, a home can be linked to certain
eras. But unlike art, your decorating style doesn't rise in value
through the years. (Remember the harvest gold of the 1970s?)
Move out excess furniture, too. Keep just a few nice pieces in each
room. You want to create the impression that the house is spacious.
"People sooo over-furnish," La Porta said.
Wipe, polish and scrub:
When selling a home, cleanliness is essential, especially in the
kitchen and bathrooms. No buyer wants to see blackened burners,
dirty grout or rings around the tub.
"It doesn't take a genius to tell sellers to clean up the kitchen,
make the beds and stash the dirty laundry out of sight," Susick
said. And while you're at it, she advised, take your nightgowns off
the back of the bedroom door.
Pay special attention to animal odors, advises Alice Winner, who
owns a decorating and staging business in Derry Twp. You might no
longer smell the litter box, she said, but someone new to your home
will.
Make all necessary repairs -- broken shutters, cracked tiles, loose
knobs -- so that the prospective buyer has fewer things to worry
about. And lastly, let in the light.
"I've never heard a buyer complain about a house having too much
light, too much storage, too much space [or that it's] too relaxing,
Susick said.
Clear of clutter, home sells:
The results of home staging can be astonishing.
On a memorable episode of "Sell This House," a young Seattle couple
were trying to sell their condo. Even on the West Coast, where homes
sell almost before they're listed, the condo had been on the market
for a year.
It was easy to see why. The apartment was cluttered with too many
books, too many toys and way too much furniture.
Hazard came in, did his usual thing, and, he says, it sold within
days for the asking price.
A few years ago, Winner had a client, a collector, who found himself
moving to a retirement village sooner than expected.
He asked Winner whether she could "straighten up the basement."
Little did she know what a job it would be.
"I could not see over the boxes to the back door," she said.
She worked frantically for six months just to make a few paths
through the mess, taking out bag after bag of trash. With only a
month to go, the collector arranged to have a large truck haul away
as much as possible and a moving company to pack up anything they
did not have time to sort and purge.
"Everyone was out of stamina and steam by this point, but the house
was put on the market, and it sold within a week," Winner said.
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