Staging a house can bring a better price, quicker sale

When Realtor JoAnn Barrett listed a the 1,560-square-foot condo in Brentwood Square off of Huron Parkway in Ann Arbor, the walls were covered with dated wallpaper, the window treatments were heavy and there was too much furniture. She called in Paladino, who splits her time equally between selling homes and staging them.

The first rule, Paladino said, is to know your market. The Brentwood Square condo, built in 1999 and listed at $189,000, would appeal to young professionals, maybe even graduate students.

“Buyers would come in, see the wallpaper and see dollar signs,” Paladino said. “Young professionals are too busy to take it down and wouldn’t know how much is would cost to have it done. It would be a turn off.”

So were the draperies and valances of patterned fabric. Young professionals are looking for a cleaner, crisper style, Paladino said.

“They want a hipper look, more minimal.”

Paladino replaced the heavy drapes in the living room with lightweight tangerine-colored linen sheers for a punch of color. Colors are important in making a house look at the top of its game, Paladino said. While garish colors can be a turn off, so can neutrals that are boring. She used a series of tans and taupe’s throughout the condo.

None of the room colors should clash, and no more than three colors should be used.

“People use too many different colors,” she said. “The colors should be unified from room to room.”

Paladino painted the condo’s trim and ceilings in pure white, which allowed her to use white window treatments in one of the two bedrooms and even a white shower curtain without clashing. Making a house look good doesn’t stop there.

“Paint and carpet is only half of it,” Paladino said. “Furnishings and art work help to sell quickly.” Even though they don’t stay with the house, the furnishings and artwork help minimize the flaws, Paladino said. “If it’s empty, buyers have nothing else to look at but the flaws. Furnishings give buyers ideas of what they can do with the décor, especially young people who don’t have experience decorating.”

Staging is also about getting the details right. Paladino replaced a shiny brass colonial style foyer light with a more contemporary brushed nickel fixture with a frosted glass shade.

As a home stager, Paladino has a warehouse filled with furniture and accessories, including lamps, vases, art, mirrors and bedding, she uses for vacant houses.

The Brentwood Square condo owner left a few choice pieces of furniture, including a dining room table with red upholstered chairs. Paladino decorated around a red, orange and brown color scheme, hanging art prints in the kitchen, dining room and living room.

Paladino, with a bachelor of fine arts degree in interior design and fine arts, is a real estate agent but also stages houses for other agents.

It gives her a chance to be creative, she said, such as the time she was staging a $1 million Ann Arbor house. The house was beautifully furnished, but the bed had no headboard. While she was de-cluttering the house, she came across a Chinese screen that had been stored away. She mounted the screen above the bed, turning it into a stylish headboard.

Barrett said she enlists Paladino for at least an initial assessment on almost every house she lists.

“If it’s just an initial consultation and if the house just needs a little editing, I’ll pick up the cost,” Barrett said.

Some homes are in good shape and need just a few directions, such as moving a bed to make a room look larger. Others need a makeover.

Staging can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars for a consultation to $2,000 for a complete staging, including using Paladino’s furnishings.

But staging sells, Barrett said.

Her Brentwood Square condo spent less than two weeks on the market, even through there were two other units in the same complex priced $10,000 less, Barrett said.

Still, staging can’t do magic.

“Staging is not going to sell a house that’s priced way too high,” Paladino said. “It has to be within reason. If it is, and it looks fabulous, it’s going to sell.”