Showhomes Home Staging Franchise » vacant homes

Showhomes Provides New Option for Mobile Workforce: ‘Test Driving a New Home’

brandjournalists — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 09:00:00 +0000

In the pre-recession economy when you moved to a new city to start a job, you’d likely plan on buying a home as soon as possible. You might even buy a new home before your old house sold.

Showhomes uses furniture of Home Managers to make home come alive.

Not anymore.

These days, buying a home is risky and people can’t afford to make a mistake. But where do the mobile professionals seeking new employment live if they can’t buy a home and don’t want an apartment or an executive hotel suite.

Showhomes Home Staging offers job seekers in new cities an unusual housing solution: move into a vacant house for sale and let Showhomes use your furniture to help stage the home for potential buyers. The Home Manager gets the perks of living in upscale homes for a fraction of the cost and provides the homeowner with peace of mind.

That’s exactly what Chris and Jennifer Taylor did when they moved to Minneapolis from downtown Chicago during the recession. Over a period of four years, the Taylors lived in luxury homes that Showhomes staged with list prices from $500,000 to $2 million.

“We didn’t want to rush out and buy a home, and we didn’t want to sign a 12-month lease either,” Chris Taylor says. “We enjoyed four years as Home Managers and ended up saving over $50,000.”

Home Managers like the Taylors not only save money but also can “test drive” homes in different neighborhoods to learn about the local real estate market.

“One of the best things about the program is that it allowed us to get to know the city and its neighborhoods and communities,” Taylor added. “When we were ready to buy, we knew where we wanted to live.“

Jose Torrealba has a similar story. He was transferred from Toronto to Milwaukee, Wis. during the height of the recession and chose Showhomes’ Home Manager program over immediate home ownership. Torrealba and his family lived in a $1.5 million lakeside home for less than half of his previous mortgage payments in Toronto. The Torrealbas moved back to Toronto after a year with $20,000 in savings.

The homes Showhomes stages with live-in Home Managers typically sell much faster and for far closer to the list price in today’s market. Having an occupant lowers the owner’s insurance costs, makes the home less vulnerable to low-ball offers and vandalism and generally makes it show far better than vacant houses. With today’s housing market flooded with vacant houses and foreclosures, business is better than it has ever been.

“Showhomes is one of the most creative housing solutions available for mobile professionals and families on the move,” says Matt Kelton, Showhomes COO. “Our ‘home staging with a twist’ is a win-win-win for the homeowner, Realtor and Home Manager.”

5 Reasons Selling a Vacant House is a Mistake

Admin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:22:06 +0000

A vacant house is like a vacant stare. Something is just not right.

Trying to sell a vacant house adds obstacles and depresses the sales price, says Showhomes, a nationally franchised home staging company. Showhomes uses live-in home stagers to lower the cost of staging and produce faster home sales. Take a look at its top five reasons why selling a vacant house is often a mistake in today’s market:

1. People don’t simply buy houses; they buy the next chapter of their lives.

This is an emotional experience and emotion influences what people buy and how much they will pay. Vacant houses are devoid of life, and the chance to make an emotional connection is lost.

2. Vacancy distracts buyers from looking at the house itself.

They wonder: “Is this a divorce? Why did they move out? Are they selling because they have money problems? Is this home hard to sell?” They’ll make a low-ball offer, thinking the owner is desperate.

3. When a house is vacant, buyers focus on flaws.

They look at nail holes, carpet wear and gaps in the molding rather than how the space works. In a vacant house, floors, walls and ceilings are all buyers see. This drives the price down.

4. People can’t visualize how furniture fits.

An empty bedroom might appear awkward or a living room might seem cavernous. Some spaces might confuse buyers because a use is not obvious. Buyers are derailed and move on to the next house.

5. Vacant houses don’t show as well as staged and occupied homes.

Without people, even the best home quickly looks and smells vacant. Dust settles, leaves scatter, and stale smell spreads. These cues often shorten the showing time, leading to fewer sales.

“Home owners don’t realize how much harder a vacant home is to sell. In today’s market, you have to win the beauty contest,” says Thomas Scott, VP of Marketing at Showhomes. “Vacant houses simply underperform staged homes and the increased sales price provides an excellent return on what staging costs. Choosing to stage your home should be an easy decision in today’s market.”

About Showhomes

Showhomes is a home staging business with a twist: the company uses live-in home stagers to manage vacant houses while they are on the market for sale and offset a home owner’s expense to stage the home. The innovative marketing strategy has been producing results since 1986 and the company has helped over 25,000 home owners sell vacant houses valued at over $8 billion. For franchise opportunities and more information, please visit www.showhomes.com and www.showhomesfranchise.com.

Banks Turn to Showhomes to Help Sell Foreclosed Homes

Admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:23:34 +0000

The Jacksonville Business Journal ran an article on Showhomes today and how we are doing more and more bank business nationwide. For many banks, the type of staging we provide fits their needs. Showhomes got its start doing bank owned homes in the 1980s and we contiue today. Take a look:

Heritage Bank Senior Vice President Greg Totten was a skeptic when he decided to try using a home staging company to sell a bank-owned property that had been on the market in Queens Harbour for nearly a year at $2 million.

After a home manager moved in and staged the 6,000-square-foot home, the number of showings increased as well as the dollar amount of the offers before it went under contract in September to sell for $1.5 million. Totten’s now a believer in home staging.

Home stagers specialize in furnishing and decorating vacant homes to make them look lived-in for prospective buyers. Although the industry started as an indirect result of the savings and loan crisis in the mid-1980s when lenders needed help selling a glut of foreclosed homes, since then most homes have been staged for homeowners — until now.

“Banks are looking to try to get the most from the homes they now have,” said Totten, who is the branch manager at the Ponte Vedra Beach branch of Heritage Bank. “We came out, over all, I think pretty well.”

In the last three to four months Showhomes franchise owners Jim and Kaye Biby said they’ve seen an increasing interest from lenders looking for help to sell some of the homes they’ve had to foreclose on. The Queens Harbour home was the first foreclosed home the Bibys helped sell with a home manager who actually lived on site during the staging process. They’ve already signed a contract with a regional bank, which preferred not to be named, to help sell one, maybe two foreclosed homes and is negotiating a contract with a third.

Kaye Biby, Showhomes Jacksonville

The Bibys have also staged a short sale home in Palencia that sold in 21 days in March and have signed a contract to stage another short sale in the World Golf Village.

The Bibys say they think lenders are becoming more interested in their staged properties, which typically include live-in home managers, because it reduces the bank’s overhead. Even though bank-owned home staging is growing, the Bibys expect it to remain a small portion of their overall portfolio.

In the past most banks maintained minimal upkeep on foreclosed homes, often selling them as is. Lynn Vitel, broker at Vitel Realty Group of Keller Williams Realty, said now with competition stiff in the residential real estate market, banks too are looking for a competitive edge.

“Staging means everything. It lets people visualize what the rooms are,” Vitel said. “The banks are having to smarten up.”

Sandy Steiner, an agent with Re/Max Specialists who used Showhomes to stage a property that was not a owned by a lender, said she expects that as market values continue to decline more lenders will reach out to home stagers.

“Banks are taking on a larger responsibility,” Steiner said. “They don’t want to be blamed for that one foreclosed property bringing down the property value for the whole neighborhood.”

Christy McCarthy, owner of Jacksonville-based Interiors Revitalized, said that while she hasn’t actually staged any lender-owned properties yet, she too has noticed the interest, and she understands why.

“It’s crucial to get these homes back in top-dollar condition so they don’t lose any more money,” McCarthy said.

Thomas Scott, Showhomes