Real Estate

Money Magazine
04/11/2004

These days, home is where our hearts - and our financial security - are. Here's how to get the most out of our most emotional investment at times when emotions run highest.

HOME STAGING EXPERTS
Like a brilliant idea hiding in plain sight, your humble home is actually an elegant showplace. Only problem is, no one can tell from the way you decorated it. "The way you live in your home and thet way you market your house are two different things," says Barb Schwarz, founder of the 3,000-member International Association of Home Staging Professionals. "Once you put your house on the market, it becomse a product." Staging professionals help make your house appeal to a wider audience by eliminating distractions (see ya later, old La-Z-Boy; outta here, teenage ephemera). The result is a neutral but attractive environment that lets the bones of the home shine through. "We were about to pull a town house off hte market - it just wouldn't sell," says Dominick Dutra, a real estate agent in Fremont, CA. "After a one-day Staging, it sold for full asking price: $545,000." Most Stagers work with objects you already have; some truck in their own pieces.

How much?
A standard Staging costs $1,000 to $2,000, though a written report with do-it-yourself Staging steps can be purchased for a few hundred bucks.

How to find them
IAHSP.com
StagedHomes.com
InteriorArrangement.org
WeRedesign.com

How to check them out
Ask local real estate agents about their work. Client references count, but so does personality - if they're Bubble-Wrapping your thimble collection, you'll want to like them.