To sell a home, set the stage!

TO SOME, staging a home before putting it on the market is more about sizzle than the steak.

But to most stagers, real estate agents and sellers, redecorating a home prior to its showing is a popular, cost-effective way to increase its appeal and sell the property quickly.

Christine Mattsson, co-owner of Berkeley's Nest Egg Staging, has spent the past two years with business partner Katy Bell working on homes in Alameda County.

Mattson said that with Bell's background as an architect, the pair take a distinctively structural approach to their work, making it more than a well-placed bottle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

"What we do is go into a house and really look at the architecture," she said. "We walk through the house with a fine-toothed comb looking for holes. If we see a BB hole in a French door, we know that someone looking at it might say, 'What's that about?'"

Although they use an eclectic mixture of furniture and accessories to stage a home, knowing that few people live in perfectly manicured homes, their style is never too imposing, Mattsson said.

"We don't create a home-theater style with a set, candlelit table like 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner,' where it's all about an all-out look and fantasy," she said. "But rather we highlight the architectural integrity of the home, where clients can't tell if the home is staged or not. We want them to see the beautiful built-ins, the wonderful fireplace and the ceilings without being distracted too much."

But most important, each staging must be as unique as the home itself. "We recently staged a rather large rental property, and it greatly enhanced how people viewed it," she said. "If it's a four-bedroom house and it's laid out clearly, I can just put a bed and chair in, but if it's a funky Berkeley home where they have different kinds of spaces with small bedrooms and windows in strange places, people might think, 'Where do I put my bed?' And if you could show that the niche on top of the stairs is a great place to put a desk and pay bills, people will appreciate that, because space is at a premium in the Bay Area."

Staging also decreases the time that a home is on the market and increases the selling price, according to Mattsson, who charges clients an average of $3,500 for her efforts. "Almost all the homes we've staged have sold for $100,000 over the asking price," she said.

But staging is about more than just increasing the house's aesthetic appeal, according to Mattsson.

Compelling story

"Staging creates a compelling story for what a property can look like, because people are busy and want to know how a house will be laid out," she said. "I have a client who said if she saw a house that was not staged, she'd leave. For others, coming into a completely staged house is too distracting, because they can't see the rooms and would rather see a space with nothing in it, so they can envision their own way of laying out furniture. But a majority like to see a well-staged house."

A stager for 21/2 years, Dana Green, owner and proprietor of the Tailored House, which specializes in areas such as Walnut Creek and Lamorinda, agreed that most buyers are susceptible to the lure of a well-staged home.

And like Katie Bell of Nest Egg, Dana Green uses her background -- marketing -- to create her own brand of staging.

Charging $75 per hour for her time and an additional rate for rented furniture and accessories, Green ends up with a fee of $500 to $10,000. "A lot depends on the needs of the homeowner, and whether their home is empty or furnished," she said. "The budget is higher if I bring my own furniture. In an empty home, I stage the living areas, bathroom and master bedroom, but not additional rooms."

But sometimes sellers are resistant to the cost of staging. "Some people are scared of incurring costs to stage, but I've never done any job where I haven't made the money back," she said. "In fact, by doing a few things, you can increase the sale price of the house and lessen the time it takes to sell it."

Another impediment arises when homeowners reject the stager's expertise. "It's an invasive process, because you're coming into someone's home and saying what you want to change, but the end result is very positive," she said. "So if you hire a stager, you have to let go of your sense of style and be open-minded."

A clean slate for buyer

Green said her goal is not to overwhelm the buyer, but to create the image of living with furniture and style. In order to make dated homes appear more current, Green has several techniques. "I take out clutter and personal items, because no one wants to walk in and see pictures of every relative you ever had," she said. "You want the home to be fairly neutral, because you have to give the buyer a clean slate to visualize themselves in."

Recent Green client Traci Reilly credited the stager with getting her Lafayette home sold in only 10 days. "Staging makes a difference, because it takes someone else's eye -- especially someone with a good eye -- to make the house appealing to different people," she said. "When you live in a house, it's so personal, which is a good thing; but when you're staging, you have to appeal to different people."

Removing old furniture, putting in new rugs, taking down personal pictures in favor of new artwork and reworking the existing furniture, Green also labored to make the home appear more spacious. "We had quite a few bookshelves in the family room, so we took books off the bookshelves and turned it into a neat gathering spot," she said. "Since it looked onto the pool, Dana created a sports theme with croquet balls and mallets."

But stager Christine Mattsson admits that some stagers abuse the staging system by concealing flaws in the home. "I'm sure that happens" she said. "But it's the agent's responsibility to disclose that information in documents. Because once the props and furniture are moved out, and the buyers see something not in the disclosures, there is a reason to sue."

Still, preselling a house by virtue of an attractive presentation has its benefits, said Mattson. "It's about appealing to the emotional, where the customer thinks, 'Oh my God, I like the house,'" she said. "It minimizes their reaction, when the client later looks at the disclosures. It's not concealing, it's letting them see them, without it being too obvious. By now they're emotionally interested, so they're looking at it through a different lens and they can say, 'I really like the house.'"

But for clients whose budgets are more Hamburger Helper than filet mignon, Mattsson offers a cheaper alternative to sell their home. "Our goal is to do what's right for the client, considering their overall budget," she said. "Staging is one of the things we do, but what pays back most is painting the house inside and outside."