THE MEMPHIS COMMERCIAL APPEAL
BUSINESS SECTION (Page 1)
September 18, 2004
THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
MEMPHIS BUSINESS
Taking The 'Stage'
Advisers help houses sell on strengths
By David Flaum
September 18, 2004
On Sunday, Patty and Jeffrey Kurtz will find out if their $1,200 investment in a trend that is new to Memphis pays off.
That's the day of the open house at their Bartlett home, which has been on the market for two months. |
Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal
Patty Kurtz (left) shows her home to Cheryl Haas after making the changes recommended by Haas. Haas is one of a few Accredited Staging Professionals in Memphis. The Kurtzes removed clutter and rearranged rooms to give their house a more spacious look that would catch the eye of prospective buyers |
With the help of Cheryl Haas, the Kurtzes removed clutter and rearranged rooms to give them a more spacious look.
"She helped me see things differently," Patty Kurtz said. "The rooms were so crowded you couldn't see how much space we really had."
Home staging, as it's called, entails making and carrying out a plan to organize, de-clutter and otherwise spruce up a home, usually for sale (occasionally for appraisal for a loan).
It has been popular in California, Florida, Texas and other states for nearly two decades. It's new to Memphis as a business, although real estate agents have provided such counseling to clients for ages.
"People live in a house every day, so they don't necessarily see it from the vantage point of someone walking in to consider it for purchase," said Judy McLelland, a real estate agent in Memphis with Crye-Leike who does such work as part of her service. Stanley Mills, Crye-Leike's top salesman, details home staging ideas in the market preparation guide he gives to clients.
Staged Homes, a Web site for the industry, lists three Accredited Staging Professionals in Memphis, including Haas, who opened Defining Touch this spring.
"I walk across the street and look at the property -- what a potential buyer first sees when he drives up," she said. "I ask, 'Are they even going to stop?' Most home buyers make up their minds in the first 10 seconds."
If the potential buyer decides to stop, Haas said, "The first thing in the front door, I want them to say, 'Wow!' "
So she goes through the house room by room and makes a plan for the property from the curb through the back yard.
About 90 percent of homes, like the Kurtzes', need items removed to attract buyers' eyes, she said.
To do that, home stagers can do anything from "editing" clutter to redesigning the house, said Tamara Champagne, an Accredited Staging Professional in Memphis with her own business.
McLelland looks for rotting wood, trim or wallpaper that needs replacing. She may bring in a decorator to make suggestions about furniture.
"I like to have a professional window cleaning done," she said. "I want the home to be sparkling when someone walks through the door."
Real estate agents usually take the fee for such advice from their sales commission.
Champagne charges $80 to $150 depending on the size of the home, for a two-hour consultation, room-by-room evaluation and to-do list. Haas's fee generally runs $75 an hour.
The costs go up if a homeowner wants the stager and her crew to do moving, repair, cleanup, painting, re-carpeting or other work.
Home stagers, real estate agents and homeowners say the price is worth it.
Say a person lists a house for $225,000 and it's on the market for six months with no offers. The agent typically recommends a price cut of $3,000 to $5,000, Champagne said.
"For a couple of hundred dollars, the home could have been shown right the first time," she said. "The point is getting as much money as you can on the front end and not leaving anything on the table."
That investment will make a bigger difference for homeowners in a market like Memphis, which is not "raging" like it is in cities in California, said Gordon Fisher, a counselor with the Memphis chapter of the Service Corps of Retired Executives. Fisher, who moved here about a year ago from the San Francisco area, worked with Haas on her business development.
Making home staging work as a business, through, depends on marketing, he said.
"It's hard to get a Realtor to admit someone could be better than they are in telling a homeowner how to sell a home," Fisher said.
And, if you can convince the real estate agent, he said, "You have to be a good salesperson to get the homeowner to recognize the potential benefits."
The Kurtzes will discover soon if potential benefits become real.
"That ($1,200) is a lot of money, but if we get what we want for our house, it really isn't," Patty Kurtz said.
-- David Flaum: 901-529-2330
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