Naked. It was the first thought that crossed my mind. The floors, windows and walls were naked down to the skirts of the windows missing. Mozart played in the background and glaring white carpeting lay at my feet. I took my shoes off. There was nothing homey about the house, just white wash. And I knew the buyer visiting the home would think the same. The house had all the charm of a brand new sanitarium. The only way I could think of to redeem the home and reverse the white sterility were the words, 'Home staging.'  

And what I mean by 'staging a home' is NOT having a rental company come by and deposit a truck load of furniture and set it about in a Hodge podge manner. That is not staging!  

Staging a house means going beyond efforts to just make it look tidy.  

Just as stagehands set the stage for a production, you can do the same for a home. It can be made to look cozy, colorful and inviting, with a personalized look to make it stand out from the rest of the other houses on the market. If you have ever visited a new home development and walked through the models you've seen what staging a home to sell ought to be. You walk through a model and as you look around you hear yourself say, 'Wow, this is some place!'  

You leave with a positive impression created by properly placed furniture, color coordinated accessories, beautiful rich linens and table settings, everything there evoking a feeling that the model home is cozy and inviting. Easily you pictured yourself living in that comfortable space, putting your own personal belongings in the home, lighting those candles on the dinner table, having friends visit in the homey setting...  

And that's exactly what potential buyers want when they visit the house you're selling. They want that same instant coziness and comfort in the home they'll choose. Most people are visual oriented and cannot mentally remodel a home that needs TLC in their head, nor to be honest, do they want to have to spend thousands of dollars renovating. So, as a result, what the potential buyers see is usually what they want..  

The good news is that to stage a home to sell you don't have to spend thousands of dollars to do this remodeling. It will be the little things you do that will make the magic happen. The accessories, the colorful chintz fabric on the tables, the fresh bouquet of flowers in a vase, the scented candles on the fireplace mantel, and the manner in which the furniture is set around an area rug, that is where the difference will be made.  

Do you begin to understand that we will not be spending oodles of time and money redoing a home in this process? There won't be any need. We can stage your home. 

OVER 480 Homes SOLD within 21 Days.. We have proven results and a good track record!! 

No one can beat this record!! 

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Ginger Conti can make any home into a thing of beauty. Ginger is one half of the Makeover/Staging team, a team that takes coziness seriously. Paul Conti, Ginger’s husband, is a real estate agent, who lists the homes and sells them. However, before they go on the market, Ginger comes in, and usually in a matter of hours, transforms the house, using furniture and accessories, into a warm and inviting space. The process, which some refer to as “staging,” uses temporary decoration and arrangement to make the home more appealing to buyers.  

Even if there’s nothing really wrong with a house in the first place, Ginger can add some pillows here, and area rug there, and make a nice house seem like a home. Paul says, “If a house is vacant, the makeover can make all the difference”.  

“In an empty anything, flaws will show. If people stage their homes, they’ll receive that much more demand, which could mean that much more money.”  

“Studies show that a home can sell up to three times faster when its Staged.” 

~ The San Francisco Chronicle 

The couple has been married 38 years, and Paul has been in real estate for 26 years. Ginger began staging homes for her husband 13 years ago, after seeing the vacant home he was trying to sell and thinking she could do something to make them more appealing. Today’s media calls this activity “home makeovers”.  

“Stagers Furnish Real Estate Business With Quicker Home Sales.” 

~ San Jose Business Journal /Michelle Hofmann 

She started with a box of accessories--a few pictures and things for the counter top, plus a table and chairs. Now, the Contis can fill a van, a trailer and their garage with all the furniture and decorations they use to help make homes look better!

Home Staging is not new, and, in fact, many will charge to help people make their homes more presentable. However, Ginger Conti stages only the houses of her husband’s clients, and she does it for FREE! 

The couple says for a minor staging, they’ll bring in about $4,500 worth of decorations and furniture, but for other, more extensive staging, the value of the added accessories can reach $6,000. Get A Copy Of Gingers E-Book
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Paul estimates the total value of their entire Staging “repertoire” is approximately $50,000. Ginger spends a lot of time shopping around looking for new supplies--so much so that she said they know her by name at Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel. The couple estimates they spend between $10,000 and $15,000 per year updating their “props”.  

“75% faster sale 4%-7% higher sales price” 

~ The San Francisco Chronicle 

Not only does the Contis expense often make more money for their clients, but it can actually help save their clients money as well. “Frequently,” Ginger say, “when we go into a house to assess it, people tell us all the things they think need to be done to make the house look better, and that usually includes remodeling. One couple had even gotten a quote - $30,000 – relative to how much it would cost to remodel. Gloria told them to hold off, and brought in some accessories to make the house over. That is all that was needed! 

"A ‘warm fuzzy’ is nice. The interior Staging and the Contis’ Marketing got us full price in six days.”

~ Homeowner Willy Sagun  

Ginger says the main mistake sellers make is spending too much on remodeling.  

“Time and money would be better spent on assessing and attacking the most important things, like staging the front of the house,” she says. “People are relieved they don’t have to do what they thought they had to do.”  

Ginger say the three most important areas of the house that she tackles are the kitchen, the living room and the master bedroom. She also focuses on the front of the house. “Curb appeal,” says Paul, “is not just the landscaping. It’s what they see through the window.”  

"Professional Staging (Makeover) invites people to consider the possibilities. Our home sold in seven days for full price!”

~ Don and Diane Holmes

Ginger just did a makeover on Ron and Gail Price's home who are trying to sell their home in San Jose. In 2004, they had the Contis list and stage a previous home, which sold in three days. Three days after their current home was staged, they had six offers. Ron Price said Ginger asked them to clear out some clutter and clean, and then she came by with decorations like plants, lamps and pictures, and spruced up the house, making it feel lighter.  

“We felt like we wanted to buy it ourselves,” Price said. “It feels like you walk in the door, and you just say ‘Wow!’ That’s what you really need. You got that, and you’re one step ahead.”  

Before the hands-on makeover, Ginger will go through it, and typically will ask people to remove some items, clear some clutter and clean up a bit. She’ll take notes and then pick from among her supplies the items she thinks would enhance the house. Ginger and Paul will bring the items over, then Paul and the homeowners will leave Ginger alone to transform the house.
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“For the most part, people are receptive to the changes,” Ginger says.  

“Out of the 480-some houses I’ve done, we’ve had resistance only a couple of times. People want to know exactly what I’m going to do, but I really need to give them an idea of what I’m going to do. A lot of times they’ll take things out, and it’ll look different than what I even expected.”

Sometimes Ginger has to do a lot of work to make a home look palatable to potential buyers. One home had what Ginger Conti referred to as the “Black and White Disco Kitchen.”  

She says it had what looked like hand-sawed cupboards with rough edges, poorly done black-and-white tiling and black-and-white checkerboard linoleum. Plus, she say the owner insisted that the curtains he had hung must stay. And there was no eating area in the kitchen or anywhere else in the house. Ginger brought in beige curtains, area rugs and a table and chairs, which she set up as a dining area in one corner of the living room.  

Another home she had to tackle had no real definition between rooms, and there was a platform in the middle of the house, which was set up as a dining area, with half walls around it that blocked the view to the kitchen.  

“It looked like a stage,” Paul says.  

They couldn’t do much about the platform, but Ginger hung pictures around it in the dining area, brought in plants and set up an actual living room and family room. 

In the third house, Ginger had to make it look appealing to potential buyers who were driving by. (Paul said people were just driving by the house, looking at it from the outside, and driving off.) The owners had removed a lot of their personal items from inside, and outside, it had white rocks, closed curtains, no flowers or plants and was, in general, very cold-looking. Ginger brought some plants in planters from the back to the front, hung a wreath on the door, opened the curtains and put a nice setting in the window. A few other touches later, and the house looked so different that a neighbor came over and asked the owners if they had done some landscaping. 

Ginger explains it this way. “After the accessories and furniture are in, the candles are lit and the pre-selected music is turned on, making the house ready for potential buyers. I want to help them picture themselves living there.” 

“The bottom line we end up selling homes in an 18-day or less average, and the seller saves time and money and get top dollar—often above the full asking price. Why would anyone pass this up?” 

Call today for your appointment. 408-691-7700  

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