If you're going to sell your house, you're likely to sell it faster and even get more money for it if you use some old Hollywood knowledge that department stores have also long utilized. It's called staging. Unfortunately, most realtors are still just advising clients to change the carpeting and other traditional makeover ploys. But two new realtors to Morgan Hill are taking it to a new level and working as a team. As their ad in Country News states, "Ginger stages the home and Paul sell the home." Moreover, Ginger performs this service for free. The only catch is that they hire her husband for their realtor!

Just talking to Paul and Ginger Conti, the husband and wife team, turned into this human interest story that should help a lot of our readers and even other local realtors jump on this new wave of real estate marketing. The Contis have staged more than 182 houses the last four years and averaged 18-day turnaround sales time. Some of those were houses other agents couldn't sell in 18 months to two years!

One couple, getting ready to sell their home, told the Contis they wanted to spend $30,000 to remodel their kitchen. Ginger told her to save the money and "let me have at it with all my furnishings and accessories."
"The kitchen then didn't look old and drab," said Paul Conti.
"I used Ralph Lauren fabrics to add a richness to the kitchen on top of the old yellow tile," Ginger began. "You would've had to been there to understand the impact."

Model home developers have long known the value of staging. "Most people are visual," Ginger adds. "People have to see it; they can't imagine it. Moreover, with peoples' lifestyles being as busy as they are these days, people want to see homes that are ready to move into NOW. They don't want fixer uppers."

But almost anyone can image one client they had who loved her deep rose carpet and refused to change it, because she loved that color.

"I went in and used area rugs over the existing deep rose carpet," Ginger said, explaining how she handled that difficult situation.

She said the in color now is blue.

"People want to slow down their lives and the hustle, bustle and like ocean colors. We also add classical and easy listening music. Frank Sinatra is big and Bach classical music, or jazz and swing that appeal to all ages now."

"We get some people who think their house is perfect," Ginger continued. "They don't understand when you put your home on the market, you have to prepare it for the buyers' eyes, not their eyes. We're looking to buy a home now in Morgan Hill and will be staging our own home when we sell it, even though we have been constantly redecorating it."

Lighting is another important factor.

"A little night light in the bathroom and mood lighting throughout the house goes a long ways towards selling the house," Paul said.

They chuckled when they recalled how one client called to complain that their electric bill went up $7 the first month that the staging was implemented.

"I told her she could turn those lights off at night," Paul said.

Another insider's staging trick they have long used is to feature Shirley Temple framed photos in the houses they that stage. That's kind of their trademark, they both said.

"One agent said she had been to 30 houses and couldn't possibly remember any single house, until I mentioned our house had a Shirley Temple picture on top of the Grand Piano."

"Oh, yes, I do remember that house!" the realtor admitted.

Paul began in the automotive industry, working in a body shop, eventually managing a body shop. Ginger long talked about entering the real estate field. By the time child number four was due, Paul decided he would take the initiative to go that route. He got his real estate license in 1977, quit his body shop job, and went full time in real estate. Twenty years later, Ginger joined him by helping him with open houses.

"I had worked in interior design and taken courses in that subject," she said. "Much of it, though, was self taught, just observing places like Nordstrom and how displays sell products."

At one open house, Ginger told Paul, "You know, I think I can do something with this place. She did, and afterwards, other realtors called to say, 'We can't believe what you did for that house!'"

After they hit on this team effort, they began getting listings through referrals from their clients passing on the word about their good teamwork.

"One homeowner called one night and said, 'When I came home, I thought I was drunk, because when I left for work, the house was empty and bare. When I came home tonight, with the way you accessorized it and put all your furniture in here, with the Frank Sinatra music playing, I swore I was in the wrong house!'"

Contis said they maintain more than $60,000 in inventory of accessories and furniture for their staging side of their business. Most of it is in houses currently being sold, or in their own home.

What do they recall about their most challenging assignments?

"One house was called the black and white house," Ginger began. "The kitchen was the Disco Kitchen. The man refused to change it so I had to work with what I had. I took out his black and white striped curtains that accentuated the black and white cabinets that looked like he had hand sawed them. His floor looked like checkerboards. "

The man had gotten married, moved out and the house had sat vacant six months before Ginger and Paul got the assignment.

"I hung neutral beige curtains," Ginger continued, brought in fresh plants, colorful place mats for the counters, colorful plates, and books like you'd see in a model home. I used neutral beige rugs over the black and white floor. I lit the house with accent lighting and completely rearranged the look of it to divert people's attention from what was really going on!"

"There was no eating area in the kitchen, so I set up an eating area in the corner of the living room. That dining room table helped sell the house, because it showed there was some place to eat. "

One thing they always do is make sure escrow closes lock-tight on the home before they remove their staging materials, because they have had calls from realtors, asking them, after they do remove everything, "What happened to that house?"

Another challenging assignment that ranks right up there with the Disco Kitchen house is a home they staged for a bachelor in Cuperinto who traded with natives worldwide from Africa to Ethiopia. He had artifacts hanging on every wall of the house, floor-to-ceiling.

But fortunately, he was more cooperative than Disco Kitchen Guy.

"By the time I told him what to remove from the house, I was left with a futon and a braided rug," Ginger laughed. "I then brought in all the staging and furniture needed. We sold his house in two days and got at least $15,000 more than what he wanted!"

Now that the Contis have been house hunting in Morgan Hill, they see houses as other buyers see them.

"We are amazed at how poorly presented they are," groaned Paul. "They just aren't set up very well to sell. The poor realtor is going to take the heat for the house not selling quickly, but it's really the owner not staging the house for the market."

Now that the market has slowed down somewhat, they realize the need for their services is even more critical.

"But even when the market was white-hot," Paul pointed out, "we staged our listings. By doing that, people got not only a quick offer, but more money for their home. Ginger is now writing a book called Decorate to Sell and welcomes your quesitons about decorating. You can e-mail her at Ginger@HomeStagers.com or call her at 408-691-7700.

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