All the Home is a stage

Sellers who dress up their homes receive about $17,000 more in equity, a research firm says

CHARENE DAVIS looks like she's armed for romance as she breezes into a Kahala home carrying a sprig of fresh flowers, a bottle of champagne and a box of Godiva chocolates.

The items, which are a trademark part of Davis' home-staging business, are geared to seduce Hawaii home buyers into thinking that the $1.3 million property is priced right and that it looks better than others that are on the market.

"I always put a bottle of champagne in the master to suggest that this could be a very romantic place," Davis said as she prepared a tray of goodies for display alongside the lush gold duvet that she chose for the room.

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"Romance appeals to women -- and they make most of the buying decisions," she said.

Business has picked up for Davis and her other Hawaii counterparts, an estimated 20 or so accredited home stagers, in the last several months as Honolulu's once-hot residential market has begun to come in for a soft landing.

Staging is a tool that real estate professionals and home sellers use to help their properties sell faster and for more money in tough markets and for even more money in an up market, said Barb Schwarz, who is the author of "Home Staging: The winning way to sell your house for more money."

"The way you live in a home and the way that you sell it are two different things" said Schwarz, who coined the term, 'staged home,' in the 1970s and has turned it into a federally registered trademark.

Taking the time to declutter, depersonalize and decorate a property so that buyers can visualize themselves living in a move-in ready property is estimated to bring sellers an average equity gain of about $17,000, according to StagedHomes.com research.

In addition, the length of time on the market for a home dropped from an average of 163.7 days to 8.9 days for homes that are staged, according to the same survey, which looked at sales data from 300 homes that were staged between 2004 and 2006.

With rising prices and inventory in Hawaii, the days when buyers were purchasing properties sight unseen or participating in bidding wars over damaged properties are over. Akamai sellers and agents have begun to realize that it takes more than a for-sale sign to turn a property to sold, so many are turning to professionals like Davis to help them get the job done.

"Home staging is the highest form of visual real estate marketing," Davis said.

Home staging, the process of preparing a home for sale, can be as simple as bringing in items that appeal to buyers or as complicated as removing junk and personal items, remodeling and redecorating. Fees can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars depending on the length of the staging contract and the services required.

As Honolulu's market has turned, real estate professionals and sellers are getting more earnest about staging, said Tracey Stott Kelley, an accredited home stager and listing agent with The Stott Team, a family owned real estate company.

"What we are seeing is that with an increase in inventory, people are trying to make their houses look nicer," Stott Kelley said. "More of the homes are starting to look like model houses."

Honolulu's residential real estate market peaked in 2005 with 28.3 percent year-over-year growth in the median price of single-family homes and 29 percent growth in condo pricing. Real estate experts have said Hawaii's market began slowing last November and is coming in for a gradual soft landing in neighborhoods all over the isles.

From January through May of 2006, the median price of an Oahu single-family home, $630,000, has only appreciated 14.6 percent while the median price paid for a condominium, $305,000, has appreciated about 28 percent.

At the same time, inventory has more than doubled, said Harvey Shapiro, research economist for the Honolulu Board of Realtors.

Statistics show that there were 1,722 single-family homes on the market in May of 2006 as compared to 854 during the same period last year, Shapiro said. Condominium inventory also has risen to 2,413 in May of 2006, up from 935 in May of 2005, which was the lowest inventory ever recorded, he said. Single-family homes hit their lowest inventory ever in April of 2004 when only 784 homes were on the market.

Stott Kelley, who has been in real estate for more than 20 years, said home staging always has been an added benefit that she has offered her clients. Renewed demand for the concept led her to seek professional certification in February.

"I see advertisements from other home stagers at many of the open houses," Stott Kelley said. "In a tough market, home staging is an alternative to making a price reduction."

Davis, who also began her home staging as a real estate agent, left Dower Realty two years ago to open Aloha Staged Homes and has parlayed her interest into a six-figure career. She charges an average of $2,500 to stage most homes with maintenance fees such as cleaning, caring for fresh plants and fine-tuning the home to respond to buyer feedback running from $500 to $900 a month.

Last year, Davis staged $20 million in sold homes and is on track to surpass those results in 2006 as Hawaii's housing market cools. Year to date, Davis already has staged $14 million worth of real estate.

Schwarz, featured on the "Today Show" earlier this month, has seen her own business grow by leaps and bounds along with results.

Just in the last year, Stagedhomes.com has expanded from a two-person office in Washington state to a 40-member staff, and has added offices in California and Chicago, said Gina Vierra, StagedHomes.com project manager.

More than 9,000 people have taken Schwarz's professional certification course and about 1,500 of them have joined International Association of Home Staging Professionals, the industry's trade organization, Vierra said.

The success of home stagers like Schwarz and Davis inspired Waimea resident Sheila Cox to go to California to train under Schwarz in April. She came back and opened Isle Staging and Decorating.

Cox only has worked with a few clients since opening her business two months ago, but she's banking that the turn in Hawaii's real estate market will increase demand for the burgeoning home-staging industry.

"It's already a huge industry in California," Cox said. "We're always a little slower to pick up the trends, but I think the timing is right for home staging to become a viable career in Hawaii."