As real estate stalls, every home's a stage

To many stagers, slow housing sales offer a business opportunity -- what better way to give that house an edge in a crowded market than to add the extra touches that will wow a buyer?

"I can do Asian, Italian, French, modern," said Mary DeBella, owner of Northwest Staging in West Linn. "Our goal is to maximize the good features, minimize the negatives," said DeBella, who is president of the Portland chapter of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals.

"In California, Seattle, some parts of Florida, you don't put a house on the market without staging it," she added. "Portland is finally realizing that. This is staging's breakout year here."

The stagers are fighting for the sensory attention of buyers who have plenty of choices. The inventory of unsold homes reached its highest level last month since January 2001, according to the Regional Multiple Listing Service. At that rate, it would take about 8.6 months to sell all the homes offered for sale. A year earlier, inventory was at 4.5 months.

"Having a fresh-looking house is critical in this market," said Eva Sanders, a broker with the Meadows Group Inc. of Portland. "It's not just doing the dishes, making the bed or putting cookies in the oven anymore. We're way beyond that."

Not everyone agrees. Todd Knudsen of Re/Max Metro in Beaverton says times are so tough that his company is cutting its use of stagers.

"There are not that many transactions these days" Knudsen said. "As a Realtor, paying $1,000 a month to stage a house is not worth it."

Nancy Resnick, a broker with Windemere in Portland, called it "shortsighted" to cut back on staging because the market is slow. She said that all price ranges of homes benefit from staging but that far less should be spent on staging less expensive homes than on high-end homes.

"If you want your listing to stand out above the rest, you have to market it," she said. "You've only got one chance to make a good first impression."

Most stagers are plenty busy, and some report record business.

"This month is even better than last month," said Butch Reynolds, co-owner of Presentations Home Staging in Vancouver and president of the Vancouver chapter of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals.

The Vancouver chapter of home stagers is up from three members when it was formed a year ago to more than 30 now.

"As the inventory goes up, there is a higher demand for staging," he said

At Northwest Staging, DeBella has a staff of five and 2,700 square feet of storage space in Tigard neatly crammed with everything she needs to fill an empty house. Included in her inventory: 150 rugs, 300 vases, 80 lampshades, 450 pillows and 600 framed pieces of art. On Friday she had 13 houses staged.

The purpose of staging, DeBella said, is completely different from that of decorating. Decorators, she said, seek to create a home that matches their client's particular tastes. Stagers seek to create a look that is pleasing but not specific -- one that doesn't prevent a would-be buyer from imagining his or her life in the home.

That's why the home furnishings in her storage units are pleasant but not stunning. She seeks to show how each room can be used without overwhelming the viewer.

At first glance, said Paula Springer of Key Elements in Portland, the goals of good stager seem contradictory: to help a potential buyer form an emotional connection to a home while at the same time depersonalizing it. The trick, she said, is to keep anything that the buyer can't connect to -- such as an idiosyncratic curio -- from that person's view.

Her rule: Anything smaller than a grapefruit must leave the room. "That includes family photos," she said.

"When I do staging, I'm thinking composition," Springer said. "I've been trained in fine art. I'm thinking of how I want eyes to move through a room."

Jonathan Brinckman: 503-221-8190; jbrinckman@news.oregonian.com

©2007 The Oregonian