Liberty Developers Offering Home Staging To Spur Sales

By John Voket

With almost two decades in the real estate business, Janet Karasick knows how to market a home. As the sales manager for Liberty at Newtown, one of Fairfield County’s premier over-55 communities, she is happy to see her employer has contracted a regional home staging consultant to teach clients how to sell their homes faster, and get the price they desire.

Ginsburg Development Companies (GDC), Ms Karasick’s employer, announced recently that it will provide personalized “home staging” consulting services to help its purchasers sell their existing properties. And while she has not needed the services for any local clients yet, she has seen the difference home staging can make, especially in a tough market.

“It’s amazing,” she told The Bee earlier this week from her office at Ridgewood of Middlebury, where she is also selling properties. “Sometimes a home will sit for two or three months. Then you bring in a home staging professional and it’s got an offer on it in a couple of days — and they get their price!”

Having a home to sell is the biggest issue facing new home buyers today, so GDC is looking for ways to help its buyers solve this problem. In addition to providing staging service for buyers going to contract, GDC also offered classes on home staging and creative financing for prospective buyers at communities in Haverstraw and Peekskill, N.Y.

Home staging is the art of merchandising a home for sale by making it as appealing as possible. GDC’s buyers will also receive advice on how their existing furniture can be used in their new homes.

“Homes that are professionally staged sell much faster than homes that aren’t as well prepared,” said Martin Ginsburg, founder and principal of Ginsburg Development Companies, based in Valhalla, N.Y.

“We want to help our buyers prepare their existing homes for the sales market so they have the confidence to commit to buying a new home,” said Mr Ginsburg. “We’re giving closing dates up to six months after the contract is signed, which should be plenty of time to sell a well-staged home.”

The staging consulting services and classes will be provided by Classic Home Staging, a company based in Goldens Bridge, N.Y., that has advised many private sellers and developers in the Hudson Valley and Connecticut.

“Staged homes sell 32 percent faster and at a higher average price than unstaged homes,” said Kitty Schwartz, who founded Classic Home Staging in 2005. “First impressions are so important. Buyers make a decision about your house in the first 90 seconds and only spend six minutes on average looking at your home.”

The Classic Home Staging website says by “…capitalizing on the natural spaces and architectural details of one’s home, while minimizing personal touches, buyers will easily be able to picture themselves and their furnishings in the space. When potential buyers walk in, they will be ‘wowed’ by the beautifully arranged rooms and will feel welcome.”

Typically, the fee for this service is based on the square footage of a home and an hourly rate.

“People are at various points of buying into the Ginsberg communities and we are available to work with them, especially if they’ve already bought their new home and are still trying to sell their existing one,” Ms Schwartz said. The company will be holding home staging consultations at its new development in Middlebury in January, according to Nilda Williams, a GDC spokesperson.

Ms Karasick believes that by taking advantage of GDC’s home staging services, her clients develop a competitive edge that help their properties stand out in neighborhoods populated with “for sale” signs.

“You always want to make your house look better than the competition,” she said. “That’s the best way to sell it quickly and sometimes, you can even get a better price than some of the larger or newer homes in your neighborhood.”

Ginsburg development also is helping its customers arrange financing for people purchasing their homes. GDC has a longstanding relationship with Wells Fargo Bank, one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders, and people purchasing homes from GDC’s customers can apply for loans from Wells Fargo at favorable terms provided through GDC.

Besides Newtown and Middlebury, the company  also has developed communities in Bloomfield, as well as Peekskill, Wallkill, Haverstraw, Poughkeepsie, Sleepy Hollow and Pelham, N.Y. GDC’s residential sales website is www.gdc-homes.com.