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I recently interviewed Suzie Rankins, the owner of Cents of Style Design. She has an amazing story, as she went from being a math teacher to the owner of her own boutique staging company. If you never thought staging a home was important, then think again. Hear what Suzie has to say in this interview!
Link: Hi, this is Link Moser with the Fine Homes Group here at Keller Williams, your local New Hampshire real estate agent, where I interview business owners and professionals to bring our community together and to keep you in the know. Today, you're going to hear from a New Hampshire home stager. I want to introduce you to Suzie Rankins, the owner of Cents of Style Design based in Bedford, New Hampshire. She helps people stage their homes so that they sell for top dollar. Of course, if you need help buying or selling a home, feel free to contact my team at NHFineHomes.com. With that, welcome Suzie! Why don't we start off with a little background on how you got into the business?
Suzie: I was originally a math teacher, but as a hobby I would buy homes that needed to be either helped along or redesigned. I would move into them, redesign them, and then in a couple of years I would sell them. So I kind of started a little flipping business, but I lived in the homes. I did that for many years and I had a lot of fun with it. Anytime a friend came over they would say, "You missed your calling! You should have been an interior designer." I got married and had children, and I was home for awhile with my kids. Now, my youngest is back in school, so I decided that I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this for a living. I got introduced to Diane Davidson with New Hampshire Fine Homes at Keller Williams and joined her team as the stager for that team. I also do staging for other homeowners that hire me privately, but I'm on the team, I'm enjoying it, and it's fabulous!
Link: I can speak to that firsthand that I had not been introduced to staging in the real estate business, and just didn't have a lot of knowledge of it. Very quickly, I could see the transformation with some of these homes in the before and after, how much a difference it makes. It must be a lot of fun to do that. Some of the time I can imagine that homeowners might be a little skeptical. We're asking them to make some investment of time and money, and it can displace things a little, so tell me how you handle that. It must be kind of a delicate thing, isn't it?
Suzie: Yes, it is. It is a lot of fun to see that transformation and to look on that side of things, but you're right. It can be delicate with homeowners. You kind of have to take each project as it comes because each homeowner is different in how they live and how comfortable they are with certain things being put away versus kept out, even down to small things like leaving a microwave out on a counter, that kind of thing. So you just work with the homeowner, and you get a sense after working with them whether they're open to living without that for a few months, or oh no, I can live without that for the pictures, but it has to be out the rest of the time. Which is fine, if there are certain items that they have to have to function on a regular basis, I can work with that and make it look the best it can, even if it's something I wouldn't normally leave in a home for a showing.
Link: Now, how far in advance should someone think about staging a home? If I'm selling in a few months, should I wait until I have a real estate agent and I'm about to go on the market, or should I be reaching out sooner?
Suzie: It depends on the amount that's out in the homes during showings. It depends on the amount of work that needs to be done. For some homes, the paint is in good condition and the colors are neutral enough that they can jump right into staging. That means they only need a couple of weeks before they're ready to go on a market. Maybe you just need to bring in a stager to move some furniture around. The home stager can also bring in some pieces to make certain space look beautiful. But then there are some homes that just need a lot of paint work. They just need a freshening up, sometimes they need new colors to bring it more up to date. In that case, you would need a few weeks prior to that to bring the painter in. As a home stager, depending on the company, I coordinate that for them if they need me to. Some people have their own stager and they want to work with them. There are also people who need months in advance to prepare because they have actual construction projects that need to be finished. Whether it be a guest bedroom needs to be repaired, or they want to finish a section of the basement to make the home more marketable, or they need new windows. There could be actual bigger projects, and my company also does project management, so I can lead them through that whole process and then into the staging.
Link: It sounds like people really need a consult, whether with a stager or real estate agent, sooner rather than later just to know what they're in for. I'm sure budget drives that, I'm sure that's a question people ask right away, is how much will this cost. How do you handle that? I'm sure every house is different. Is it more about their comfort zone, or how does that work?
Suzie: We can work with homeowners in terms of the budget. A general industry rule is that it's a dollar per square foot. So for a 2,000 square foot home, you're going to pay a couple thousand dollars to have a stager come in and do the work. But that varies as well. If you have a home that is empty and needs a lot of furniture to be brought in, that number can go up. If you have a homeowner who really wants to work with you and they're willing to move the furniture so the stager doesn't have to bring in movers to help with that, and maybe they're willing to help you, then you can negotiate and get that price more manageable for the homeowner. If they need more than the staging, if they need painting or any repairs, those fees are separate and above the staging cost. I know as a team member for New Hampshire Fine Homes with Keller Williams you would pay significantly less than the dollar per square foot industry standard because you're working with me and New Hampshire Fine Homes as a team, you get a significant reduction in cost.
Link: That may exist with other agents who have good relationships with stagers as well. Sometimes it might make sense for a homeowner to speak with their real estate agent first to see if there's value that can be passed along to them. You don't have to stage the whole house either. If you're a little tight on the budget, they may just focus on the first floor or on a handful of rooms.
Suzie: That's right. They might focus on just the first floor or maybe the master bedroom.
Link: That's a great way to keep those costs in check. My perspective is it really is a transformation, so why wouldn't everyone stage their home? We've got plenty of HGTV out there now and we see the magic of it happen, but I still see a lot of homeowners who want to sell as is. So I think there's some education that I think has to happen, right?
Suzie: Yes. There is. There are two things, I think, that goes into that. One is they don't recognize that if there is a range of values that they hope to sell their house between, you're going to get at the higher end of that range if your home is staged well. The second component is a lot of homeowners have been in their home for a long time, they get used to it. They think it flows fine. They don't realize how much better it could have looked. I have people who say, "Wow, I moved in here six years ago. I should have had you come in then! You took all my belongings and made the place look fabulous. I could have been living like this for six years!" Then I have clients who have already moved into their new home who come back to see the old property staged, and they say, "Wow, if I had known my house could look like this, I wouldn't have moved!" I know Realtors don't want to hear that.
Link: Right. We should have everyone stage their home and just stay put, right?
Suzie: Right!
Link: It brings a lot of value. I can imagine some homes a $2,000 investment could certainly bring a 10 or 5 times return. It could be tens of thousands of dollars in additional value. From what I've seen, it's a very strong return. Even if they just break even, they get their money back, which is better than investing in the stock market, isn't it?
Suzie: Yes, absolutely.
Link: Where do you see your business going? Where would you like to take it in the next two or three years? What are some of those goals that you've got for growth?
Suzie: Well, I love the staging. I also do interior design. My favorite thing to do, believe it or not, is project management. I'd like to see some growth in that area in terms of coming in and doing bigger projects for homeowners. Knocking down walls, putting in additions, things like that. I'm very busy with the staging and I'm happy about that. I was just saying to my husband how I love my job because it's the same enough that I'm good at it, but it's different every single time. It's a different project, it makes it more fun, it keeps it fresh and alive for me. I'm not bored. I do love the staging component quite a bit. Of course, real estate is attractive to me as well. I still have younger children involved in all sorts of activities.
Link: If someone was interested in working with you, how could they get a hold of you if they wanted to talk to you directly?
Suzie: I do have a website, it's cents-of-style-design.com. It's a very rudimentary site right now. I've got a lot of pictures of projects to add to that, but I've been very busy with those projects! But they can find my phone number on the Web.
Link: Okay, great! Well, I've enjoyed our conversation. I appreciate your time today, and thanks for taking a minute to talk to us about the value of home staging.
Suzie: You're welcome, thank you!
