Home staging works to depersonalize a residence, making it more attractive to potential buyers
Home
staging, the practice of making improvements to a house on the market to
increase its selling power, is catching on in Atlanta.
Wanda Hickman, an accredited staging professional, president of the
International Association of Home Staging Professionals Atlanta Regional chapter
(AIRC) and owner of Customized Home Staging LLC, said the intent behind home
staging is for potential buyers to be able to see the home as theirs.
"In home staging, we depersonalize and de-clutter a home to accentuate the
architecture and space to the best advantage of the seller," she said. "We're
looking at the house through the eyes of the buyer, who doesn't want to do
anything but move in."
Hickman said the basics of home staging involve simple tasks like cleaning,
removing and rearranging furniture when traffic patterns don't flow well, and
even packing up belongings to allow buyers the ability to imagine their
possessions in the home.
The focus is on lighting, color and enhancing focal points.
Melinda Anderson, secretary for AIRC and owner of Southern Home Organizers, said
home staging is about preparing a home for sale so potential buyers can come in,
walk through the home and feel comfortable.
"As a seller, you don't want buyers to feel like they're intruding on your
family's private space," she said.
Cleaning out a home's permanent areas like kitchen cabinets, closets and storage
areas also is important, Anderson said.
"A home is a product when it's on the market," she said. "Buyers need to be able
to feel like they can look anywhere when a house is for sale."
Hickman said of the 35 homes she's staged in the last 15 months, the average
time they spent on the market was just 26 days and they sold for between 98 and
99 percent of their original asking price.
After Anderson staged a house that had been on the market for eight months, the
sellers got an offer the next day.
Both women are accredited by the International Association of Home Staging
Professionals (IAHSP) as home staging professionals.
The IAHSP has 66 chapters throughout the United States.
The organization was started in Seattle and now trains and certifies home
staging professionals. The Atlanta chapter, which is two years old, has 10
members.
But it's not just home stagers that believe in their trade.
David Tufts, CEO and founder of Coldwell Banker The Condo Store, said home
staging is the individual seller's approach to a model home.
"Developers have been staging model homes for years," he said. "We know from
selling condominiums that models sell homes."
He said he thinks staging is catching on with home sellers in Atlanta because
they often need an outside party to be critical of their own personal style and
décor.
People have very strong reactions to color, in particular, Tufts said.
"Buyers can get so focused on a home's décor and then they can't see how their
own things could possibly work," he said.
Anderson agrees. She said that staging a home is particularly helpful with
younger buyers.
"If they see floral wallpaper in a kitchen or bathroom, it reminds them of their
mom's house and they usually don't want to buy anything that looks like that,"
she said.
Tufts' Coldwell Banker agents often give advice to their sellers on how to make
their homes more marketable -- and that often means investing a little money to
hire a professional stager.
"It's definitely worth the investment," he said. "You need to get your house in
the best condition before you start showing it. You don't want buyers looking at
flaws."
While home staging as a profession is relatively new to Atlanta, interior
decorators have often been called on to help sellers stage their homes, Hickman
said.
"But there's a very big difference between interior design and staging," she
said. "Interior design should reflect the people living in the home and with
home staging, we want to depersonalize it."
Anderson's company offers several different staging services, including a
two-hour consultation for $150 or a five-hour service at $50 an hour where she
actually works with you to stage your home.
She also can bring in a team of her own assistants and do everything from
cleaning, packing and moving furniture for anywhere between $375 and $1,000.
Hickman's company offers similar services and her fees are structured on a
project-by-project basis.