Up-Staging the Competition
by Mike Monopoli

Making your home stand out in today’s real estate market can be a challenge. Fortunately, there’s help available. Keith Toney of Refine Designs is not only an expert in color and design, he’s also an accredited home staging professional. Home staging is shown to result in both a higher selling price and a quicker sale. While there are a few basic principles to staging your home, Keith stresses that cleanliness is the number one priority. “Sellers need to clean the house, or have it professionally cleaned, like it’s never been cleaned before. Especially kitchens and bathrooms, which need to shine. Another thing I tell clients is if you’re not planning on taking something with you when you move, dispose of it now.” The idea is to clean, de-clutter and de-personalize the home. “Pack away anything personal, like pictures, collections, mementos. Pack up all of the excess toys scattered around the house, and just keep handy items that are used continuously, but that can be stowed away quickly before a showing” advises Toney.

Refine Designs, a division of AKConsultingServices.com, provides many levels of service, including complete home interior and exterior design. “Some clients just want the property evaluated so they can decide what issues to address” says Toney. “After making suggestions on repainting a room, or replacing carpet or light fixtures, some clients then want to hire me to make the selections for them so they know they will appeal to the average buyer. From there the seller needs to either tackle the job themselves, or hire someone to do the labor for them. Once they have addressed everything in the evaluation, whether it is repairs, packing, or eliminating, I then return to the property and use what remains to ensure that the property is showing in the best possible light by correcting the furniture layout and ensuring the rooms flow from one to the next.” Refine Designs also works to provide furnishings to stage vacant properties. “This has proven to be very helpful in making quick sales” Toney adds. “People have a hard time envisioning the potential of an empty space. Show them how it can work and they get it immediately.”

“I’m a useful resource for realtors because I can be the one to take the role of working with the client on touchy things like the condition of their home and the items within. When it comes to people’s hobbies or collections, I typically tell them that in order to protect their worldly possessions, the best thing to do is pack them up” says Toney. “I remind sellers that people are coming to look at the space, not their possessions.” The most glaring defects tend to be dated light fixtures, appliances and color schemes. Sometimes a property needs more, and an investment in some updates may reap huge benefits. “I suggested to one of my clients that they replace all of the light fixtures throughout the house, replace the appliances and install new carpeting, and repaint some rooms” Toney recalls of one client who had been trying to sell a home for nearly a year. Properly staging their home sold it quickly, and for very close to their asking price. “Within three weeks they had accepted an offer within $6,000 of their asking price, and they had been planning on dropping the price by $50,000.” The sellers were so impressed they are hiring Toney to work with them on their new home.

Also an artist, Toney always had a natural flair for decorating, even as a child. “I have been making homes look better since I was a kid,” says Toney of his talent. “My mother would drop me off at the neighbor’s to be babysat only to return and find that I had redecorated their whole house. She would apologize profusely, but the neighbors were thrilled. When my friends’ parents would buy new furniture they would tell their kid to call Keith and have him ‘…come over to place our new furniture!’ It’s just a natural instinct that I have, I guess.”

www.refinedesigns.net
p. 508.450.5065
keith@akconsultingservices.com