One in four homes now "staged'' to lure buyers

If you've been to an open house in the Seattle are lately, you've probably seen a "staged" home — one where the décor and furniture arrangement is designed not necessarily for living, but for showcasing a home's attributes to prospective buyers.

A growing number of properties are undergoing staging, the process of "merchandising" a home for sale, says Barb Schwarz, who began doing it in the 1970s as a local real-estate agent and has helped turn it into a national trend.

Schwarz estimates that today about 25 percent of all homes that are put up for sale have been staged, up from about 5 percent in 2001.

The National Association Realtors doesn't keep such statistics, but spokesman Iverson Moore said that staging is on the rise.

Staging involves improving landscaping, rearranging interiors and detailing with plants, other "natural" elements and color throughout each room.

Why stage? The theory is that by showcasing a home to appeal to buyers — as opposed to simply cleaning it up and leaving it decorated as is — the home will not only sell faster but for more money.

Schwarz has many believers. She has books, videos and gives seminars to agents and aspiring staging professionals across the nation. She recently gave a three-day presentation in Bellevue that attracted nearly 50 people. Schwarz says that agents are increasingly referring stagers to sellers or funding it because sellers have come to expect it. As staging has gone mainstream, more sellers and their agents are employing its techniques — which range from the logical (declutter, use color) to the surprising (bring more plants indoors, create "vignettes" with knickknacks and art).

Schwarz estimates that about 10 percent of all agents either pay for staging outright or reimburse sellers for staging at the close of a sale. Other agents keep names of stagers on speed-dial.

The average cost to stage a home in the Pacific Northwest is about $2,800, Schwarz says.

But the cost can vary based on location, whether a staging consultant merely advises a seller on what to do (typically a $350 consultation) or if the stager handles an initial consultation and then does the staging. The latter may include not only moving furniture, but also introducing new décor or props (plants, art, throw pillows, rugs, even furniture) that remain until the house sells.

Schwarz is not the only staging pro out there, but she is surely the industry's most enthusiastic evangelist.

She refers to herself as the "Faith Popcorn of staging" (referring to the author and trend expert) and speaks often of her God-given gift to teach others the art. She named a pet dog "Stager," and has nicknamed a red truck in which she totes the tools of her trade "Rosie" (an acronym for Return On Staging Investment).

She developed a staging-accreditation program from which 16,000 real-estate or decorating professionals have earned their "ASP" (Accredited Staging Professional) credentials.

She preaches the "four C's" of staging: creativity, cleanliness, clutter-free rooms, and color. She has sayings: "If you can smell it, we can't sell it"; "Less is more," "Think like a buyer."

But what happens during a staging session is a combination of creativity, resourcefulness, visual know-how and manual labor. During the second day of Schwarz's most recent seminar in Bellevue, roughly 50 real-estate agents and would-be stagers crowded into a 4,470-square-foot home in Newcastle.

The home, listed for sale at $1.35 million, already was spotless and adhered to many basic rules sellers follow when putting property on the market — no personal photos or knickknacks, neutral colors, minimal clutter.

However, it had been on the market more than two months, according to Debbie Haroutoonian, the Coldwell Banker Bain agent representing sellers Jim and Sue Hynes. Sue Hynes said that the length of time on the market doesn't seem abnormal given her home's price, but that she and her husband were willing to give staging a try.

"If the staging will help, let's do it," she said.

Schwarz divided her students into teams, each tasked with tackling a different room after making a quick assessment of three changes it could use. Teams quickly "diagnosed" the rooms:

• The formal living room needed to showcase its fireplace.

• The dining room had too many chairs.

• The den needed further decluttering and new furniture arrangement as well as visual "vignettes."

• An upstairs bedroom needed its bed moved to a diagonal position and covered with a neutral (vs. floral) bedspread.

• The home gym needed color, art and character.

• The informal home office needed a "more masculine" look (and, apparently, a wet bar) and for furniture to be moved.

• The master bedroom had too much furniture on one side of the room but could be redeemed with a seating area and table at the window, potted plants and furniture shuffling.

Throughout their frenzied hour-and-a-half staging extravaganza, students dipped into the stagers' tool kit — a hulking bag of raffia (a shredded brown paper used by florists and crafters), temporary adhesive buttons known as "zots," as well as scissors, ribbon and other gear. Not needed for this house are odor neutralizers like Pure Ayre and a heavy-duty surface cleaner called Krud Kutter.

At the end of it all, faux furs were strewn on the den's couch, new seating areas appeared in bedroom windows, plants were in the master bathroom's shower and sheets did double duty as tablecloths and curtains.

Presiding over her students from a balcony in the home, Schwarz was in her element. As the class finished vacuuming, dusting and picking up bits of raffia, she gathered them in the living room for a final debriefing.

"We love this business!" she had them shout in unison.

"I'm kind of amazed," said Haroutoonian, the listing agent, surveying the results.

Sue Hynes, the owner, saw the results shortly after the class finished. She says stagers picked up on some of her own unfinished decorating goals — such as creating a seating area by the master-bedroom window.

They also found ways to replace already disassembled décor — such as filling in a home gym emptied of its gear with old games excavated from the downstairs den.

"We tend to be neat and clean," Hynes says. "But I don't have the 'staging eye.' There was a lot more greenery than I'd normally have put in the house. They put greenery in the shower of the master bathroom. I'd never have thought of that."

Overall, the transformation from a clean house to a clean, staged house impressed Hynes:

"I will say there have been some great improvements."