Showhomes' Home Staging Twist Gets Attention and Produces Results

By: Showhomes | 1 Shares 86 Reads

Elvis Has Left the Building and Showhomes Needs You to Move in

NASHVILLE, TN--(Marketwire - June 2, 2010) - Want to live in a luxurious $4 million mansion in Paradise Valley? How about a swanky $2 million condo in Chicago's prestigious Highland Park neighborhood? Or a state-of-the-art $1.5 million beach house in St. Petersburg?

Think it's out of your range? That it would cost $10,000 a month? $7,500? Think again. Try $2,500 a month or less. There's only one twist -- you have to have great furniture and be willing to move on short notice because these mansions are for sale.

Showhomes home staging, a national franchise, has a unique twist on staging vacant houses in the down market: they recruit people with great furniture to move into and help stage houses so they sell faster and for higher prices. The franchise's 'live-in' home stagers pay a steeply reduced monthly fee to live in the home while it is for sale.

Home owners allow Showhomes to collect the monthly fee in exchange for waving monthly staging bills which can easily run into the thousands a month.

"It is the most economical way for a home owner to stage a large home," said Thomas Scott, Showhomes' VP of Marketing. "It's a win-win for everyone involved. The home owner saves on staging costs, the live-in home stager saves thousands on housing costs and most importantly the home sells faster and for a far higher price."

The Real Estate Staging Association, a trade association for the home staging industry, recently found that staged homes spent 78% less time on the market than the time they spent vacant before staging. In a 2010 Showhomes Realtor survey, 96% of Realtors said fully staged homes sell for higher prices than vacant houses.

This approach to staging and helping sell vacant houses has gained tremendous momentum in the past several years. Showhomes' revenue numbers have increased year over year and the number of homes it stages annually has dramatically increased.

Showhomes' innovative spin on home staging is also the cause of its rapid growth in the franchising industry. Over the past two years the company has more than doubled the markets it serves -- from 29 units in 16 states to 67 units in 24 states. The company expects to sell out of territories by 2014.

About Showhomes

Showhomes is a nationally franchised 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.

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