Saratoga Home Staging

To Paint or Not to Paint? That is the Question...

Hi, Neil:

I have stained molding (not quality molding - just basic builder stock and it's stained dark as are the inexpensive doors.  We are painting the bedroom and have left the molding and door the dark stain.  I would like to paint the doors and the molding white and to continue that process as we paint each room, but my husband disagrees.  He doesn't necessarily like the stained molding but doesn't want to reduce the value of the house by painting over the stained molding.  I think the stained molding makes the place look dated (especially since it's not of any real quality, it's basic, minimum width stuff) and the dark doors make the rooms look dark.  Would you agree to paint the molding?

Thanks, Deb

Hi, Deb:

If the moldings and doors in your home are not beautiful wood, then I would certainly advocate painting over them. This will not decrease the value of your home, and the lighter paint will make the rooms seem larger and up to date, most likely increasing the value of your home.  Now if you had, for instance and Arts & Crafts home with original oak moldings, I would never suggest that they be painted unless they were in irreparable condition.

Good luck!

Stale Listings Freshened Up

I've had my house on the market for over 9 months, and it's not even being shown anymore.  What can I do to sell it?

Thanks, Jael

Hi, Jael:

There's lots that you can do to move a stale listing!  The first of which is to hire a professional stager.  Here's how it usually works: You'll hire a stager and temporarily take your house off the market (and make sure that it is removed from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS)).   Your professional stager will then come into your home and work his magic.  De-cluttering, re-arranging, giving the house some more curb appeal. 

Once the house has been staged, re-list the house with your Realtor.  It'll come up on the MLS as a fresh listing.  You can even advertise it as a "freshly staged home."  Have your Realtor schedule an open house to kick off the new and improved listing.  Make sure that a new set of photographs is taken for the listing and that the new photographs are used on the MLS. And ask your real estate agent to invite some of the perspective buyers who have already seen the house to come back and take another look.  Chances are that they won't even recognize the house!  You'll have the house sold in no time at all! 

I've had several clients who have used this strategy, and their houses have sold within a month of the staging!

Staging From the Outside In

I've heard that many stagers work on the outside of a house as well as the interior.  What does staging the outside of a house mean?

Thanks.  Janine

Hi, Janine:

We stagers sure do stage the outside of the homes that we work on.  In real estate, the phrase is "curb appeal."  What that means is that first impressions count!  As your Realtor approaches your house with a potential buyer in tow, the first thing that the buyer sees is the outside of your house.  And how good the outside looks (or not) can sometimes determine whether the buyer even wants to look at the interior.

The basics are that the lawn needs to be mowed.  Bald patches should be addressed.  Hedges should be trimmed.  There should be a fresh doormat at every exterior door, and a fresh doormat inside every exterior door, as you don't want the general public tracking dust into your newly staged home. 

In addition, all exterior lighting fixtures should be in good repair, and should have fresh lightbulbs in them.  The front door should have a fresh coat of paint, and the house should be pressure washed (or at the very least, all of the cobwebs should be swept away).  If you have room for hanging plants or a planter by the front door, they should be filled with colorful flowers.

Any backyard furniture should be washed down and in good repair.  If you have an outside eating area, it should look fresh (and the table should be set for a party, if you're having an open house).

You want the outside of your home to invite potential buyers inside.  The exterior should say to them, "Welcome home!"  This is how you get offers.  Fast.

Get Ready For Staging!

I'm getting ready to sell my home this Spring, and I want to hire a home stager.  The problem is that I don't know if I can afford one, and even if I can I want to do as much of the work myself as possible.  How do I go about this?

Thanks!
Dan

Dear Dan:

First of all, you most likely can afford a professional stager.  In fact you can't afford not to hire a professional stager in this difficult market.  But since Spring is busy season for Professional Stagers, you should start shopping for your stager sooner rather than later!

There are many things that you can do to prepare for a professional staging.  The first of which is to start clearing out your closets, garage, attic, kitchen cupboards and basement.  Toss what you don't need.  Box up and if possible, store the things that you want to keep but don't use on a regular basis. Also, put anything personal away.  This includes family photos and religious items.

Add to that deep cleaning.  Get the rugs professionally steam cleaned, wash the windows, touch up scuffed or chipped paint.  And put away anything that you don't use on a daily basis.  This is also a good time to go through your medicine cabinets and throw away expired prescriptions and OTC items, because potential buyers do open medicine cabinets and linen closets.

Once you've had a Professional Stager in to spec your project, they will be able to tell you what other things you can do to keep the price of the staging to a minimum.  But just remember that the return on investment makes the financial cost as well as the work you put into it well worth it!

What IS Home Staging?

I've heard the term "home staging," and I know that it's related to selling your home, but I have no idea what it is!

Thanks.  Bill

Hi, Bill:

Very good question!  Unfortunately, many consumers who are about to sell their homes, or who are in the process of selling their homes have no idea what home staging is and how it can help them.

Very simply, home staging is about de-personalizing and de-decorating your home in order to appeal to a wider audience and to sell your home faster and for more money.

As I discussed in my previous bolg entry Books, Books and More Books you most likely have a beautiful home.  And you most likely have some (many, in fact) beautiful things in your home.  Unfortunately, you haven't opened a retail business to sell your things.  You have opened your home to the public in order to sell IT.  And it is your house that you want the public to see, not your beautiful things, not your family photographs, not your large collection of books.  This is what staging is all about.

In addition to de-personalizing your home, home stagers de-clutter your home as well to make it appear larger, and more inviting.  In my case, as a professional organizer / home stager, I help my clients lighten their load and pack away things that they own but will not need until they move into their new home, thus making their move easier and often cheaper.

Once the home is de-cluttered and de-personalized, the interior is made more neutral by perhaps lightening the wall colors, taking away curtains and updating flooring.  This, of course is all done within a client's budget.

Home staging is about turning your home into a house.  A home is where you live, a house is merchandise on an often flooded market.   

To Stage or Not to Stage

I've heard that staging a house in order to sell it is a good thing to do. I've also learned that it is quite expensive! In your opinion, is it worth the expense?

Kate

Dear Kate:

It is most definitely worth the expense of staging a house.  Consider this;  the average price reduction of a house is about 10 percent of the original asking price.  So on a $200,000 house, the first price reduction would be $20,000.  Most homeowners begin to think about a price reduction after about a month on the market.  And according to StagedHomes.com, 93 percent of ASP staged homes sell  in one month or less.

Home staging fees can range anywhere from hundreds of dollars to thousands of dollars, depending on the condition and the size of the home.  But on a $200,000 home in pretty good condition, the total price of the staging will most likely cost less than $5,000.  So hiring a home staging professional is an excellent return on investment!

And home staging works in any market.  If the market is depressed, staged homes will most likely sell before a price reduction is necessary.  In a strong market, not only will the home sell faster, but it will most likely sell for more than the asking price.  Bidding wars are not uncommon for well staged homes!

Getting A Grip on Paperwork

Congratulations on the birth of your brand new blog! Having worked with you before, I always value your advice.

I’m going on a trip at the end of February, and would love to have my apt in order before I leave. As I look around, the issue that needs emergency care are the papers that seem to have multiplied at an alarming rate.  I could throw in a lot of other stuff I’d like to have done before I go  - but as I write this it’s the PAPERS that are the most pressing issue.  And each one has it’s very own issue to follow up and etc…. I either need some advice or a great big match….

Thanks!  Gloria

Hi, Gloria:

It's always nice to hear from you!  Please, please don't burn your house down in the name of paper management.  But your desire to do so is very telling.  A very small percentage of the paperwork that clutters your apartment is really important.  That's your jumping off place.  The papers that are truly important are legal papers, tax documentation and love letters (provided you still love the sender).  There are several ways to tackle your paperwork problem, and here they are...

First of all, be proactive.  As you begin to get a handle on the mess that you have, don't allow new paperwork that is coming in add to the confusion.  Come up with a plan of attack, and use it for the new paper work as you begin to work your way through the backlog.

Secondly, figure out what paperwork is archival.  In order to do this, you will need to ask yourself two questions.  "Do I need to keep this?" and "Does it need to be handy?"  If the answers are yes and no respectively, then think about moving these papers to the attic, dry basement, garage, storage unit or somewhere else out of the way.  Old tax returns and documentation fall into this category.

Next, deal with your daily mail.  Toss whatever is junk, place bills to be paid in a folder on your desk, and keep the new catalogues, but toss the ones that they supersede. In addition, create a folder of things that need to be dealt with - insurance claims, letters to be answered etc...  And spend 15 minutes every day dealing with them!  Also create a folder for bank and brokerage statements as well as any other important paperwork that your periodically receive.

Now that you've gotten the archival stuff taken care of and your new mail properly routed, you can look at the rest.  Go through it, in 15 to 20 minute stretches, tossing things that are garbage.  And be ruthless!  File old bank statements, insurance papers and the like.  But the key is to do a little bit every day.  Once you've finished your backlog, maintenance will be easy, taking just a couple of minutes every day to process the mail.

Of course if this doesn't work, it's not a bad idea to hire a professional organizer like me to help you get rid of the backlog and set up a filing system that you can easily maintain!

Books, Books And More Books

My husband loves books and owns a lot of them. There are more books than there are shelves, which is one of the reasons we're moving. We are planning to put the house on the market within the next few months. Can my house be staged and made to look desirable with so many books lying around?   
 

Thanks, Arlene

Dear Arlene:

The answer to your question is a categorical no.  As a former librarian and book collector I do understand your dilemma, having more than a dozen full bookcases in my own home. 

The way that I deal with this situation is to pack up most of the books.  Tell your husband to pick out some of the books that he cannot live without.  Add to this a nice handful of beautiful coffee table books.  Pack the rest to prepare for your upcoming move.  Store them in a dry basement (off the floor), in your attic, or in a storage unit, but get them out of the way.

This will accomplish two things:  It will make your move slightly less stressful by doing some of your packing in advance.  It will also make your home appear more spacious.  When potential buyers view your home, you want them to notice your house, not your belongings.  I had a client several years ago who had a tremendous collection of books, and absolutely gorgeous built in bookshelves.  We packed ninety percent of the books, then spread out the remaining books on the newly polished bookshelves.  Some of the books were arranged lying down, some of them shared shelf space with their beautiful collection of ceramics and other small objets d'art (which were also used sparingly, most of which were packed and stored).  When potential buyers viewed the property, their reaction was "What beautiful bookshelves," rather than "Boy, do these people have a lot of books."

While it is gratifying to have a potential buyer tell you that you have beautiful things, it is more important for them to tell you that you have a beautiful house.  And then make you an offer.

Little Coats Everywhere

I have a 10-month-old boy. His nursery doesn't really have closet space, and although we've made due with dressers and other storage solutions for his clothing, I don't know what to do with his coats. Now that's it's winter, he's got several of them in all different weights, and there's no good place to store them. They get smushed and fall on the floor of our "grown-up" coat closet, and it's really inconvenient to keep them in drawers. As a consequence, every doorknob in our house has a teeny coat hanging on it. This is convenient, but it looks messy. Any ideas?

Viv Savage

Dear Viv:

Thanks for the question.  There are several possible solutions to storing your son's outerwear dilemma.  The first of which is to take advantage of the real estate inside the door of your coat closet.  Assuming that you have a coat closet door that is on a hinge (as opposed to a bi-fold or accordion door), you could hang some hooks on the interior of the door for coats, etc... 

Several versions of hooks are available, including the old-fashioned kind that you simply screw into the door.  In addition, there are rows of hooks on a bar that you either install or hang over the top of the door.

If this is not an option, a coat tree, either in a corner of the nursery or somewhere near your front door / mudroom door could solve your problem.

Once the winter season is over, the outerwear (yours and your husband's as well) should be stored in plastic bins in a dry place with cedar planks or balls thrown in.  If you are not planning on having more children, the end of the season is the time to pass them on to another expecting mother or to charity.

What to Expect When Hiring a Professional Organizer

Hey, Great Website.  I do have a question for you.  I'm considering hiring a professional organizer.  What can I expect, and how do POs work?

Thanks in advance for answering.

Sincerely:
Leslie D.

Dear Leslie:

Hiring a Professional Organizer  (aka "POs") is easier than you think.  Once you've spoken with one or two POs, you may wish to invite them to your home for a consultation, whether free or paid. 

The PO will be as interested in interviewing you as you are in interviewing them.  The PO will ask you all kinds of questions that on the surface of it, may appear nosy and even improper.  This is not the case.  As a Professional Organizer, I need to understand where my potential clients are in their lives, and what they need for me to help them accomplish.  Thus, if you have two children and a plethora of gently used baby clothing and toys, the PO will most likely ask you if you are planning on having any more children.  This is merely to ascertain whether the outgrown clothing and toys need to be passed on, or stored properly for future use.

Of course you will also want to interview the PO.  After all, they will be working very closely with you and they will (literally) see all of the skeletons in your closet!  Ask for references, and CALL THEM.  Check the Better Business Bureau to see if there are any professional complaints against the PO, and use your gut.  If you like the PO, have a good feeling about them and feel that you will be able to work closely with them, then the business relationship will be a good fit!