Читать книгу Ready for Market - Julie F Sullivan - Страница 5

Christie Birch

Energizing Spaces

CHRISTIE: I've had a home staging business for over eight years. I absolutely love it; it’s such a great way to help people at one of the most stressful times in their lives. Moving is one of the top five stressors and there is a lot going on, a lot of the time there’s a job change or possibly a divorce or a family change, a downsize and a move can just be a really, really stressful time. So I love being able to come in and help make that a more enjoyable time and actually even an energizing time for our clients. One of the things I do is come in with or without the realtors – and go through the home and really just take a look at the house with a fresh eye.

If I’m designing for a client personally for their house I want to make it all about them and really personalize it. When I’m staging though, we come in and we want to depersonalize and really make it more toward the target buyer. So I go in and my goal is to not really give the buyers any recommendations that aren’t going to make them more money and sell their house more quickly. And my niche is to go in and give people the ideas that are going to give them the biggest bang for the buck. I don’t like to do a lot of cosmetic surgery but just a little bit of make up to show the house off.

JULIE: So for example, when you say you don’t like to do cosmetic surgery, would that mean that you don’t recommend that they change countertops for example or upgrade flooring?

CHRISTIE: it really depends on the price of the home; it depends on what’s happening on the market and what’s happening with the competition. And so if they don’t have to do those things I would rather them not do them unless their home is priced such that they will definitely get that back or if the competition is stiff and they’re not going to be able to sell it without doing it then I will recommend it. But it’s not going to be just a boiler plate list of recommendations, we really talk to the realtor and study what’s happening in the market and what’s happening around them and make the recommendations from there.

JULIE: I can tell you that one of the customers that I helped last year had a very large home and they had been living in that home for about fifteen years. And it did have the original carpeting and builder’s everything – builder grade – and across the street there was a brand new housing development going in. And even though those homes were smaller, I felt like that customer really did need to upgrade some things in the home, especially the carpeting, and do some painting just to be in competition because I felt like the buyers might be younger people who were looking for upgraded finishes. What do you think about that?

CHRISTIE: I absolutely agree. And especially when we are targeting to a younger buyer, they’re very much a turn-key generation and they want things ready when they come in. And not only that, but most of them are not really the do it themselves generation as much as the baby boomers were, baby boomers were really game to go in and fix things up and put a little sweat equity in. But this new generation values their free time a little bit more and they want it ready to go. So if that’s our target buyer, I totally agree, especially if the price is high and especially if they’re competing with new properties that are on the market.

But I also think that often it’s just good to change some of those things because a new buyer will come in and they’ll think, “Oh this is going to cost me $20 000 to get this in order” where in reality it’s actually going to be more like $7 000 and if it’s just done then they’re going to be signing a contract. We just want the buyers to come in and have as few negatives as possible and as many positives as possible and just keep them nodding their heads.

JULIE: What other type of things do you do? I know you said putting make up on, so for example, what would that be?

CHRISTIE: Really when I stage a house, one of the biggest keys is to get the rooms balanced and functional. So the people that I’m staging for may have great furniture and the colors might be great but it just needs to be balanced – some things just need to be taken out. We really want a flow of energy to go through the home. People can come into a home and think “wow this feels really great” and they’re not even sure why but really the home purchase if often made emotionally and so it’s that feeling that you get when you walk in a home. You may say, “Oh I want this, this, this and this” but then you walk into another home that may not have necessarily all of those things, but as soon as you feel it you’re connected with it. So we do a lot of things that you really can’t quite put your finger on – sort of like advertising. We really get the rooms balanced, we have the right focal points accentuated and we have the right colors. We do a lot of upgrading, just very inexpensively. So if there’s a floral sofa with ruffles on it we put a tan cover over it and put maybe some modern pillows over it and a modern piece of art and all of a sudden that room is ready for our target buyer, which is usually a younger buyer. So that’s the kind of thing I mean when I say putting a little make up on. If the countertop is…

JULIE: Pink?

CHRISTIE: Okay, say the countertop is pink. I just did a pink bathroom the other day and the couple really did not want to, they just said, “No, the countertop is not in the budget.” So what we did is we just brought some charcoal grey in with it with some black and white pieces of art and it just became a very sophisticated place. So what that will do for the buyer is let them know that – they might fall in love with the pink bathroom but most of the are going to say, “I don’t really want the pink bathroom but this is kind of fun enough, it is funky enough the way it is right now. I can live with it for a year until I get it changed.”

JULIE: I see, I did have a customer last year who did have pink countertops and that was the big question that she had and also I had: Should we invest in granite or quartz because we know that’s the finish that people are looking for nowadays? And this was a pink Formica in the kitchen. She chose not to upgrade that, we did upgrade the carpeting and flooring in that house and repaint everything and it really looked nice. And of course we took into consideration the color of the countertops as we picked the wall colors and the flooring colors, not that we picked anything in the pink range, but we picked something neutral that would coordinate well with it.

CHRISTIE: Kind of tone it down.

JULIE: Yes. When you were talking about balancing the room I got this image in my head of the master bedroom with the gigantic bed because someone is very tall or very large and so they have this extra-large piece of furniture there. And I was thinking that’s what you were talking about when you talk about balancing the room, maybe they need to move that bed out of there for the sales process, what do you think?

CHRISTIE: Yes the master bedroom is second only to the kitchen in importance to the buyer. So if the master bedroom is small I would recommend, if it’s a huge bed and it’s taking up most of the space, moving it out and putting a queen sized bed in – and that is something we can do. If the buyer is opposed to that we can figure out some other options; we can put mirrors in the room, we can put soft curtains in the room. I’ve stayed in plenty teeny tiny hotel rooms in Paris that have the bed about the same size as the room, there are ways to make them look absolutely fabulous and we can do that. So again, my first choice would probably be to put a smaller bed in, but if the buyer is not willing to do that or can’t do that we have other solutions.

JULIE: So I know a lot of home sellers these days are maybe not really sure what staging is or what it costs and maybe feel a little resistance to the idea of paying for that service. So my question to you is: Is staging really worth if for the home seller and why?

CHRISTIE: Staging is absolutely worth it. The way that that I look at staging is it is like the cake at the bake sale – the one that doesn’t get staged is the one that’s not frosted. Sometimes you see these people that are putting in a new heater, they’re putting in a new roof and doing all of these things that are fabulous for the house. And they are great ingredients for the cake but if they don’t put the frosting on it the person is not going to get emotional about that cake. And again, that is what I said sells and we both know that, it’s just going in on that emotional feeling. Of course all of those things that they’ve done are awesome but they are not going to give the first impression that the staging does that gets you connected and makes them want the house.

The National Association of Staging studies show that staging helps sell a house sell three to four times more quickly and for a much higher profit. So all of the realtors that I work with use me as a stager because they know that their client is going to get a higher price and that they’re going to sell more quickly. It’s kind of like going on a first date, you don’t to answer your door with your hair in curlers, you’ve got it get it all right before you go on the market. I think some of the most difficult houses that I go into are homes that have already been sitting on the market and then they call us in three of four months later and say, “It’s not selling.” And often, when we stage those houses, more often than not they sell immediately – right away. But, meantime they have had to drop their home a huge amount and so staging is just such a small amount in comparison. So to spend that small little bit of money to stage to make more money, so to save yourself all of the headache and hassle is just totally worth it.

JULIE: So are we talking in that range of say one to five thousand dollars to stage? I mean if someone had to drop their price $5 000 then the staging would have been worth it in the beginning right?

CHRISTIE: Absolutely. And not only because they have to drop it but they could have gotten $5 000 more in asking price, so many of the houses that we stage get multiple offers and that drives the price of the house up. So basically we will stage houses that are completely empty and for a completely empty house that is about $3 000 to bring in the furniture and the curtains and the art and the plants, the rugs and the accessories to make it look like a really interesting, inviting home. And then for somebody that we’re going in to give a consultation where we will just give them all of the information we write up a prioritized list. We charge about $300 for that and that includes a list of everything that we believe will help them sell their house for more and a final fluff before the photographs are taken. And then if they want to rent anything from us then we can give them the prices and they can make their decisions.

But I would say that I think some people have the impression that all of this is like interior design and it’s going to be really expensive and they find out that it’s not. It’s really cost effective and it’s fun, we have a great time with our clients and they end up, more often than not, asking us to come to their next house and help them with their next home. But it is a great deal, it’s the thing that shows, you will get bang for your buck because you can see it and the buyer is connected immediately to that.

JULIE: Wow! So about how much time before the house go onto the market should people start looking at what needs to be done? I can’t tell you how many houses last year that people have called me and said, “We want to be on the market at the end of this month and here’s our huge list of items that needs to be complete.” And then there’s this race to get everything done. So how much time do you think people need to get ready for market in general?

CHRISTIE: Well I think the rule of thumb is to let your realtor know, let your stager know, as soon as you think you might be moving – even if that’s a year out because it’s such a joy to be able to come into a home and let that seller just have the freedom of accomplishing those tasks little by little. I know that’s not always feasible and I know that there are some last minute transfers and things beyond our control. And we have staged and gotten houses ready literally in three days and we have literally taken a year and everything in between, but I would say the average is a couple of months – two to three months – but we can do it all. I think that it’s going to be a less stressful process and a more cost effective and productive process if there’s at least a couple of months in advance.

JULIE: I think you’re right, two to three months sounds like the right amount of time. I know I’ve done some in three weeks and that’s really pushing it, it’s possible but it’s a lot of work for the customer especially in the decluttering stage. Do you want to talk a little bit about that decluttering and how you handle…? I mean we all have a certain amount of clutter in our closets or on our countertops but how do you handle it when you go into a house and you see that there’s a lot of clutter and what do you recommend that people do?

CHRISTIE: Clutter is very de-energizing. Clutter comes from the Latin word cloretern which means clogged. And really that is what clutter does; it clogs our minds, it clogs our energy and so often when people have a lot of clutter they’re even more overwhelmed about a move because they can’t think, because everything that we have around us has some kind of a call on our attention and our energy and clutter really does have that draining effect. So I recommend that if they can do that with an organizer, and we have people that we recommend to help them, that that will help them get moving forward. I mean a lot of times some people have an excess amount of clutter is because they’re just really not sure how to take care of it and how to get on top of it and they need to be taught the system. And so we do have some organizers that we recommend and honestly clutter clearing can be one of the least expensive ways to get your house ready to stage, especially if somebody is able to do it without an organizer and just bite the bullet.

Often times I give clients that have a cluttered house one of my favorite books which is by Karin Kingston, it’s called Clear your Clutter with Feng Shui and it’s a very fast little read but she kind of describes why we keep our clutter and what’s keeping us from letting it go. And once clients read that book and realize, “Oh okay, I can let it go now there’s no reason I need to keep this”, then they’ll really start to let it go and that can be a huge relief for them and a huge burden lifted off of them. We like to tell people that you know you can box everything up and put it in a storage unit and then take it to your next house but why do that? Why not start out with a really fresh environment and just a fresh start and get rid of your clutter now. And so we really recommend they try to get rid of their clutter quickly and try to help them do that.

JULIE: So I have helped customers that did really have a huge problem with this and I don’t know the definition of when it becomes hoarding but I know that I have had customers who say, “I’ll just move everything into the basement.” So then they’ve cleaned up the upper level and the main level but then when buyers come to look at the house and they walk down the stairs they really cannot see how large that basement is or what’s there. So when does it become a problem that’s almost hoarding and is there anything else you recommend for people who just are having trouble letting go?

CHRISTIE: Well to me it’s a little bit like the cat in the hat; the mom goes away and the cat in the hat comes in and they get the spot on the dress, they try to get the spot on the dress but then the spot moves on to the wall and they try to get the spot off the wall but then it moves on to whatever else they’re wiping it with. And that is kind of how clutter is, I mean you can’t just move it around it is still there, it’s still a blot, it’s still a plight and we’ve just got to get it out just like we needed to get rid of that spot on that dress. And I mean we worked with one man and it honestly took him a year. He was taking care of a sick wife who was a hoarder and it just took so long for him to clear things out. But we got together a team for him and it consisted of a couple of college students and they went over every Saturday and helped him go through things and get things moved out.

And it was very interesting to see the metamorphosis not just in his house but in himself, he seemed to become more alert, more alive and engaged and he then ended up meeting somebody else and getting engaged. By the time he was finished and ready to clean his house he had met this other woman and they were getting married and moving into another house together. So I think that taking clutter out of your life can really open up your space and your energy for some great things to happen. And it’s not just about selling your house but it’s just about being the best person you can be. And so I will do anything I can to help people understand why it’s so important to get rid of clutter because I am just a huge believer that it’s just negative energy holding you back.

JULIE: Wow, that’s a really interesting way of looking at it and it almost sounds like you were talking about how important it is to create a vacuum by removing items and removing that stuff. And when you do that you’ve create then a vacuum in your life for new things to come in, and sometimes really, new experiences that are exciting right?

CHRISTIE: Absolutely right! And we really don’t want to have anything in our house that has energy that might be negative energy and sometimes some of that clutter does. I mean we might have something that was given to us by a grandmother that we really never wanted, and we didn’t really have a particularly close relationship with that person but we felt guilty to get rid of it, and there are all kinds of emotions that are brought up. And being able to let go and being able to have somebody that gives you permission to let go can be really freeing. Then as we do it, the more we do it the more we develop our clutter clearing muscles and it gets easier and easier and then we’re able to stay on top of it.

JULIE: So do you recommend, I know some people feel bad about throwing things in the trash, and so do you recommend certain sites for people to donate unwanted goods or yard sales?

CHRISTIE: Yes I do. I recommend that they give to their favorite charity, Freecycle is another great one. One of the things I ask people that have a lot in their house it to just have some of their favorite charities; just go online and you can do this with Amvets and several others, where you can just go online and find out from time to time…

JULIE: Salvation Army. And there's even an app for your smartphone called Let Go.

CHRISTIE: Purple Heart, I’ve used all of those and you can sign up online and they will come and pick things up. And just get the scheduled so that you know, “Okay these guys are coming on Monday and these guys are coming on Friday.” And you just keep filling up your garage and pushing that out into your driveway and it’s a great way to get things picked up. There are other sites that come and pick up junk and just take it to the dump. You know we really end up stuffing our houses full of a lot of things that don’t need to be there and that are really dragging us down.

JULIE: Sellers can donate items to places like Habitat for Humanity’s loading dock where building materials can be reused - another good source.

CHRISTIE: Those are great sources and I support them.

JULIE: And I will tell you Christie, one thing I have done is recommend a customer get a dumpster delivered to their driveway for that period of time. A small dumpster costs about $400 and if you paid someone to make runs to the dump it would cost that much too. So I think the dumpster right there in the driveway is so easy because then every day after work you could throw some more things in it and let it go.

CHRISTIE: I love that idea and I’ve done that with people and they’re just literally running around the house the day before the dumpster leaves looking for anything they can throw in it. It does turn it into a little bit of a fun game.

JULIE: Right! Well are there any other tips or tricks you wanted to share with our listeners?

CHRISTIE: I would just say if you’re selling your home, walk through the front door, kind of try to come through the home with fresh eyes. Even though I’m a designer, whenever my sister comes through to town to visit – she’s also a designer – she comes in with fresh eyes and has all sorts of great ideas for me and I love it. Try to do that for yourself, if you don’t have a stager, have a friend come in and do that. And think about the age of your target buyer. I highly recommend taking anything personal, political or religious out of your home when you’re enlisting it, these are the sort of things that are dear to our hearts but they can also become points that might turn a buyer off. And so it’s kind of like when we go rent a condo at the beach and you get there and it’s somebody else’s condo and you feel like all of their stuff is there and you’re living in somebody else’s space and it’s just not as pleasant. But if you come into a house, just like a nice beautiful hotel room or a condo at the beach, where everything feels like you could just live there and have a wonderful life there – that’s what we want. We really want to get things depersonalized and very welcoming.