Moms will help get your house ready to sell
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Authored by: Jaime Garzon - Published in: The Times, your weekly neighborhood newspaper
Created on: 2004-11-05
Two full-time working mothers from Larchmont dropped their careers in April to help others “showcase their space.”
Working from their homes, Deborah Novick and Jill Steinberg opened a professional staging service company in Larchmont called Showcase Your Space, which serves Westchester County, Connecticut and New York City.
“We’re there to assist homeowners in selling their homes quickly and in getting the most money they possibly can for their property,” Steinberg said.
“We help them prepare their homes so it looks like it is in showcase condition,” she continued. “The way we live in our homes and the way to market and sell a house are two different things. By making a few simple changes, we help the house stand out from the competition and attract a buyer quickly.”
Staging is the process of preparing a home to sell for either the homeowner’s asking price or more by setting up the home in a way that enables a potential buyer to visualize living there, Novick said. She said the company will go to a home for sale and recommend repairs, aesthetic changes and room updates.
When builders put new houses or apartments on the market, they usually display a furnished model or an artistic rendering of the home. The same principles apply when selling an existing home, Steinberg said.
“We highlight those features most likely to be attractive to a buyer, such as the functionality of each space, the traffic flow through the house, spaciousness and natural light. The buyer wants to see how easy it will be to live there, rather than spend time imagining how the house might look or wondering how hard it might be to make changes to the property.”
“We have to create a space where the buyer doesn’t have to use their imagination,” added Novick, who spent six months renovating her Larchmont home three year ago. “We want to show the full features of a house including how much space and light it offers.”
Steinberg, who has two children, ages 3 and 5, worked in sales and marketing for several years before launching Showcase Your Space, which works with homeowners directly and through real estate agents. In an initial walk through, she said, the two women prepare a comprehensive set of customized recommendations. Their company then prepares the house to be sold by working with the seller to implement some or all of the recommendations.
Novick, who was working with investment funds on Wall Street before partnering with Steinberg, said they are looking to hook up with area real estate agents who can help their clients sell their homes quickly by offering the company’s services in a team effort.
At a cost of $1500 to $2500 on average, the staging process “is a small investment that can have really high returns,” Novick said.
Article entered in the Staged Homes System: 2005-01-06
