As spring approaches, many homeowners are getting ready to sell their homes. Perhaps they’re being relocated, want a larger house, or are downsizing – whatever the reason, the closer it gets to March and April, the more realtor signs will be popping up all over town. As the competition heats up, it is important for the home seller to make sure that as many prospective buyers as possible feel as though they could move right in. One way to accomplish this is through home staging, the art and science of making a home more inviting and appealing to potential buyers.

Home stagers create a clean and stylish environment that appears more like a model home and isn’t focused on any one particular style. As described in the Business Week article “Showtime For Your Home” by Anne Tergeson, home stagers “usually work with what’s already there. They rearrange furniture to point the eye to a home’s strongest features ... To create a sense of spaciousness, they declutter – relegating the contents of countertops, closets and bookshelves to storage. To dress up tired kitchens and outdated bathrooms, they buy accessories, such as area rugs and framed prints. To add warmth, they install light fixtures, and repaint walls in warm, neutral tones. Some even remove your furniture and rent replacements.” The technique has gotten increased attention over the last few years, and is now featured on such television shows as HGTV’s “Sell This House” and “Designed to Sell.”

What is the return for hiring a home stager? According to the National Association of Realtors, the average time of sale for a staged home is 13.9 days as opposed to 31 days for a home that has not been staged. Additionally, according to the Wall Street Journal, staging can bump up prices 2-10 percent in a moderate market.

In Fayette and Coweta counties, a locally owned and operated home beautification company called Splendid Source specializes in home staging. In business two years, Splendid Source has staged approximately 100 homes throughout the area with great success. Some of their staging projects have required a lot of work, including things like replacing the soiled carpets and chewed up windowsills of a home with several dogs. Others simply call for a rearrangement of furniture to open up a room, with the addition of a few accessories or an updated light fixture here and there. For the homeowners involved, it’s sometimes difficult to accept that not everyone will appreciate their personal style.

“It’s important for homeowners to understand that the techniques used by home stagers may not match their tastes. They shouldn’t be offended. It’s no comment on their style, but rather an effort to make the home appeal to a wider buying audience,” said Rhonda Steger, president of Splendid Source, which also offers interior decorating and move-in services. “Buyers need to feel like they can move in and feel at home without making a lot of changes.”

Splendid Source uses a proprietary scoring system created by well-known decorator JoAnne Lenart-Weary, who has appeared in several magazines and on HGTV’s “Decorating Cents” show. Based on the score a home gets during the initial $350 consultation, they make recommendations to the client on how best to stage it. The actual staging can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand, depending upon the needs of the home. Steger is quick to point out that her company only makes recommendations that get proven returns.

“We see so many people spend money on things that won’t help with the sale, like painting the entire interior white, which makes the home feel institutional,” explained Steger. “I will never make a recommendation to a client that won’t get a return in terms of sales price and speed. We’re not there to create an Architectural Digest-type interior, or to satisfy our decorating whims, but instead to use proven techniques to sell the home.”

Still, many sellers feel they can freshen up their homes themselves, and are skeptical that the skills of home stagers are any better than their own. One example is Gerry and Doranne Weaver, who were selling their home on Evian Way in Peachtree City in order to move to North Carolina. The home was very pretty and clean inside and out, and situated right on Braelinn Golf Course. The Weavers had already repainted and done all of the things that most people would think would lead to a quick sale. But despite their efforts, the house had been on the market for several months without a single offer.

Their realtor finally called and asked for a proposal for home staging from Splendid Source. Upon seeing the proposal, the Weavers turned down the recommendations – which focused on temporarily bringing in new furniture – because they didn’t think their items were outdated and didn’t believe they would negatively impact the sale. Six months later, and still without an offer despite a reduction in the asking price of the home, Splendid Source followed up with the Weavers. At this point they were exasperated. Their home had been on the market nearly a year, and by this time they already owned their new home. They agreed to follow through on the majority of the recommendations in the home staging proposal. Steger brought in almost all new furniture and accessories from her inventory for the dining room, living room, family room and kitchen. Ten days later, the first person to walk through the home after it was staged made an offer and the house was sold. Mr. Weaver quickly reversed his opinion of home staging.

“He thought home staging was a silly idea, but once the house sold so quickly, he switched from home staging’s worst critic to its biggest fan,” said Steger. “He told his neighbors all about it and they became our clients as well.”

Steger says home sellers in communities like Peachtree City stand to gain the most from hiring home stagers for several reasons. First, Fayette and Coweta counties have a fairly flooded market of homes for sale, increasing the amount of competition. Second, as Peachtree City matures, so do its homes, leading many to look and feel outdated and less able to compete with all of the new homes being built. Additionally, since the prices in the area are higher than average, many buyers are already spending more than they can afford, and don’t want to spend any money updating their new homes.

Homeowners considering staging would do best to seek out consultation from local home stagers now, while there is still time to complete whatever work is necessary before the peak selling season starts.

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