Staging is all the rage in real estate. The theory, mentioned frequently on HGTV television programs, is that home buyers cannot visualize how they would live in a house if there is not furniture — preferably really nice furniture — artfully arranged in an uncluttered house.

Jonathan and Carla Cheifetz, owners of Princeton Showhomes, are taking the staging concept one step further. Their new business, a franchise of a Nashville-based company, puts beautiful furniture — and people to match — in vacant homes that are on the market.

Homemanagers are people who own impeccable everything — armoires, comforters, dish towels, suits, the works — and who are willing and able to move themselves and their belongings into a vacant sale at a moment’s notice, and then to live there — ever so neatly — as the house is being shown to potential buyers.

Testimonials on the company’s website, www.showhomes.com, tout a quick sale as the biggest benefit for home owners. But Cheifetz points out others. “We send cleaners and landscapers out every two weeks,” he says. Also, the homemanagers pay for utilities, and insurance rates tend to be lower in an occupied house than in a vacant house.

Showhomes specializes in upscale houses, so an advantage for homemanagers is the chance to live in a really nice house at a reduced rate. “It’s not rent,” Cheifetz emphasizes. “They are not tenants. We call it a ‘fee.’” The fee is generally 30 to 40 percent less than rent would be. Good homemanagers, says Cheifetz, have a chance to upgrades their digs quickly. “If a homemanager does a really good job with a $700,000 house, keeping it neat and clean, he may get a $1 million house next time,” he says. Indoor pools, seaside mansions, the homemanager can aspire to it all.

Homemanagers don’t actually have to be beautiful, but they do need to be well-organized. The corporate website tells potential clients that they can expect well-stocked closets that will very probably be color coordinated. No fork will ever be left in a sink. No towel will ever be casually tossed onto a bathroom floor.

Cheifetz, now in the process of screening homemanagers, says that there is a surprisingly large pool of potential homemanagers. Retirees trying out new communities are naturals. So are recently divorced dads. His wife spoke with the manager of a local extended stay home who said that he typically has 10 to 12 divorced dads under his roof at one time. “They’re paying $100 a day,” Cheifetz says, “that’s $3,000 a month.” For half that amount, give or take, they could be in a multi-bedroom home in one of the nicest neighborhoods in the area.

Other potential homemanagers are people whose lives have suddenly been downsized. “We do criminal checks, credit checks,” says Cheifitz. “It used to be that a blip on a credit record would be a problem, but no more. The world has changed.” He knows this first hand.

In June, 2008, he was downsized from his position at Deutsche Bank. He had worked there for 10 years and was caught “in the first wave” of Wall Street downsizings. Five months later his wife, Carla, lost her job as executive director of Lawrenceville Main Street.

It was the classic case of Wall Street’s woes trickling down to Main Street. “It’s a not-for-profit,” Cheifetz says of Lawrenceville Main Street, the organization that works to keep the town’s storefronts occupied and its streets attractive. “It depends on donors. Carla was the only paid employee. When the money dried up, they had to let her go.”

After long searches, both Cheifetzes “decided to invest in ourselves,” says Jonathan. They thought of buying a business, then began considering a franchise. They did “an enormous amount of due diligence,” says Cheifetz, and decided to buy into the company.

Their income will come in part from the fees that homemanagers pay. There are also fees that come when the home is sold. These, says Cheifetz, are billed to the home owner on a sliding scale, based on how quickly a home sells.

Cheifetz hesitates to speculate on how many houses Princeton Showhomes will be managing in a year. “The company’s top producer juggles up to 70 houses,” he says. “Lower producers have 10 or 12. We would love to have 20 to 30.”

Area real estate agents say that the inventory of unsold homes in the Princeton area, particularly at the high end, has rarely been higher. The ill wind that has emptied so many of these homes of their owners, who have had to move on, is just the thing the Cheifetzes need to inflate their new business.

Showhomes of Princeton, 38 Burning Tree Lane, Lawrenceville 08648; 609-512-1052. Jonathan Cheifitz and Carla Cheifetz, owners. www.showhomes.com.

Cindy Montgomery, our top stager and one our Top-Performers each year, sent me these photos of soem homes she staged last week. Cindy is a dynamo with an average of almost 50 homes staged at any given time. Take a look:

We often talk about color and contrast and how contrast, even with the lack of color, can make rooms 'sticky' so potential buyers remember the home and the room. I think these rooms are very sophisticated and I'm sure I would easily remember these rooms if I was a buyer.

What do you think?

Thomas Scott

www.showhomes.com

Follow me on twitter: @showhomesthomas

Inside Edition ran a story this week on an innovative strategy for staging large, vacant homes with live-in Home Managers; a strategy that allows owners to pay for staging at close and lowers the overall cost to stage but produces excellent sales results:

http://insideedition.com/news.aspx?storyID=2686

Multi-Million Dollar Mansion Living for Pennies

A family of four is living in their dream mansion for a fraction of what it would normally cost. The gorgeous $3 million mansion in Phoenix normally rents for $15,000 a month. However, now the family is paying just a few thousand in rent and they get to live like millionaires!

Melissa and Wayne Goshkarian pay $2,400 a month to live like royalty in their Tuscan-inspired mansion.

According to Melissa, "I thought about all the money I could have saved on rent and mortgage over the years and said, 'Wow, we should have done this a long time ago.'"

The house is 5,600 square feet with five bedrooms. Touring inside the gorgeous home, INSIDE EDITION's Megan Alexander notes a Jacuzzi tub in one of the house's six bathrooms.

Melissa is thrilled to show off her master bathroom that's bigger than many apartments, and her husband is equally excited about living in the lap of luxury for a lot less than the market rate.
 
"The savings is well over six figures," Wayne says. "We're saving a fortune. It's just a win win for everybody."

The family owned a modest townhouse before they decided to rent their dream mansion. However, this home upgrade comes with a catch. The family can be bounced out at any time because they are human props being used to make the empty mansions have a lived-in look so they're easier to sell.

Kathy Haase owns the company that fills mansions with temporary renters. She describes the appeal of having families like the Goshkarians living inside the homes, saying, "You walk into a vacant home and it just doesn't feel like a home. This kind of gives more of a feeling, and that's what people buy...a feeling."

The only rules are that the family has exquisite furniture and that they keep the house absolutely spotless. Melissa says she isn't sure how much longer she'll get to live in the home, but when it sells she and her family will be homeless...at least until they pick their next mansion.

But, it appears that Melissa has little doubts on her family's decision to live in the multi-million dollar home. "This is great. I'm living in a dream home without all the responsibilities of worrying about the finances. I could not afford a house like this."

To find out more information about how you can live in a mansion like the one featured in this story, visit www.showhomes.com.

Showhomes, America's largest home staging company, launched a new website early this year:

Showhomes provides home staging services for larger and more expensive vacant homes for sale. Most home staged by Showhomes use live in Home Managers to help keep the home in show-to-sell condition and lower homeowner staging costs. Home staged by Showhomes are selling for an average of 93% of original list price and in less than 5 months. These are really good numbers given that the average home in our system is $1 million and about 4500 square feet.

Check out our new website and we'd love to hear your feedback!

www.showhomes.com

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Franchise Business Review, a franchise market research firm, announced today that Showhomes Franchise Corporation joins the elite list of companies earning a spot in their annual Top 50 Franchise Companies List. The list, entitled The Franchise 50 - 2009 Franchisee Satisfaction Awards(TM), ranked over 300 participating franchise companies by their overall levels of franchise owner satisfaction.

Franchise Business Review Founder and CEO Eric Stites awarded the company its ranking at the annual Franchise South Expo in Miami, Jan 10th. Showhomes was one of only seven out of 280 franchise companies at the annual expo that earned the award.

"We are extremely excited about our ranking," says Bert Lyles, Showhomes' CEO. "This reflects our own view of our business. Our franchisees are really enjoying what they do and we expect to have substantial growth in 2009 with the current market conditions."

Matt Kelton, Showhomes' Chief Operating Officer had this to say, "I've been involved with many franchise companies in my career and I've never seen a company with the potential to succeed like Showhomes."

The Franchise Business Review Top 50 ranking puts Showhomes into an elite group of the best franchise companies in the country. Only companies with excellent fundamentals, great financial position and high franchisee satisfaction scores earn a spot in the ranking. Over 3,000 companies franchise in the United States.

"Showhomes strong franchisee satisfaction is a reflection of their outstanding franchise program and business model," says Franchise Business Review President, Eric Stites. "Franchisee satisfaction is one of the most important criteria to consider before investing in any franchise system. Very few franchise companies have achieved such high ratings from their franchisees, which puts Showhomes in a very elite class of franchise opportunities in today's marketplace."

The sagging real estate market has focused media attention of Showhomes, driving the sales of new franchises. Showhomes has had four years of double-digit growth and had a staggering 88% increase this year in corporate revenue both from existing operations and franchise sales. Showhomes was listed as one of the hot trends in franchising this year, the Travel Channel called Showhomes 'the best kept secret in real estate' and the company was recently listed as one of the top 100 fastest growing companies in Tennessee by BusinessTN magazine.

About Showhomes

Showhomes - known as America's largest home staging company - began its operations in 1986 and started franchising in 1994. It currently has 42 franchises in 21 states. Showhomes has helped realtors and homeowners sell more than 25,000 homes worth more than $8 billion across the United States by transforming high-end vacant houses into valuable, staged homes. The Showhomes business model is based on the fact that staged homes kept in show-to-sell condition sell faster, and for higher prices, than vacant houses. For franchise opportunities, please visit www.showhomes.com .