|
||||
|
||||
|
“Good stagers are half marketers and half designers,” says Starr Osborne of Philadelphia, president and founder of Tailored Transitions, who leads a team of professional home stagers and writes for consumer magazines.
Osborne’s comment is a perfect description of Laurinburg’s Jane Somerville, who recently started her own staging service, the first of its kind for Scotland County. She’s been staging for her own personal real-estate clients for quite some time, and wants to help other Realtors and homeowners move their property ... “higher and faster.” “Staging” is a type of home makeover that’s designed to make a house on the market more appealing to prospective buyers. Somerville got her idea for “Jane’s Staging Service” when she listed the home of a local professional. “The family had already moved out of their house,” she recalled. “There was nothing in the house ... no personal items ... no decorations. ... nothing. I suggested to him, ‘Before we list, number one, get somebody in here to take care of the yard, make it look loved, with pinestraw and trimmings. And for the inside, keep a bed in the master bedroom.” With just a few extra pieces, Somerville went to work “staging” the unoccupied house to look loved, appealing and gorgeous. She added pillows, a coverlet at the foot of the bed and threw a straw hat on the bed to make it appear that somebody had just come in from gardening and tossed it.
In the greatroom over the mantel, Somerville hung a large Vincent Van Gogh print featuring a lot of different colors, “so your eye went to the print instead of the dark chimney.” She added a pedestal with candles to the hearth and a towle tray, a colorful casserole dish and dessert plates to the vacant kitchen counter, then placed a pottery urn filled with yellow cymbidium orchids on the work island to make the room bright and light. From her own collection of staging items, she decorated the bathroom with smaller pieces. “The larger items were the main focus, though,” explained Somerville. “The main thing is that the home looks like somebody cares. If the interior is bare and cold-feeling, then the prospective buyers will always make really low offers because they see that nobody cares.” Somerville said, “Just adding a beautiful wreath on the door makes a big difference. The entry way is the first impression ... the first thing you see, and people go ‘oooohhhhh.’ If they don’t say ‘oooohhhhh,’ they are not going to consider the house. They need to get a warm, fuzzy feeling about it. They need to feel and see the possibilities of a house, and by just staging a little bit. they can see and feel the possibilities.” It is the stager’s job to showcase the home and generate curb appeal. And according to Starr Osborne’s piece in January/February’s “The Real Estate Professional,” good stagers will team with the brokers and agents to help manage the seller’s expectations. Another suggestion to homeowners from Somerville is: “No potpourri ... no smelling candles. Use Pinesol, Clorox and Lysol to clean, or Murphy’s Oil on hardwoods and vinyl. This makes a house smell clean and fresh.” |
 If the house that’s going on the market is empty, as in the case of Somerville’s example home, Somerville will be glad to use staging items from her own collection. “If a homeowner has taken everything and nothing is left to decorate with, I’ve got it or I can find it,” she exclaimed. Somerville has traveled throughout the United States, in Europe, Africa and Mexico, bringing back many items that can be blended into the decor of the house to make it more homey. A bargain hunter, she combs discount houses to purchase framed art work, pottery pieces, throws and pillows, anything that can brighten the appearance of a home. Specialty shops and antiques stores are some of her favorite places to pick up a few items, like plates, frames and art. Somerville said of her new venture, “This is my dream. I would love to take on a large project like an attorney’s office or a dentist’s office... a large area, or an entire house,” and make it look loved, cared for and ready for new owers. She is quick to point out that she does not claim to be a decorator. But visitors to her home at Shadow Woods would think she has had years of training and experience in interior design. “My whole house came from these two wing-back chairs that I found at Coughenour’s shortly after my house on Park Circle burned,” offered Somerville, stroking the pieces that highlight her living room. On a black background fabric are colors of cranberry, moss, Wedgwood blue, coral, yellow and purple. “These are the colors I chose from to decorate the house after it was rebuilt,” she said. “And now I’m adding to it and pulling out different colors from the chairs and decorating my condo.” Somerville admitted, “I’ve been playing with this idea for 15 years. I’ve always had an eye for color and texture and shapes. I love to turn something ordinary into extraordinary.” For example, her attractive foyer features tiles from an old building in Philadelphia. “The building was torn down in the 1800s and somebody saved the tiles ... and I found them in Southport,” she said, laughing. “They’ve been sitting in my closet until I got the condo. I pulled them out and, lo and behold, they are now displayed in my foyer ... the perfect spot... as pieces of art. Somerville will even pull the art off her walls, the urns from her carpet or the pottery from her cabinets to stage a home. “Usually, if you do a kitchen, the master bedroom and the living room, that’s enough, because (that way) prospective buyers can see their own possessions in a house, and it’s potential.” As a broker/Realtor with Realty World Graham Grubbs & Associates, Somerville feels it’s part of her job to help her clients sell their homes, and she is hoping to stage for other Realtors throughout the area. “I want to stress that I’m not a professional decorator; just a stager,” Somerville said. “That’s totally different. My job is to make the house look more attractive for a sale. It’s so much fun to take a house and make its possibilities shine.” |
|||
|
Nearby Fun Stuff • Medical Facilities • Hotels & Restaurants • Exit (Comments, Please) • Working With Real Estate Agents Jane's Staging Service |
||||
