With the pace of the fast-moving, still hot existing home market, sellers have to think fast and be smart.

A new service segment has grown up to help those trying to sell their home -- the business of spiffing up homes for sale has become its own occupation.

Businesses entirely devoted to "staging" homes, arranging them artfully for maximal visual and emotional appeal to buyers, have been popping up all over the country, according to published reports.

Betty Welch Williams began staging as part of her work to sell houses she had listed as president of R. Sutton Realtors in Minneapolis, where some owners were vacating unsold houses.

"It developed by accident," she said, while having difficulty selling homes for owners who "had followed literally what I'd asked them to do, but not necessarily the spirit of it.

"I said, 'Give me a month and a little budget,' and I transformed the house and sold it for quite a bit more than we'd listed it for."

Williams realized she could envision houses in ways others might not - the same gift of decorators or interior designers that homeowners hire to improve their current surroundings. But staging is done for people on their way out to make houses inviting to those on their way in.

Williams stages houses she lists at no extra charge, but she also will complete outside jobs at prices from a few hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on sizes of projects. Usually, she works with clients' furnishings, but if necessary, she'll use something from her collection or rent furniture.

Candace Lano of Shakopee, Minn., got into the business of staging unintentionally, thinking "it would be flexible and part-time and low key." But instead, she was surprised.

"I have more business than I can handle," she said.

A relative in real estate recommended her to agency colleagues, even though Lano's 20 years as a nurse was far afield.

"I started small - did a couple of rooms for one of the real estate agents there, and I have taken off since then," she said.

Three years later, her Home Stage Advantage works for real estate agents, builders and individual sellers. She will work with owners' furnishings or hers. Lano's stock is both new and used and bought at warehouse sales, auctions and estate sales.

"I have invested in a huge inventory," she said. "I own upholstered pieces, sofas, chairs, dining-room sets, kitchen sets, bedroom sets, pictures, plants, rugs, linens, accessories, kitchen dishes, towels - you name it, I've got it. I can set a house up to look like it's lived in."

Lano needs a big inventory for her model-home business, which includes a contract with a builder who does five developments at a time to stage one model in each. She also stages existing homes that are empty or nearly empty.

"I currently have 12 homes completely set up," she said. "It's very hard to sell an empty house. I will go in there and do just the main living areas. I'll generally bid my service out for a three- month period," even if it sells in a month.

Lano gets most of her individual-home business through real estate agents, and her fees depend on such factors as how many rooms are to be done and how much of the contents must be hers.

"I can do something for as little as $100 to $200 up to filling up model homes for $5,000 to $6,000," she said.

Published: March 31, 1999

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