Spit, polish help move homes as sales slow

Truckee Meadows home sellers need to try harder during downturns in the market.

"We'll bring into 2007 the largest overpriced inventory in the history of Reno," says David Morris, principal of RE/MAX Realty Affiliates.

Buyers now have their pick of properties. However, says Morris, "The phantom values of the past three years far outstrip normalcy or rationality. Most homes are 10 to 30 percent overpriced. Homes are priced for the phantom profits."

And if sellers still harbor the slimmest hopes of getting that price, they will need to put a polish on the property. Some opt for a curb appeal consultant, others spring for a deep cleaning service and still others go all out for a full home staging.

But telling people that their house needs some work or worse, some elbow grease doesn't always go over well.

"I gently point out things I would clean," says Chris Gardella, owner of Showcase Home Detailing Team. He calls his service "objective eyes."

"It was a little bit jaw dropping because our house needed a lot of work," says Elise Robinson, a Reno home seller. "I really think we couldn't have done it without him."

Some sellers also need to be handled with kid gloves.

"Some people get offended, says Fanny O'Connor, business development manager at RE/MAX Realty Affiliates. "Or they don't want to spend the money."

Sometimes, says Morris, only a few hundred dollars is needed.

"But it can be expensive and forces you to discuss the house in a personal way. Not critically, but openly," he says.

The cost of staging a home is $1,000 to $10,000 and says O'Connor, and some sellers don't understand they'll recoup the money.

Still, she says, "Close to 70 percent of listers take us up on the offer."

That's when Leeann Agee, owner of First Impressions, LLC, is called in. She hails from the Bay Area, where staging homes has been the norm for years.

"We turn it into a model home with our inventory," Agee says. "We have houses and houses and houses of furniture."

Her team, which includes movers, painters, art hangers and interior designers, might redecorate with rich wall colors, furniture, accessories, even silk plants.

Agee prices her service according to the size and elegance of the home. The bulk of her business has been the $1 million spec houses and homes in higher-end communities.

But ordinary homeowners on a budget can play the staging game, too. They might call on Rosanne Tavernetti, owner of Interior Options.

"It's a home assessment business where I tell the seller how to market their home to make it appealing to a large majority of buyers," she says. "Curb appeal makes buyers want to see the inside of the house."

Tavernetti starts with an initial assessment that takes up to three hours and costs $250. It goes hourly after that, and she will rearrange the owner's furniture and accessorize, but does not maintain an inventory of furnishings.

"In the Reno market I find very few people who are willing to rent the furniture on the long run," she says. "It's different in other states, where sellers are more aggressive."

The greatest challenge to her work, says Tavernetti, comes when people don't realize they have a lot of clutter.

"Without clutter, I can do the bulk of the job while there in the initial three hours. If there's too much clutter, like stacks of newspapers and magazines and scores of family photos on all the walls, I can do a verbal assessment only," she says.

Some sellers are willing to take recommendations and then do the work themselves. Others would rather hire it out. Especially the elbow grease part. They may call Showcase.

The company employs both interior and exterior crews who might arrive with trucks and trailers, a pressure washing system, and the full compliment of lawn care machinery: mowers, edgers, trimmers and chain saws.

Price quotes are calculated per square foot and through a three-tier grading system that grades the cleanliness and condition of everything from light fixtures to home appliances.

The cost of detailing ranges from 60 cents to $2.50 per square foot. That translates into $1,200 to $2,000 for a manpower total of 50 to 80 hours.

Has he met with price resistance? "Not so far," says Gardella. "I go above and beyond what weekly services do. You'd have to call four or five people to get the services I provide."

The chore most overlooked by homeowners, he says, is the washing of the house. "People wash cars every week or month, but have never washed the outside of their house.

"We live in the desert so there's a fine dust in the air that can actually change the color of the paint," he says.

Armed with an arsenal of cleaning gear, the interior detail team starts cleaning from the highest point inside a home and works its way to the front entry. At the same time, the exterior team starts cleaning from the roof of a house and works its way down to where the sidewalk gutter meets the street. Even concrete, decks and fences. A 200-degree high-pressure hose blasts driveways clean of tire marks and oil spills.

While real estate agents provide an easy conduit to market staging services to sellers, stagers also reach out directly to sellers.

"I cold called people whose homes were empty," says Agee of her kick-start in Reno. She works with investors, owners, builders, developers and real estate agents. But by now, she and Tavernetti both rely on word of mouth.

Gardella, who debuted only in July, says, "I saw the opportunity to get in with the real estate agents. I do a presentation in their offices."

But the demand for home-staging services is flat or maybe even down a little with the real estate market's decline.

Business has increased, says Agee, but not dramatically. "And, it's usually busiest when you'd think we'd be the slowest: fall and winter."

After five years doing business in the Reno area, Tavernetti reports a decrease in business due to belt tightening by real estate agents who pay for the service.

However, Gardella says, "This business might not have worked two years ago. When houses were selling in a day, it didn't matter so much."

No no matter how much spit 'n polish is poured onto a home, a property that's overpriced won't sell in ay length of time, cautions Morris. Not with a standing inventory of 1,000 houses in northwest Reno, over 500 in Double Diamond - Damonte and another 1,000 houses in Sparks. At current sales levels, the market is carrying a 14- to 24-month supply of homes, he adds.

"We want to see a normal 90 to 120 day supply of homes," he adds. "When you see a 6 month supply, people start to take notice."