It’s her business to help clean up
WHEN it comes to presenting a home for sale, take the time to do it right the first time. That’s the word from Mandy Crozier, who styles homes for a living through her business Changing Rooms.
‘‘It is stressful selling your house, and if you present your house poorly it’s going to affect the money you get and the time it takes to sell,’’ she warns.
‘‘Obviously you can maximise the price if you prepare your house for sale properly.
‘‘If you stage your home, you’ll get 10 per cent more for it, and that is statistically proven.’’
Crozier responds to requests from real estate agents and homeowners alike for help to stage a home for sale, be it lived in, partially empty or empty.
‘‘Sometimes it might be dressing an entire home, other times it might be adding soft furnishings to smarten up a space, it could be adding an outdoor setting, or just offering advice.’’
From her warehouse on the Kapiti Coast, she’ll bring in all she needs, beds, lounge suites, light bulbs, lamps, rugs, linen, artwork, cushions, mirrors, magazines, books, outdoor furniture and kitchenware.
‘‘A home needs to look the best it can be so it is appealing to buyers — if it looks attractive and beautiful then people have a far more positive experience when they come into the home.
‘‘If you have a really, really cluttered home, or a dirty home or an unattractive home, people will focus on that and not on the bones of the home, or the great address, or the wonderful exterior look or the interior layout.
‘‘They will just focus on everything that’s wrong with it, rather than everything that’s appealing’’
Crozier gives two examples of houses that struggled to sell because they weren’t up to scratch.
‘‘One hadn’t sold with two agents, then a third agent took it on and called us in to stage it — it sold within 14 days and it achieved $90,000 more than expected.’’
Much of it had to do with its appearance, says Crozier.
‘‘It looked terrible, it was dated, we went in there and we were pretty ruthless about what we did and what we got the owners to remove, repair and tidy up which was all fairly inexpensive.
The owners changed the kitchen lino, which was damaged that made the kitchen look scruffy, we got them to paint the fencing at the rear of the property which was cracked and untidy, they painted the untidy decks, took down oldfashioned curtains and removed unattractive damaged furniture.
‘‘They left furniture and fitting we could use and we brought in everything else and staged it to look a million bucks — it made a huge difference.’’
The owners of another house had moved to the South Island and their empty property hadn’t sold.
‘‘We dressed every single room, it sold easily.’’
In that case Crozier brightened up what was a dark home with a lot of cream, she brought in works of art to add warmth, strategically placed furniture where carpet was worn and tired and made the master bedroom look like a master enhanced with extra linen and bedding, armchairs, side tables and subtle lighting.
She also brought in outdoor furniture to show off the outside living space.
‘‘These are two good examples of houses that weren’t selling despite a buoyant market and the fact that staging really, really makes a difference.’’
Crozier points out that homes must have a flow to them, allowing potential buyers to walk around with ease.
That means decluttering, or at the other end of the spectrum, adding furniture.
‘‘Sometimes there’s just too much in the home, or equally, we did a house last year that didn’t have enough in it — it was a huge home with very little furniture in it which made it quite bare, cold and unwelcoming.’’
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