June 03, 2010 — TAMPA – FOX 13 News: Selling a home in today’s economy isn’t easy, but there are ways to speed up the process.

The last two years have been a rollercoaster ride Jim and Nancy Ward. They have been realtors in the Bay Area for nearly 16 years, having gone through the boom and the bust.

“It takes more creativity to showcase a home,” said Nancy, “to put it in its best light, because there is so much competition.”

To help them showcase, they’ve teamed up with a company called Showhomes home staging.

“When we come in and design and decorate a home, what we’ve done is transformed a vacant house into a valued home,” Karla Dorsey, Showhomes’ Director of Sales.

Here is how the showcasing works: a professional house-sitter moves into your home with their furniture. They maintain the house and pay the electricity bill, but you continue to make the mortgage payments.

“What we do is we bring a home manager in, that’s a professional house-sitter,” explained Dorsey. “They have their beautiful furnishings, we come in as a design team and we design and decorate the home.”

“Showhomes” are selling 50 percent faster and 25 percent more than vacant homes in Hillsborough County. In the last two weeks, 9 houses have gone under contract.

“First home we ever staged with Showhomes, we actually were able to put a contract on a home that had been for sale with other realtors for three years in 29 days,” said Nancy Ward.

Five of the Wards’ homeowners went with Showhomes. All of those houses have closed or are pending.

“Another success story recently was a house in Cheval,” added Nancy. “A more expensive home, fewer buyers available to buy a home like that, and it was under contact in 9 days and has already closed.”

For more information about Showhomes home staging, go to www.showhomes.com