Signature Staging “Designed to Sell”

Fairview Ave., Mentor, Ohio
From Sitting to SOLD in 8 Days!

Devine Designs was called when this charming colonial in Mentor had been sitting on the market for more than a year! During that time, the housing market had plummeted and so had the house’s price – from $250,000 in July 2005 to $217,900 by August 2006!

“In this market, professional home staging can make the difference between a home sitting or selling,” says Diana Hudson Kresnye. The house was dated and had a lifeless feeling because it was sitting vacant.

At the top of the list of changes to the Fairview Ave. house was removing wall paper. “It’s public enemy #1 when selling because it’s so personal,” Diana explained. “We want a house to have personality, just not the home owners.”

Carpeting was removed from throughout the house, revealing beautiful wood floors. Faux slate tile replaced carpet that had been in the kitchen, lighting was updated throughout, and warm, neutral paint colors were selected for several key rooms.

Once the updating was completed, Diana “staged” the home by placing furniture and accessories in all the rooms. “Statistically, vacant homes are on the market up to five times longer than homes that appear lived in,” she says. “The function of each room needs to be clear to allow potential buyers to imagine themselves living there. People don’t buy houses, they buy homes.”

When realtors saw the transformation, they called it “an extreme home makeover and thought we must have spent $10,000 or more,” Diana says. In actuality, $1,500 was spent on professional plaster repair & painting and $1,850 for remaining improvements. To save money, they used slip covers over the family’s furniture. Devine Designs’ fee for the two-week project was an additional $1,500 which included a staging assessment, project management, design planning, shopping, and hands-on staging.

After sitting for 13 months, the house sold in just eight days!

The owners say it was more than worth it. “Diana saw what was preventing the house from selling and brought a designer's eye to making changes and pulling it all together.”

The owners’ estimate that the 14 months the house sat without selling cost them upwards of $40,000. “The changes in the market made it impossible to get anywhere near what we could have a year ago,” they said. When asked if it paid to stage they are in agreement, “Absolutely. We wish we would have known about this a year ago. We could have staged from the start and avoided months of market changes, price reductions, waiting, frustration, stress, and worry. It’s not even a close call. Hopefully others can learn from our experience.”