From the latest fixtures to the trendiest hues, the art of staging a home to highlight its best features and showcase its potential has long been a valuable tool for agents. Even more so now, as coronavirus concerns mean agents need to deliver a compelling visual story that buyers can engage with from the safety of their homes.

These days, the work goes way beyond traditional staging, however. Homebuyers are often looking for properties that are move-in ready, with the hard work of renovating and updating already completed. 

But sellers don’t always want to put in the effort or go to the expense of redesigning a home they’re about to leave. Some are already envisioning themselves in a new space, having mentally moved on from the tired and dated look of the home they’re selling. Others are overwhelmed by the idea of managing major projects like replacing windows, fixing persistent plumbing problems, or installing a new roof on top of orchestrating a move.

Aroosa Rauf, broker/owner of RE/MAX Presidential in Miami and Broward County, has been working her market for 21 years and has witnessed the change in buyers’ attitudes firsthand. They want a neutral home that is ready for them to live in without making major alterations. One thing that hasn’t changed over that time period is that sellers always want top dollar for their homes.

“What they don’t understand is they are they have conformed their home based on their living status,” she said. “Someone else’s living status is not what the buyers are looking for. They’re just looking for the property that they can conform into. I’m in the resale business. Sometimes I sell the same house five times over the course of 10 to 15 years. We have to neutralize these homes because the next guy who’s going to buy it, they’re going to conform this house based on their status.”

Firms like Curbio, along with similar remodeling and renovation services offered by major brokerages such as Coldwell Banker, are stepping in to lighten the burden of pre-sale renovations. 

The concierge treatment

Curbio’s services cover a wide variety of pre-sale improvements carried out by the company’s own professionals, rather than outside contractors, and works with agents from all brokerages. Sellers who use Curbio don’t have to pay any of the costs associated with the renovations until after their property sells, and the agents don’t have to manage the work.

“When an agent works with Curbio, we’re not only deferring payment, but we’re also handling the renovation itself,” said Rikki Rogers, Curbio’s vice president of marketing. “In order to maintain ownership of that really valuable relationship with homeowners, agents just take on more and more and more responsibility.”

Rogers noted that Curbio is different from other concierge services in that they do not require the agent to serve as the project manager. Curbio takes on responsibilities such as acquiring the right materials and managing subcontractors. 

Curbio surveys buyer’s agents in order to keep up with what homebuyers in a given area are looking for in terms of fixtures and features. The company uses real-time sales data and provides clients with virtual estimates so that there aren’t any surprises after the home is sold. Automated communications and frequent updates keep clients informed of the progress of the improvements as they happen.

A growing field

Other companies offer varying levels of concierge service. Compass Concierge takes an approach that’s similar to Curbio’s. Aimed at helping clients sell at a higher price, Compass Concierge offers services such as staging, painting, roof repair, landscaping and electrical work.

Several companies under the Realogy umbrella provide clients with concierge-type services as well. Coldwell Banker’s RealVitalize home improvement service helps connect homeowners with service providers capable of carrying out a variety of work. The program provides these resources without up-front costs or interest charges. Agents who use the program have access to a network of Home Advisors – vetted specialists and professionals who can handle renovations and staging.

Rose Sklar of the Sklar Team, Coldwell Banker’s Weston Office, has been in the industry for more than 30 years. She feels the RealVitalize program helps agents by removing them from the task of managing the pre-sale prepping work, freeing them to focus on other important tasks like marketing.

“It definitely helps listing agents as it is just another way to secure a listing, by offering game-changing programs to help differentiate listing agents from other companies who do not offer these services,” Sklar said. “Prepping a home for sale is not a new idea, as it has proven results year after year. What has changed is the ability for more sellers to reap the benefits of this process, by utilizing other people’s borrowed money.”

The BHGRE Moves program from Realogy subsidiary Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate comes at the problem from the other side of the transaction. This tool is provided to buyer’s agents and puts a slightly different spin on the concierge concept by connecting new owners with movers and utility companies to make it easier to settle in.

Last fall, Keller Williams began offering a concierge service under the company’s iBuying division, Keller Offers. Initially offered in California, Georgia and Texas, the program gives clients access to assistance with minor repairs and renovations at no cost upfront.

Curbio represents one option for agents who don’t have access to such in-brokerage tools. “The value to agents is both in the ability to compete for the listing and then also to secure the lifetime value of the seller,” Rogers said. “For independent brokerages or brokerages that don’t have an in-house concierge service, Curbio is a great solution because they can essentially offer the competitive service without the risk and the operational efforts of launching it on their own. For agents that are not from the really large brokerages that are rolling out these services, Curbio can be a way to level the playing field.”

Sklar likes to stay involved in the renovation process, but knowing she can count on the RealVitalize Home Advisors to manage it for her clients provides peace of mind, while giving her sellers access to funds they might not have had in previous years.

“I personally have been staging and renovating my listings for over ten years,” she said. “The key difference with the RealVitalize program is that the seller no longer needs to front the money. This program has enabled our team to prep many more homes than in previous years.”

Competing independently

But some brokers prefer to take this work on themselves. Rauf has been selling homes for 21 years and manages every step of the pre-sale prepping process. This includes a consultation and walk-through with the sellers, staging for potential buyers and arranging for any repairs or upgrades. In a recent sale, she helped a military family find a buyer for their home on three days’ notice. They received multiple offers in two days and ultimately sold it for $14,000 more than the original asking price.

The process began with a customized assessment to find upgrades that wouldn’t strain the family’s finances but would help secure top-dollar offers.

“I wanted them to depersonalize it,” Rauf said. “I wanted to take them out of this house, even though they’re still living there. “In this particular home, we them remove any and all framed photos degrees and diplomas. Then we had them remove all garbage and clutter from the garage, the closets and the pantry. The bathrooms were normal but needed a professional cleaning. I could not show the house with a dog and a cat there, so she actually made arrangements to board them at a pet shelter for a few days.”

Rauf said that her knowledge of what buyers in her market are looking for informs her work.

“The buyers that I have now, they have the money, but they also have the time,” she said. “They’re not in a rush. Because they have the money and they have the time, if I don’t deliver the top five things on their checklist, they’re not going to buy. They have more choices. They can go buy a brand-new house or they can keep renting for six months.”

Staging for success

Regardless of the scope of a renovation project, staging is a key component of ensuring that everything looks right. This is particularly true at a time when a global pandemic threatens to disrupt real estate markets everywhere. Making homes camera-ready for online photos, videos and virtual tours becomes even more important when social distancing is the norm and local and state governments issue “stay at home” mandates to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The National Association of Realtors’ 2019 Profile of Home Staging survey indicated that 40 percent of buyer’s agents said staging had an effect on how buyers see a home. Eighty-three percent of buyer’s agents said that staging makes it easier for buyers to see themselves living in the home. 

For some sellers’ agents, staging is routine. The survey showed that 28 percent stage every home prior to selling, while 13 percent only stage the homes that are difficult to move.

Rauf sees local stagers as essential to preparing homes for potential buyers. People looking for homes online are drawn to the clean presentation offered by photos and video clips. If they don’t see what they like right away, they’re ready to move on to the next listing. Staging is necessary to create the right look and ambiance.

“When we go to these people’s homes to help them prepare, it’s not staged because they’re living there,” she said. “We’re human beings, we want to be cozy and comfortable. What’s cozy and comfortable doesn’t necessarily sell for top dollar. You want that move-in condition, that five-star living room set, that five-star dining room and that five-star pool area. Those are not essentially cozy and comfortable. You might have your furniture and it’s great, but based on what the buyers want on their top five checklist, this is what we’re going to have to put in here.”

The HGTV effect is real, too. Of the agents who responded to NAR’s home staging survey, 38 percent said that programs depicting the buying process have an impact on their business, and 10 percent said that staged homes should look the way they appear on television.

Sklar said that when she first started in the industry back in the late 1980s, no one prepped homes for sale. Today, people are accustomed to seeing listed homes in immaculate condition.

“We just took photos and hoped for the best,” she said. “Today, with the proliferation of HGTV and social media, prepping a home for sale has become an imperative part of marketing and selling a home. Online showings depend on the buyer clicking on images and videos. Your home needs to stand out in a sea of competition. The best way to do this is to first and foremost, clean, declutter and minimalize.”