Boone, Blowing Rock and Banner Elk North Carolina real estate listings, home buying, selling and relocation information

The Charlotte Observer

September 16, 2007

STAGE IT, SELL IT
IT CAN PAY TO MARKET YOUR HOME BEFORE PUTTING IT ON THE MARKET
WHICH HOUSE WOULD YOU BUY?
CHRISTOPHER D. KIRKPATRICK

A slowing housing market is usually considered bad economic news. But for CORT furniture rental, it has meant business growth.
The Charlotte store has been expanding in a new niche market called staging - filling a house for sale with simple-but-chic furniture to give it warmth and class. It's using props to engineer an idea of domestic bliss for a marketing edge - down to artwork, rugs and plants.
As home sales have declined in the Charlotte region amid a national mortgage lending crisis, the trend of staging single family homes has shown up more often in the region. A chapter of the national organization of professional stagers opened here two years ago and membership has doubled in just the past year to 20.
CORT, a Virginia-based nationwide chain, has seen its staging business for private homes grow in the Charlotte area from almost nothing three years ago to about $30,000 a month, said Jarrod Clay, senior account executive for Charlotte's only CORT location. Staging accounts for about 15 percent of the store's revenue, surging in the past year, he said. "It's more than quadrupled. It's leaps and bounds."
CORT provides furniture directly to homeowners, who can rent prepackaged rooms already designed that are delivered and later picked up. The store also rents to the independent professionals or "stagers" popping up on the Charlotte scene. They work with homeowners, real estate investors and homebuilders. They rent furniture or have their own stock, Clay said.
Homes used to sell so quickly in Charlotte there wasn't the need for private homeowners to stage or for agents to consider unorthodox marketing strategies, said Lisa Hines, an accredited stager in Charlotte and real estate agent with Wilkinson and Associates.
"Now, it's slower, and agents are having to do everything they can to sell those homes," she said.
Local housing sales fluctuated up and down by single-digit percentages starting in September 2006, which saw the first drop in closings in more than three years. Then came the summertime sales blues, which brought falling closings by double-digit percentages for each summer month compared to last year.
Local stagers, who often have backgrounds in design, say homes sell quicker after they've been decked out. The statistics bear it out, says Phyllis Graham, who owns Charlotte's Show Homes franchise and is also president of the Charlotte chapter of staging professionals.
The International Association of Home Staging Professionals says that nationally the homes sell in roughly half the time.
Staging is not a panacea for a dead market or an inferior home, Graham said. Some houses just won't sell quickly or near the asking price, no matter how the furniture is arranged. But for most homes, the effect can be dramatic, she said.
Graham staged a Charlotte home for Mason "Chip" Smith. His now-80-year-old mother lived there for 10 years but needed to move into an assisted living facility. Graham moved out much of the older furniture, which was "wall-to-wall" and had cluttered the house.
She put in some of her own furniture and paid attention to the smaller details, such as replacing a bed comforter and playing background music during showings, Smith said. It sold last spring inside of two months for close to the asking price, Smith said.
"It was so dramatic. She made the small house seem so big," said Smith, who is chief executive of Mullen Publications, which prints newspapers for high schools and colleges. "It's really perfect for baby boomers. You're already caregivers for your parents, and then you have to go in and market their home."
Staging first took shape in Charlotte about three years ago with homebuilders dressing up their newly built properties. The phenomenon moved from new homes to existing homes as real estate agents began looking for an extra edge in the slowing market.
Marcyne Touchton started Domaine Staging in Charlotte only a year ago but said she feels like a veteran in the young Charlotte industry.
"I've had three clients in a month and a half, and they want it staged before they even got an agent," she said. "It increases your chances. What do you do when you go to sell your car? You detail it, of course."
Independent designers and CORT have been staging homes since the 1980s in California, where it first became commonplace. "You wouldn't consider selling a home there without first having it staged," Graham said.
The concept crept eastward due in part to the recent popularity of home makeover reality shows. It has reached extremes in other cities, where some sellers have added stand-in family pets and hired attractive actors to pose as husband and wife engaged in domestic banter.
But stagers usually recommend staying away from those faux personal touches because each buyer should be able to imagine the home belongs to them.
Graham said staging is smart real estate marketing but hiring actors can cross an ethical line. She includes a plaque at each house saying it's been staged. She also advertises the homes as staged to let real estate agents know the properties will be made up and worth a visit, she said.
Hines said successful staging works on the principle that the open space of a home should flow. Clutter is the enemy because buyers can be distracted or turned off, she said. She has to fight to persuade clients to box up and hide their stacks of books and papers, and collections of figurines. She said they resist: "It's a lot of work, basically moving out while you're still living there."
Real estate investor Michael Moulton, whose company Bee Home Solutions buys four or five investment properties a month, started staging about eight months ago. He studied sales figures last month and decided a house he wanted to sell on the edge of the modest Merry Oaks neighborhood needed to be staged.
He hired CORT to deliver furniture Monday to the remodeled, three-bedroom house. He chose furniture with earth tones and simple styles, as well as artwork and a bowl of potpourri. The queen bed in the back bedroom would not be slept in. No one would eat dinner at the dark wood table in the kitchen.
Moulton said there's no way to know for sure the effect on any particular property for sale. But he believes it improves the chances of selling a home faster and close to the asking price than if it were left empty or filled with too much furniture. Bee Home buys and sells investment properties and also rents. The 1,400-square-foot house staged Monday has been on the market since the previous week and is listed at $194,500, he said.
"We want them to imagine this is their home," Moulton said. "A lot of the buyers don't have any imagination at all."
Christopher D. Kirkpatrick:704-358-5169
Setting the Stage Yourself
Homeowners can go to www.stagedhomes.com for tips on preparing homes for sale. Those include:
Clear unnecessary objects from furniture and kitchen countertops. If it hasn't been used for three months, put it away.
Clear refrigerator fronts of messages and pictures. A sparse kitchen helps the buyer mentally move their own things into your kitchen.
Remove unnecessary items from bathroom countertops, tubs, shower stalls and toilet tops. Keep only the most needed items in one small group on the counter. Coordinate towels to one or two colors.
Rearrange or remove some of the furniture in the house, if necessary. Thin out as much as possible to make rooms appear larger. Take down or rearrange certain pictures or objects on walls.
During showings turn on all lights and lamps. Have radio on during the day for viewings.
Clear patios or decks of all small items, such as small planters, flower pots, charcoal, barbecues and toys.
Check paint condition of the house - especially the front door and trim.
Source: Stagedhomes.com
To Stage or Not to Stage?
The International Association of Home Staging Professionals, which has a two-year-old Charlotte chapter and offers professional seminars, says staged homes sell faster. The chapter's membership handled 20 Charlotte-area homes in the past three months that sold after an average 42 days on the market, according to its president, Phyllis Graham. That compares to a 116-day average for the broader, Charlotte market, according to August figures from Carolina Multiple Listing Services.
Homeowners looking to transform the interior of their property for a sale can hire a professional stager or take some basic steps on their own to entice potential buyers. Phyllis Graham, president of the local chapter, says homeowners should expect to pay $1 to $1.25 a square foot, or 1 percent of the list price, for a professional, who will furnish and arrange the interiors. Stagers also work with homeowners' existing furniture. CORT furniture rental allows homeowners to do some of their own staging. The company offers prepackaged rooms of furniture from $500 to $3,000 a month, depending on the size of the house.