Heather Cook

This is an article I wrote which is being featured not only in Rooms in Bloom's newsletter, but several other Realtor newsletters in our area. I just thought I would share. Also - if anyone else has any input on how they handle inquiries about the feasibility of staging vacant homes, I would love to hear what you say. For us, we get inquiries daily which is why I thought I would write this short article.

Vacant Home Staging Basics

Yesterday, my partner Alana and I received our third inquiry from a Realtor about what was involved in staging an empty house they had listed. This particular house had gone on the market at the beginning of December and had received very little interest. The family had already moved out and left nothing behind. We were asked by the realtor, did we think it was worth it to stage the house to garner fresh leads and interest from buyers? Well, you tell us what you think. Of the two photos below, which one would you rather market or buy? Which one do you think would give buyers the best sense of room proportions and house potential?

Yes, maybe after viewing the pictures it seems fairly common sense to invest the money in staging as the results are spectacular. However, the cost of vacant home staging can be quite prohibitive for realtors and sellers alike. We strive to point out however; we live in an age where buyers are incredibly discriminating. People expect the home they will be will buy to mirror something they have seen on HGTV so the staging cost needs to be factored into the basic house selling budget. It's important to realize that only 10% of buyers have the ability to realize a home's potential - regardless of whether it is staged or not. That means if a house isn't showing well, then the sellers are missing out on connecting with 90% of the people walking through the home. With those kinds of statistics, sellers can't afford not to stage their homes.

Vacant home staging is an essential way of getting buyers to connect emotionally to a house. Stark, empty rooms only tell potential buyers that this house is unloved and fails to project the image of a lifestyle which someone will want to buy into. This is why model homes are always furnished. Empty models are just empty rooms. When someone buys a home, they are buying into a lifestyle, envisioning their new lives within the walls of that house. Furniture gives buyers an excellent sense of a room's proportions in addition to defining the spaces so that there is never any guesswork as to what a room's purpose is. In addition, if that house also has any design flaws, required repair work or obvious faults, there is nothing to distract a buyer from focusing on that particular element. For example, we staged a huge home recently which was beautiful but had acres of white carpets which desperately needed to be cleaned and stretched. Without furniture, there was nothing to distract buyers from thinking of how much money it would take to make the carpets livable - or to replace them altogether. This home had sat on the market for six months before we staged it, and then within two weeks of staging it received multiple offers.

So what exactly is involved in staging a vacant home? First, there is the initial consultation where professional home stagers will come out and view the home, take measurements and create a room by room design. Yes, there is usually a cost associated with this service however it is an essential part to the process. The second step is to decide how much of the house you want to furnish. Depending on the house and the layout, you may or may not have to furnish every room. We stress main living areas, master bedrooms and bathrooms as those areas garner the most interest from buyers. Some homes, due to their open concept design would look awkward unless all connected rooms are staged. Your home staging professional will be able to advise you on exactly what should be done to create the overall effect you need to lock in people's interest and emotions.

This means that once furnished, the seller will be paying a monthly cost to continue to rent the furnishings. This cost is a percentage of the overall cost of the items being rented and can range from $36 for a set of lamps to $250 for a complete bedroom set. This cost should go down for subsequent months as long as the home staging company has negotiated those terms with their furniture rental company. Rooms in Bloom always tells their clients that after the first month's rental, the furnishings cost goes down 10% for each subsequent month.

When we talk to our clients about staging their vacant homes and they balk at the cost, we caution them to view the big picture. If their house sits on the market for 120+ days (national average according to the statistics from the Real Estate Staging Association), can they afford the carrying costs for two homes? Of course there is never a guarantee that staging will ensure the house sells, however staging has been proven to help sell a home in a third of the time than an un-staged home. Selling a house is stressful at the best of times, but using the tools at your disposal to give your property the best possible chance at selling fast and for top dollar can't be discounted.

So, you decide - which house would you be drawn to from the pictures below? This is the tangible effect staging has on potential buyers. In an age where people want the house of their dreams but are less willing to put in the work to achieve it, staging fills the gap and gives buyers what they are searching for.

Heather Cook, Rooms in Bloom Stylist, January 2009.

Back in September, we were contacted by a realtor's office whom we partner with and told that one of their clients needed our staging expertise as he had a vacant home on the market and it wasn't getting much interest - and had in fact been up for sale since the beginning of June.

We did a consultation and staged after some issues with the home owner (he was against staging as he didn't want to spend any money). We staged at the end of October and the house got three offers within three weeks and then sold firm! We just de-staged and the realtor was so impressed that he signed an exclusive contract with us!

Here are some pictures of which we are incredibly proud!

Formal Living Room "Before"

Formal Living Room "After"

Formal Dining Room "Before"

Formal Dining Room "After"

Family Room "After"

Kitchen "After"

Master Bedroom "After"

We were sad to take this all down but the staging worked! We are thrilled for the home owner who finally sold his home and the new owners (we are helping them stage their home) who are very excited to live here. We have already been booked to come and re-design this house once the new owners move in.

Ever since we started our business, we have been very blessed in working with knowledgeable and really savvy realtors. From the start, these realtors weren't asking why they should use our services for their listings - they were telling US why! I find that incredibly refreshing after encountering other realtors who just can't see the merit in home staging.

A lot of the realtors who don't see the merit, are also unable to see past the expense of hiring a home stager to do consultations for their clients. We offer special realtor rates to agents who use our services on a regular basis - as many other home staging companies do. This makes it affordable to include a home staging consultation in with the other services realtors offer and it sets them apart - especially where we live because home staging is not as prevalent yet.

When we chat about the benefits of offering home staging consults as part of a realtor's services, we generally give the following reasons why it's so important:

• Offering a home staging consult tells the client right away how committed the agent is to ensuring that the house sells fast and for top dollar
• Emphasizes to the client the importance of the home's appearance and creates an understanding that there is definitely a strong connection between the listing price and the readiness of the house prior to putting it on the market
• Allows the realtor to maintain strong client relations as a third party critique distances the agent from the recommendations being made but also ensures that the items which need to be done, will be done so that the realtor can sell the house quickly and for as close to the asking price as possible.
• Helps in all the marketing a realtor has to do in order to get the home sold - the property will look good both online and in person so the house, statistically speaking, will have fewer DOM
• Will impress clients - especially the ones who are increasingly cognizant of how vital appearance is. We work with home owners all the time who are HGTV savvy and who are willing to put some money into their homes in order to get them sold. This is not a trend which is not going to disappear anytime soon - it is the real estate service in the U.S and is gaining increasing popularity in Canada.

Establishing a partnership with a great staging company as well will give realtors referral clients because we do a lot of work with clients who are getting ready to list and who haven't yet contacted an agent. We refer these clients to agents we have a great relationship with and it has worked out profitably for them when they get a listing that's already ready and the clients are eager to work with them because they have worked with us!

We are aware that not every listing requires full staging. Some listings just need a stager to go through and create a report for them to follow - but at least the clients have that report and if that's all the money that is spent then is a really inexpensive way to ensure the house looks great! When more than a report is required and real work needs to be done on a listing then choosing a home staging company which has great professional trade resources is a vital. Our company, Rooms in Bloom, works with a great team of trades which we use when our clients need more than just staging.

Partnerships are vital in any profession however in real estate, when people's lives are put on hold while they are selling their homes, everyone involved in that field needs to support and work with each other to help ease the stress. We always maintain that home staging is a powerful tool which should be utilized so that everyone benefits: the sellers, the buyers, the realtors and the home stagers!

This house is a lovely bungalow which we were called in to help with before it went on the market. The home owner was an older lady who had moved to a nursing home and her relatives who lived outside the country were put in charge of getting the house sold. Our first impressions of the house were a lot of wallpaper, clutter and religious items. We were hired to stage but also to manage the wallpaper removal/painting project, general repairs and to de-clutter the house.

Once done, the house was neutral and appealing to a wide range of buyers - and within 10 days a young family had snapped the house up!

Small second bedroom. This room actually contained a double bed and the larger bedroom contained this single bed. We switched them and then had all the patterned wallpaper, flowery border and religious effects taken down.

Second bedroom "after" we were finished.

Master Bedroom "before" but also after we had the pink wall colour neutralized and the flowery border removed.

Master Bedroom "After"

Dining Room Area "Before"

Dining Room Area "After"

Living Room "Before"

Living Room "After"

All in all, we were really pleased with how the house turned out. We believe that by removing all the wallpaper/borders and staging the home simply we allowed buyers to see the potential and charm of the home.