The kids had grown and gone, and Healdsburg homeowners Penny and Tom Chambers were downsizing. They wanted to put their 4-bedroom, 3-bath home on the market, but weren’t sure how quickly it would sell.
So when neighbor Sandy Main suggested “staging” the home, the Chambers took her up on it. “We all know the concepts, like decluttering your rooms, but Sandy took it to another level,” Penny Chambers said. “It was wonderful. The first person who came in bought the house.”
Main studied interior design, and through her company, Sonoma Main, has been helping people make their homes look more attractive to buyers since 2002.
“Different people have different gifts, and one of my gifts is the eye. When I walk into a home, it either feels good or it just doesn’t feel right, so I start looking at what would make it feel better,” Main said. “I wouldn’t want to make my style everybody’s style, or my taste everybody’s taste, but there are general things that make a difference.”
“[My husband] Bruce and I have sold every one of our homes the first day they were on the market,” Main said. “In every case, one of the first people to look at the homes, made offers on them. The message is that if a home looks great and is priced right it will sell much faster.”
Sometimes it’s just a matter of small changes, she said.
“We call it tweaking. Penny’s piano, for instance — it was clear to me it wasn’t in the right place. We moved it a few inches, and it looked so much better.”
The Chambers took out extra dressers from each bedroom, removed throw rugs to show off the hardwood floors, and took down most of the pictures they had hanging on the walls. Their four bookcases filled with books went into a rented storage unit, along with DVDs, photos and a silver chest. They went through all the kitchen cabinets and decluttered those as well. They replaced counter tops and bought flowers.
“Sandy was ruthless, but it was worth it. The real estate people came out on Thursday, and the buyers came on Sunday morning. Two days later we received a written offer for the full price,” Penny Chambers said.
Main said the Chambers were successful because they were willing to make changes. Sometimes homeowners want to live in their homes just the way they are until they sell them. They don’t want to put beloved personal possessions and furniture into storage.
“You have to be willing to listen,” Penny Chambers said. “You don’t want buyers to be looking at your stuff, you want them to be looking at your house.”
Main recommends staging if you “don’t have the eye for it or the time to do it, and you know the house needs something. It’s hard to look at your own home with a critical eye, because you’ve done things for a reason.”
Healdsburg Realtor John Torres, with Century 21 in Healdsburg, didn’t always use stagers, but now he often recommends them to people trying to sell their homes.
“Getting your house staged gives you that extra edge against other homes in that price bracket,” Torres said. “You want a nice looking house with a comfortable feeling. If people go into a house with a lot of clutter, they have a hard time imagining how it could be nicer.”
Main suggests five tips for staging your home:
1.   Declutter, but don’t totally depersonalize.
2.   Check catalogues for furniture and wall art placement. If you see something you like, try to copy it.
3.   Add a live plant somewhere, and if that works, add more. Plants add a lot to a home to make it warm and interesting and alive.
4.   New pillows in a living room or family room are a really quick fix.
5.   Check the lighting. Make sure there is enough light at different levels in the room. And if some place is perfect for reading, make sure you’ve got a lamp there.
