All Your Home’s a Stage

When GraceAnn Nipper decided to sell her Henderson home, she wanted to do it fast. But, Nipper understood she wasn't exactly alone in her endeavor. With 21,181 units on the market in May, according to the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, she knew she had her work cut out for her.

Nipper didn't stress it, though. As a real estate agent herself for Independence Realty, she had a few tricks up her sleeve and managed to sell her property in two weeks, a time frame on par with the speed of light in today's sluggish real estate market. It wasn't accomplished through underpricing, either. Nipper relied on the age old practice of staging her home.

"(Staging) is big," she says. "It's really, really big. It presents a house so that you can see it's been well-maintained."

Staging is the difference between taking a trade-in to the car dealership straight from the mud races and taking it in just after it's been scrubbed, waxed and polished. The same car gets presented, but one has a figurative big red bow on top of it. The car quickly goes from something resembling a plea to a hardball negotiation chip. It explains why more real estate agents are suggesting staging to clients and why a slew of interior decorators have added staging to their resumes.

Jill Abelman, owner of Inside Style Home and Design, has been staging homes for 23 years. She put in the brunt of that time decorating model homes, the "model" for home staging. "You're trying to bring in a sense of calm and organization," she says. "A lot of times homes for sale are chaotic."

The biggest misconception concerning staging is cost. More often than not, it involves subtracting more than it does adding. Most people overfurnish their homes, leaving little to potential buyers' imaginations and much to their curiosity. According to Abelman, a home full of photos and personal mementos detracts attention from the actual home and pulls it into your individual interests. Suddenly a home advertised as having spacious bedrooms and cathedral ceilings turns into the house with the cookie jar collection and all the wedding pictures.

"Put all that stuff away so they're only looking at the home," she says.

Think of physical clutter as purchasing clutter. Be sure buyers have ample space to explore the house. Hallways should be open and corners should allow for easy clearance. Remove anything that doesn't serve a function special to the room it occupies. A computer desk in the office works; one in the master bedroom doesn't. Buyers want to immediately begin the visualization process. Customizing your use of space (converting the dining room into a play area) throws an unexpected hurdle into that process.

Staging can go as far as a seller is willing to take it. Cleaning, decluttering and making proper use of space costs little to nothing. The next step is focusing on small details that carry a big impact. Abelman recommends concentrating on the lighting in the home. "Leaving all the lights on when you show it warms up the house," she says.

To further the impact, update the lighting fixtures and highlight windows with inexpensive rods and modern drapes. Both will run you less than $300 and put a pretty spotlight on each room.

Some clients take staging full circle to make it more than just a visual experience. Abelman has known owners to pop a batch of cookies or a loaf of bread in the oven just before showing their properties. If it's the holiday season, stereos are left on and playing songs such as "Winter Wonderland" at a low volume.

Carolyn Mullany, a realtor with Coldwell Banker Premier Realty, refers to this as "making the buyer look at a home instead of a house." As a real estate agent who primarily works with luxury homes, she says about one house in her price range will sell a month. For her, staging is essential, which is why her agency regularly works with the same pool of interior designers.

"If you don't stage then you're putting yourself at a disadvantage," she says. "Even if you just do curbside staging."

A new welcome mat, freshly painted front door and a couple potted plants all lend an inviting first impression and build anticipation for what's to come.

David Coleman, president and director of design for David Coleman Ltd., just completed a staging project for a spec home in Southern Highlands. Although he primarily performs residential work for people just looking to freshen their home's look, Coleman's seen an uptick in his staging requests as of late. Why?

"Most people don't have good design sense," he says.

They come to him to make the house they want to sell appear "special." The goal is anything but mass market for his clients, who usually are real estate agents wanting to sell empty luxury homes. His job is to fill it with items that will sell a lifestyle, a much different objective than the standard $160,000 homeowner has. For them, Coleman has some advice. Ask someone whose taste you trust to do a walk-through and let them critique away. If that's not an option, do it the old-fashioned way.

"You just need to make your home look like a model home," he says. "Go look at the model homes to get ideas."