Saratoga Home Staging

A Positive Image

I am often asked about how important it is to prepare a home for photographs when it is listed. Here is an article in which I was interveiwed about the subject...

A Positive Image - When it comes to real estate, good photos can make the sale by Jennifer Gish, Albany TImes Union, published August 21, 2011

Homebuyers often fall in love with a photograph.

And when the majority of house-hunting is done on the Internet -- the National Association of Realtors says at least 90 percent of homebuyers use the Internet in their search -- badly lit, ill-staged photos won't do.

"You need to stand out above all the rest," says Jonathan Beach, a Realtor with Select Sotheby's International Realty in Saratoga Springs who uses his background in architectural photography to shoot his own listings and listings for other agents. "You need to create an emotion from people, so when they see (a house), they fall in love with it."

An October 2010 article in REALTOR Magazine discussed the payoff of high-quality photos with listings, citing a study by Redfin, a Seatle-based real estate brokerage.

"Redfin found in an analysis of more than 100,000 listings in the Boston metro area and Long Island, N.Y., that homes with professional photographs sold anywhere between $934 to $116,076 more than those shot from cheaper, point-and-shoot cameras," according to the article. "What's more, homes with professional photographs were found, on average, to be viewed 61 percent more online than others in that price range shot with a lower-end camera. The listings that used digital SLR cameras also commanded a 47 percent higher asking price per square foot."

If sellers want the highest-quality photos, they can hire a professional who specializes in real estate photography. Sometimes, real estate agents will hire photographers themselves.

Despite the data by Redfin, an expensive camera might not always be necessary, some say. Neil Bindelglass, owner of Saratoga Home Staging, often takes photos for his clients. He says when it was time to replace his camera he searched the internet for "digital cameras for Realtors" and found a bunch of reviews. He says the $120 camera he purchased takes photos that are even better than his old, more expensive camera.

Regardless of who's behind the lens, there are several ways to create photos that will make buyers fall in love.

"The first and the biggest mistake, which is all over Realtor.com is that people just photograph the room without making the bed, with the towel hanging across the vanity, with the garbage bag on the kitchen floor," Bindelglass says. "Even if the room isn't perfect, the field of the camera needs to be perfect."

That's why homeowners shouldn't feel compelled to take photos of every room in their home, he says. That cluttered office or dated bathroom isn't going to make a homeowner fall in love. Bindelglass recommends choosing the best-looking rooms and using those to entice buyers into scheduling a showing. Close-up detail shots of interesting features, such as Tiffany stained-glass panels or an ornately carved fireplace mantel, can make a real estate listing look like a magazine spread.

And once buyers have fallen in love online with that stunning fireplace and vaulted ceilings in the living room, they're more apt to forgive an unsightly office.

"It's not about hiding imperfections," Bindelglass says. "You can't do that. It's about presenting the house in the best light."

The lighting used in the photos is also important and key to any good photography, Beach says. Using lights and utilizing natural light can create a sense of warmth, drama and emotion in that photo of a kitchen, living room or bedroom.

Windows should be open, and photos should be taken on a sunny day, Bindelglass says. And taking photos of a house may be more than a 20-minute project. An entire day might be required to get the right light in each room as the sun sets, filtering light into different areas of the house at different times.

Good lighting is all part of making spaces look inviting. Real estate rules prohibit the use of people in listing photos, so Beach says he has to turn to other tools to make spaces come to life. If he's shooting a deck, he may set out a glass of iced tea with fresh ice cubes. And in an arrangement of neatly positioned deck chairs, he may leave one chair askew, as if someone relaxing in the sun just left the setting. In photos of kitchens, he may use a coffee cup or open book on the table to create the same lived-in sense without seeming like clutter.

Just like in home staging, de-cluttering and depersonalizing spaces also is key to good real estate photography, Beach says.

Bindelglass says the same rules apply for setting up photos as they do for preparing for an open house. Bathrooms should have fluffy white towels on the towel bars and a white shower curtain, which makes even dated bathrooms look fresh.

Because the first opportunity to impress a buyer doesn't come at a showing or open house anymore, but through a photograph.

Beach says his office recently sold a high-end home to some buyers from Manhattan after they looked at photos of the house online.

"They jumped in the car right there and then, came up and bought that house," he says.

Reach Jennifer Gish at 454-5089 or jgish@timesunion.com.

Don't: Take photos of your home on an overcast day. It makes rooms seem uninviting and cramped.

Do: Use natural light to your advantage. Rooms will appear open, inviting and bright.

Don't: Leave your bed unmade, dishes in the sink or paperwork on your kitchen table if you're going to photograph those areas of your home.

Do: Clear the clutter to show off your space.

Don't: Make your home look like a sterile hotel room.

Do: Leave a neatly placed open book or cup of coffee on the table to make the photograph feel like someone has just stepped out of it. It makes your house look like a home.

Vacant Staging on a Dime

Dear Neil:

I am in a precarious situation. I recently purchased a new home, but my old home hasn't yet sold. I've moved, so my old home is completely bare. There have been very few showings, and I am afraid that I will have to carry both houses for quite some time. I can afford to do this, but barely. Help!

Sincerely:

Barbara G.

Hi, Barbara:

You're not alone! I have had several clients who are in this position.  Many home stagers (myself included) have an inventory of furniture and accessories that they rent to clients with vacant homes. Furnished homes sell faster than vacant ones because home buyers can more accurately judge the size of rooms that are furnished.  Unfurnished homes are often sterile and unappealing, even if they are beautiful homes, while a well-staged home is inviting and warm. 

Although hiring a professional home stager and renting furniture is an expense, it sure beats paying two mortgages, two tax bills, two homeowners insurance policies and heating two houses - not to mention lawn care and snow removal! And home staging and furniture rental is not a break-the-bank expense.  Just call a local stager and ask.  You will be surprised at how reasonable home staging can be and how quickly your home will sell!

About New Doorknobs...

Dear Neil:

I recently had a stager in to help me get my house ready to sell.  My kitchen is older and a bit dated.  One of the things that she suggested was replacing the doorhandles and doorknobs on the cabinets.  I looked into it, and it is expensive!  I have about 40 doors in my kitchen, and the handles that she suggested were about $5 EACH!  What would you suggest?

Thank you!

David

 

Dear David:

I think that your stager is absolutely correct in asking you to change out your door handles.  Shy of replacing or re-facing cabinets and re-doing the countertops, sink and applinaces, this is a very reasonable way to make your kitchen look less dated and more streamlined. 

I've included phtots of a kitchen that I recently staged.  Notice how the first set of handles look dated and chunky.  The new handles are streamlined, clean, and match the rest of the hardware in the kitchen, including an oiled bronze ceiling fixture.  When you choose new hardware, try to match what already exists in the kitchen.  If the kitchen tap is brushed nickel, go for brushed nickel.  If it is shiny chrome, go for shiny chrome.  You get the idea!

Additionally, you can most likely get good looking, simple handles and knobs for much less money.  Try mass retailers (Home Depot, Target, Walmart) or go online.  I've seen decent looking handles for less that $1 each.  And make sure that you bring one of the handles with you when you go shopping.  You need to insure that the spread (the distance between the two ends that screw into your cabinets) is correct!

Minimally Staged

Hi, Neil:

I've been to several open houses lately that appear to be vacant.  They have a few pieces of furniture in them, but it appears temporary.  Why would anyone do this?

Laurie

Hi, Laurie:

Good question!  Home stagers are often asked to stage a vacant home for a very modest fee.  As a stager, I have been in this situation many times.  The reason to sparsely furnish a house is to give potential buyers a sense of what the rooms are used for and how large (or small) the rooms are.  For example, many homebuyers will look at an empty property and think that the master bedroom is too small to accomodate their king size bed.  If a bedroom is furnished with a king-size bed (even if it is an inflatable mattress), it will illustrate that the room is large enough for them. 

As well, vacant homes often look cold and bare.  By putting in a few furnishings, lamps and accessories, the home looks warmer and more inviting, thus facilitating a faster sale!

When to Spend Money, or Do I REALLY Need Granite?

Hi, Neil:

I've had my home staged by a professional home stager, but it still hasn't sold. I live in a relatively exclusive town house development where the home prices hover at about $400K. My Realtor wants me to install granite countertops - my kitchen has laminated countertops, but I'm told that all of the comparable untis in the development have granite kitchens.  What should I do?

Kris

Hi, Kris:

I agree with your Realtor. Although I usually chafe at the idea of putting thousands of dollars into a home staging project, in this case you should.  Unfortunately in this real estate market, most buyers will go for the unit with the most perks.  And granite countertops are most certainly a luxury item. I'm assuming that in your price range and kind of development in which you live that you have a beautiful home.  And if you are truly motivated to sell (and you can afford to install granite) then by all means do.  You most likely won't realize any profit from it, but it will make your home sell faster.



In addition, make sure that you also install a new (undermount) sink and an expensive-looking high neck faucet.  Since you're making the investment, you might as well do it right!

Rooms on the Bias

One of the questions that I am often asked by my clients is why home stagers often arrange furniture on the diagonal.  The answer is fairly simple, although not necessarily intuitive.  When the furniture in a room is arranged on the diagonal, the room often appears larger.  When done properly, the arrangement of the furniture draws the eye to the focal point of the room, such as a bed, a fireplace or a large or unusual window.  There are a few rules that need to be followed in order to successfully arrange furniture along these lines.

Rule number one:  The room cannot be crowded.

It is absolutely imperative that there be relatively few pieces of furniture in a room that is on the diagonal. Although one of the reasons to do this is to make a room appear larger, arranging a room on the bias actually creates a great deal of dead space, particularly the corners of the room. So if there are too many pieces in the room, it will actually make the room appear crowded and achieve the opposite effect. Some home stagers use plants in the dead corners, but inexpensive up-lights or halogen torch lamps provide a much better effect.

Rule number two:  The room must be large enough.

Furniture on the diagonal usually does not work in small rooms.  Bedrooms that are less than 8 by 10 are seldom candidates for this treatment, unless the only piece of furniture in the room is a bed or a desk. Home stagers often use the trick of keeping the room arranged along conventional lines (with the furniture aligned along the walls of the room) but putting an area rug on the diagonal. This helps focus the room and draws the eye to the part of the room that is being featured. And it can make the room appear larger.

Rule number three:  Only place the furniture on the diagonal if the room has a focal point.

There is nothing worse than walking into a room and being confronted with a large piece of furniture.  For instance, the side of a bed should never be the first view of a bedroom.  So long as the windows will accommodate, the bed should be coming out of the corner of a bedroom opposite the door.  This makes a sumptuously made bed the focal point of the bedroom.

Along the same line of reasoning, the side of a sofa should not be the first thing that one sees when entering a den or living room.  If there is a fireplace or a picture window, placing a sofa and chair at a 45 degree angle draws the eye to the fireplace or the window which is the logical focal point of the room.

One of the goals of home staging is to make a house look as large as possible and to highlight the features of the home.  Arranging furniture and rugs on the bias are a simple way of accomplishing this goal.  But remember, in home staging, less is always more.

Seriously Cluttered...

This next question comes from a respected colleague, Naomi Seldin who writes a blog for the Albany Times Union called Simpler Living.  Her blog is about how we can all simplify and pare down every aspect of our lives. Please visit her blog at Albany Times Union Simpler Living


I've been reading about a Baltimore man who was featured on the Style Network show "Clean House."  I'd be interested to know if you've ever worked with someone who had a really serious clutter problem, and how do you work with them?

Hi, Naomi:

I have often worked with clients who have some serious clutter problems, and I have some very specific strategies of working with them and helping them to manage the clean-up process.

The first thing that I do is to make it very clear that I am working for them, and that I am working in their home, and that I cannot and will not decide what goes and what stays!  They need to be ready to clean up the clutter and to part with a good amount of their stuff.  If they are not ready for this step, I will not take them on as a client.  We will fail to accomplish their goals which will be both a waste of my time and their money.

The second step is to assess the problem and to set goals.  This is painstakingly and specifically done.  For instance, we may decide that "the goal is to get rid of 50% of what you have."  This is very concrete. This is easily quantifiable; for every item kept, one item is gotten rid of. This number, which normally ranges from 30% to 80%, is based on my experience, how much of their clutter is unnecessary and how large the client's home is. The third part of the assessment is to find out how the client uses the space in their home. Do they work from home? Do they have any hobbies? Do they work outside the home but have a home-based side-business? This will influence our priorities in beginning a process that can last from several weeks to several months.

Next, we roll up our sleeves and get to work.  I have had several clients where the amount of stuff to be gotten rid of is so great that we hire a roll-off dumpster for the duration of the process.  And we fill it.  Sometimes twice. This is often where the difficulties begin.  Although the client wants a clean, uncluttered home, they have a very hard time letting go of their stuff. This is where my expertise really kicks in, and this is where I make the difference.  If items are truly sentimental to them, but of absolutely no use, we may make a photo album of the stuff (so that they can stroll down memory lane when they choose) but actually discard the stuff itself.  Or, I simply point out to them that although the stuff is important to them, it is actually weighing them down. In the case of multiple items, I can suggest that they don't need 6 egg slicers, and why don't we get rid of four or five of them. One other strategy is that we donate items to charity.  The client is doing good, and gets a tax write-off to boot!

While lightening the load, I keep them focused on the positive aspects of doing so. In addition, I always take before photos during our initial consultation and bring them with me to every meeting with them.  When we appear to be at an impasse, I pull out the album and show them concretely how far we've come.  A picture truly is worth a thousand words!

The final step is support.  Once we've completed our project together, I do a follow-up visit, anywhere from four weeks to six months down the road, depending on my feeling of how long the client will take to "fall off the wagon."  The specter of me coming for a follow up visit often helps clients to stay on the straight and narrow.  In addition, clients are always welcome to contact me with questions and issues.  I take great pride in building long term relationships with my clients, and I have many clients with whom I have never lost touch.  For me, this is the best part of the job!

It's Always Darkest Before the Dawn

Hi Neil,

I love your blog and thank you for the great advice to unclutter our lives.  I have a question; whenever my house gets messy (cluttered) it takes a day or two to really clean it up.  In cleaning it, the mess often gets worse before it gets better.  IT DRIVES MY WIFE CRAZY.  Do you have any suggestions to make this process easier on both of us?

Thanks, MK

The state of a home can often play a major role (or even wreak havoc) in the relationship between cohabitants. There are essentially two things that can be done to alleviate this tension, and both of which require patience and the ability to compromise on the part of both partners. 

The first choice is for the messier of the pair to simply not allow things to get to the point where the neat partner is tearing their hair out. Or, to confine the mess to a closed room that the neat partner never needs enter.

The second is for the neater of the pair to simply accept the messy partner for who they are, and to try to keep as much order in the home as possible. And to ask the messy partner to respect the tidiness of certain areas of the house.

In cleaning up any kind of a mess, it appears to be a universal constant that things get worse before they get better. In order to clean out a crowded closet for instance, the closet needs to be emptied first (often laying waste to the room in which it is situated) before things can be sorted and put back away. This can be frustrating for all involved, but life (as well as our homes) can be messy, and it takes work for things to be tidy.

With compromise and patience, everyone in a house can be comfortable, provided that those living together are sensitive to the needs of their cohabitants.

Magazine Madness

Dear Neil:

Help!  I have magazines all over the place, and I don't know what to do with them.  They're taking over my house and contributing to all of my clutter.

Susan K.

Dear Susan:

The answer to your question about magazine management is a relatively simple one, but it will take some work on your part.  I have no fear that if you follow these steps, you will conquer your magazine clutter!

The first decision that you need to make is whether to simply toss the magazines that you have accumulated and start fresh, or to go through your magazines and cull the important articles before tossing them.

In either event, you will need to actually look at your magazines when they come into the house.  Here's how to do it... Have a designated place in the house for the magazines that you subscribe to.  When a new issue comes into the house, glance at the table of contents before putting it in its pile.  Now, look through the pile.  You can keep the current issue and the last issue.  Any older issues must go.  If an older issue has an article or a recipe in it that you cannot bear to part with, RIP THE ARTICLE OUT and put it in a file of materials marked "To Be Read."  Then toss the old issues.  Do this consistently.  And once you have finished reading a magazine, toss it into the recycling pile.

Another option is to create three-ring binders in which to keep torn out articles or recipes. I recently had a client whose interests were gardening, cooking and home decorating.  We created three binders for her, one per subject, and purchased a box of mylar sheet protectors from an office supply store. She now has a place to put all of the articles and recipes that she wishes to keep. You can even buy three ring index tabs to further organize your growing collection of articles!

If you are having a problem parting with old magazines, please know that most magazine articles end up on the web, so even if you toss something that has value, you can usually find it online.  You can also find magazine articles at your local public library, many of which have extensive serial collections.  Also, don't forget that many public libraries have websites that connect you with databases that provide magazine access. You may need to enter the barcode on your library card to gain access, but it is a valuable tool, and it's free!

Another way to conquer your clutter is to let the bulk of your magazine subscriptions lapse. If you pick up a copy of the magazine at the supermarket, and the table of contents really appeals to you, then buy a single issue.  You won't save any money by doing this, but you could save your sanity!

No Longer Second-Homeless

Dear Neil:

My husband and I are fortunate enough to have just purchased a vacation home.  One of my friends has suggested that I hire a professional organizer to help me make the transition to second-home life, but I'm not sure what a professional organizer could do for me. 

Sincerely:
Rosalyn R.

Dear Rosalyn:

A professional organizer will be a great boon to your making the transition.  I have had several clients fortunate enough to be in your position, and I was able to help them tremendously!

The first step in this process is for the organizer to come to your primary residence.  Once there, closets, attic, garage and basement are scoured.  This accomplishes two things; it makes your home more organized thus providing you with more space, and the things that are slated to be moved up to your second home mean that you need to spend less money furnishing and outfitting it. After all, most of us have duplicates and sometimes triplicates of household goods.

The next step is an assessment of what you need to finish furnishing your vacation home.  Often with my clients, we create a budget, and I do much of the shopping on their behalf.  In addition, as a home stager, I often help my clients choose wall colors, lighting fixtures, window treatments and other decorative elements. Another service that I have provided is finding people to work on their homes such as painters, electricians, pool services, house cleaners, etc...

Remember, your organizer will be willing to provide a level of service that will cater to your needs and budget.  They will do as much, or as little, as you wish!