Increasing Your Selling Potential: Going Professional or Not, That is the Question

Jesse in Lifestyle

House Porn. Catchy isn’t it? The words definitely caught my eye while perusing the Lifestyle section of The Globe and Mail.  At once I began to reminisce about the real estate photos I had leafed (scrolled, actually) through while shopping for my first home. Pictures are what enthralled me - I did not want to bother with the important aspects such as available parking and whether or not utilities are included in the amenities; why read the fine print if you have no interest in the appearance?

With virtual tours and real estate web sites, photography is doing to the house what naked women did for Hustler Magazine. Real estate photographs can be flashy, attractive and when they are set to snappy music, provide dual sense stimulation. However, they are only photographs, and in this world of digital retouching and the emerging industry of House Staging, determining what has been altered and hidden is near impossible.

When you decide to sell your home, you are inviting potential Home Buyers into your space hoping that one will feel the ‘I need to live here’ energy that originally attracted you to the place.  The problem that many Home Sellers face is how to make their homes appealing to a variety of tastes.  The questions you need to ask yourself are: How do I bring 'sex appeal' to my listed home? More importantly, how much work (money) is too much?

The aforementioned Globe and Mail article brings the option of professional photography to light. If you are a novice with a camera, spending a little more money on a professional may drive people to your home more often than if you were to take the listing photos yourself. Commercial photographers are reasonably priced and are available throughout Toronto. Home Sellers who wish to take their own listing photos can take advantage of the ‘Tricks of the Trade’ portion of the article. A related article from The L.A Times gives advice on how to take interior and exterior photos for listing purposes as well. A great quote from this particular article is something to keep in mind while deciding to go professional or not: “Buying a Nikon doesn’t make you a photographer. It makes you a Nikon owner."

This brings me to the next option available to Home Sellers, that of hiring a Home Stager, or House Fluffer (a title that sounds like it belongs in the porn industry). They will make suggestions about home improvement in order to boost the appeal and potential value of your home. It is important to determine from the start how much money you are willing to spend on the house you intend on moving out of.

Professional Stagers can be hired to organize your home for photography purposes.  One option is shuffle furniture from room to room, as the photos are being taken, in order to create the appearance of 'fullness'.  This one is easier on the wallet than other options they may give you. I have heard tales of Home Stagers who have requested that a Home Seller actually purchase more furniture to fill up the emptier spaces in the house. I cannot find the sense in this.  I am a firm believer that with a little research and a little work, any Home Seller can fix up their home for minimal costs. 

Selling your home can be a stressful ordeal, making it especially attractive to hire professionals – whether they are photographers or Home Stagers, or both. CBC News presented a piece on high-tech advancements that realtors are utilizing to sell their client’s homes. Web-based virtual tours have been increasing in quantity and quality. These, of course, center around attractive photos of the selling property.

Investing copious amounts of money in your selling property with the hope that you will increase its market value may have disastrous results.  Your real estate agent can guide you down reasonable paths that will not require a second (or third) mortgage to attain. After all, you and your agent have the same goal: to sell your house.

Jesse is a Toronto freelance writer. Email Jesse

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Comments

[Marci Toliver]

Jesse,
Being a professional stager, one thing that you mentioned that I wouldn't do is move furniture around just for the sake of listing photos. I cant say I know of another stager that would. Part of our job is to make sure the listing photos are appealing, you are correct. The second part is to educate our client on how to keep the property looking its best so that when the buyer gets there they don't feel duped. It is the equivalent of a blind date...you are talking to this person, you've exchanged photos and you pick up the date and go WHOOOA!! You don't look anything like your Picture! That is not staging!

Marci Toliver
www.fresheyedesigns.com

[Yvonne Root]

Jessie, You said, "A great quote from this particular article is something to keep in mind while deciding to go professional or not: 'Buying a Nikon doesn’t make you a photographer. It makes you a Nikon owner.'"

I would like to add that buying a house doesn't make you a home stager. It makes you a house owner.

Take a look at the MLS in your area and you may wish to change your mind about this sentence -- "I am a firm believer that with a little research and a little work, any HomeSeller can fix up their home for minimal costs."

There are two problems with that thinking. One is you assume anyone can paint by number and create a masterpiece. The other is your lack of knowledge concerning the actual cost of hiring a home stager.

A little research would have alleviated the later problem. As for the initial problem, my own assumption is you will not change your mind no matter how many facts you encounter.

[Jesse Fleming]

Hi Marci and Yvonne.

I appreciate your individual feedback on the topic of home staging. I am going to address your comments together as they fall within the same arena.

Through my research I had come across some professional home stagers who, like yourself Marci, take an active role in educating HomeSellers about continual property maintenance. However, as with all industries, there are those who take a different route.

Home staging is currently an unregulated industry in Canada and the United States meaning that one does not require a license to work in the field. Without a regulating body, just about anyone can call themselves a ‘home stager’, ‘house fluffer’, ‘home stylist’ or any combination thereof. Fees are set by the stager and can add up considering that there is a consultation fee and the cost of additional furniture, purchased or rented. Home stagers I have encountered price their services per square footage and the average total lies in the $1,500-$3,000 range, and I have seen as high as $6,000; pro bono cases are present but few and far between.

I understand the argument that the money spent on staging will both draw a higher selling price and result in the property spending less time on the market. This may very well be the case for some properties and in any event, my position is that consumers should (1) make an educated decision about the services they are getting which includes investigating the reputation of the home-stager as well as receiving testimonials from prior clients; and (2) that under no circumstances should consumers sign up for these services if they can not afford it. Unless the home-stager is willing to guarantee the results in their work, the client is the one left out of pocket should the fluffing not have the desired intent.

My goal is to educate HomeSellers about the options they have and potential consequences to avoid when looking to list and show their home.

Thank you

Jesse Fleming

[Sheron Cardin]

Hello Jesse,
Your article has a few hundred home stagers in a uproar over at Active Rain. Are you aware of Active Rain? We have over 55,000 members representing real estate professionals from all over North America.

1500 Professional Home Stagers are currently members of this blogging community and are available for anyone to view their posts, profiles, before and after pictures, web sites, and contact them via email if they would like to know more about their qualifications. By talking about how your readers can acquire the information your recommend to them, directing them to these sites would be more constructive than creating a false impression.

As far as regulating the industry, there is a Real Estate Staging Association known as RESA of which I am the National Vice President. We are growing rapidly and working very hard to meet the needs of home stagers as well as home sellers. May I direct your attention to these two web sites to help you better inform your public.

www.activerain.com
www.realestatestagingassociation.com

Sincerely,

Sheron Cardin

[Kate Hart]

Jesse,

As a professional home stager and a member of Stage it Forward, an online community of home staging professionals, I am extremely insulted by your analogies of home staging to the porn industry. Obviously you did not do your research and insteasd relied on absurd references to porn to catch reader's attention (and possible google ranking?).

Your assumption that "Investing copious amounts of money in your selling property with the hope that you will increase its market value may have disastrous results" is completely wrong. How many home sellers that used staging services did you interview for this article? How many home staging professionals did you interview as experts? If you had cared to do some research you would have discovered for a small investment ($300.00) home sellers can have a staging professional guide them to achieve amazing results using what they already have in their homes. If you visit my website you will see these statistics www.hartstaging.com

I feel that you have completely miscontrued the services we offer. We do not attempt to disguise or cover up problems in a home- not only would this be immoral but as a small business owner this would violate my errors and ommissions policy that I must carry for insurance purposes. Our goal is to help home buyers see the selling features of a home, to give the rooms in a home more obvious purpose and to make a home more competitive with other homes on the market.

If you are interested in writing about this thriving industry I invite you to visit Stage it Forward on Active Rain and read more about our profession. I am sure that the members there would be willing to share their stories with you. If your goal is to merely mock a profession with disgusting references to naked women then I encourage you to remove this article for fear of the backlash you will find in your inbox once this story gets more attention!

Regards,

Kate Hart
Hart & Associates Staging and Design
Ask the Staging Coach.com
www.hartstaging.com

[Charlene Storozuk]

Jesse,
I have to admit that I am a little shocked at some of the statements made in your blog. You mentioned the analogy of someone owning a Nikon not being a photographer, they are a Nikon owner. I would think that the same applies to your generalizations and false impression of the staging industry. Writing an article on the home staging industry does not make you an expert in our field, especially when it seems that the facts are not accurate.

Home staging is NOT done just for photographic purposes and certainly not to add "sex appeal" to a home. Home staging is carried out to give prospective buyers a clear vision of what a home is truly like, void of clutter and accentuated to bring out the positives. It gives the buyer the ability to see themselves living there if they like that particular property. That cannot be accomplished just through a photograph. Sure they say a picture is worth a thousand words, but it does not have the same effect as seeing a property in person. If the pictures are taken as furniture is moved from room-to-room (which by the way, I have NEVER heard of a stager doing) then what do you think will happen when buyers go to that property? Will the agent tell the people to wait just one moment before going into the next room so that he or she can move the couch in there? That is just ridiculous. The minute a buyer walks through the door and sees that the property does not look at all like it did in the photographs, chances are that they will be turned off and start to question if there are any other deceptions with respect to the home. That would be totally counterproductive to the whole staging philosophy. I might also add that a reputable home stager would NEVER hide or alter anything in a home. That is unethical.

Sure, a home seller can fix up their home to an extent for sale, but they cannot be impartial when it comes to viewing it through other's eyes. They are invested in their home and all of the belongings in it. This is where home staging comes in and yes, it can be done at minimal cost in a lot of cases by using the homeowner's existing furniture and accessories. Your statement about taking out 2nd or 3rd mortages in order to sell a home is ludicrous. If that much money had to be spent in order to sell a home, then how much profit do you think a homeowner would net at the end of the transaction? It would totally negate any of the benefits of having it staged.

I really felt compelled to respond to your blog Jesse, especially since I note, that you are located in the Toronto area. My staging company is in Burlington which, as you know is not far from you at all. I would love the opportunity to speak with you about what home staging really is and perhaps give you a whole different understanding and respect for our industry.

Charlene Storozuk
Dezigner Digz - Home Design Consultant
Halton & Hamilton-Wentworth Real Estate Staging Association - President

[John Pasalis]

Some very interesting discussion so far,
Firstly I don’t think Jesse draws any analogies between home staging and the porn industry. She does however point out that many in the industry, for some reason, refer to themselves as ‘fluffers’, a term commonly used in the porn industry. I think the Home Staging industry might want to reconsider referring to themselves as House Fluffers.
I also think she offers sellers great advice when she advises them to be careful before spending copious amounts of money in the hope that their home will increase in value. As a real estate agent myself, I’ve seen home sellers spend thousands of dollars fixing up their home, inside and out, with the hope of getting a higher price for their home. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. Just because a seller spends money staging their house, it doesn’t mean they are going to get that money back in the purchase price. The economics are not always that easy. My area for example has a high proportion of bungalows which are being purchased by developers who want to convert them to two storey homes. Developers don’t care if Martha Stewart herself decorated the house, they are going to pay what makes economic sense to them. Sellers in this area who spend thousands staging only to find that they are selling to a developer, probably didn’t need to spend that money.
Having said that, even in this situation I wouldn’t advise a seller to not stage their house. I, like Jesse, would tell them to think twice before spending thousands to stage it.
Lastly, I don’t think Jesse is suggesting that Home Stagers would hide material defects with a home. The point she was making was that photographs don’t always give you the entire picture of what a home is really like because some of the not so nice details might be hidden. As far as I’m concerned it’s the home stagers job to take the home buyers eye away from (hide) the unpleasant details of the home and have them focus on the nice details. There is nothing unethical with putting up curtains if the stager feels the view isn’t nice or if the windows aren’t attractive.

[Toronto real estate agents]

Both the article and the above conversation are very interesting. Let me add something to it.
I thought I had known how to take photos of real estate. I was wrong.
First, I was told to buy a really good camera if I did not want to ruin all my pics (and my company). So I bought a digital SLR complete with the kit lens that came with it. My new Nikon D80 seemed to work flawlessly, until I actually began shooting interiors. It was then that I realized that no room is big enough to fit to my picture. I have learned the hard way that cameras and lenses with wide angle capability capture more of a scene than a normal lens. Now, with my new 17-55mm zoom lens I can capture even the smallest rooms on the market.
See, I can only prove the fact that buying a Nikon does not make someone a photographer.

Here is a few more suggestions I have found at http://www.digicamhelp.com:

* Do some staging. Temporarily move distracting items from the scene such as a car in the driveway or a For Sale sign on the lawn. For interior shots, tidy up the room so it looks uncluttered.
* Highlight positive areas of property.
* Before snapping the shutter button, review the scene so vertical or horizontal line are perpendicular.
* Take shots from different angles so nothing obstructs an important part of the scene.
* Moving slightly to the left or right, or back a few steps, before taking a photo can improve composition. Check the composition on the LCD.

Good luck!

[Dane Caldwell]

Hi Jesse,

Personally, I like the 2 questions you advise your readers to ask themselves:
1) How do I bring 'sex appeal' to my listed home?
2) how much work (money) is too much?

Unfortunately homeowners who become Home sellers don't have the time to invest to become SME's about the real estate situation in their area nor time to complete an interior decorator/designer course to have the backgound in staging.

The right Realtor and the right 'Home Stager' are the perfect team. There is always a high end and a low end for a house on the market. With the right stager and the right investment (could just be removing the 80's wallpaper and fresh paint) you will be confident that all was done (within reason) to merchandise and market your house.

I am thrilled you pointed out the industry of home staging does not have any regulations...I've been shouting this from the rooftops for the last year!

I enjoyed your article (my husband explained the 'fluffer' term to me a couple of years ago) and have no problem writing about sex and selling a house; infact I have. Look at advertising on TV - sex sells cars, gum, coffee...what doesn't sex appeal sell...so why not houses?

The one issue I have is with your numbers. To stage a house for $3,000.00 is only 1% of the asking price of a $300,000.00 house. To sell quicker and reduce the risk of dropping the price by $10,000 - $15,000 (and that is only 1 price reduction) I think most would agree it is a worth while investment.

A house priced right and staged well, will sell before the identical one that isn't staged and priced the same.

We all want shiny clean, bright & pretty homes to invite friends and family but the vast majority want to buy their house in that condition; not to have to do the work to get it there before moving in.

A premium is always placed on a prepared/maintained property and that premium is placed there by the buyers.

Any time you have questions about the staging industry, Jesse give me a call, I love talking about sex and decorating! Just don't get me going about the training some businesses are offering as 'certified' or 'accredited' after only 3 days of class!

Dane Caldwell (keeping my houses up!)
Lead Consultant
2 Hounds Design + Home Staging
www.2-hounds.com

[Ana Hitzel]

Are you kidding?

AccentPositves
Corona, CA