Local Realtors Jacen Crehan and Daniel Coffman started ‘Stages Spaces’ to help home sellers make their house look the very best it possibly can to attract and impress potential buyers.
The pair get homes as ready “for their close up” as set dressers do on Hollywood sound stages. The result is a new and better — and more saleable — version of homes for sale.
Crehan said staging improves the look of the photos and introduces a cohesive look to every room the sellers want staged.
“Just like any other professional, you want to hire the people that do it for a living or do it professionally,” he said. “And we are equipped to outfit a home or stage a home because we have a lot of inventory of decor, furniture and artwork.”
With Staged Spaces and the kind of elevated home staging and styling options they provide, Crehan and Coffman aims to visually create “a story within a space” so buyers instantly connect and feel at home. Keeping a keen eye toward current trends in color, pattern and texture, Staged Spaces will lease out items from their large inventory of home goods and add them to a home so real estate agents, developers and the homeowners fully realize their property’s selling potential.
Typically, when agents or owners list their homes for sale, they encounter mismatched furniture and art.
“What we like to do is we like to come in and look at the space first and see if they need to prepare it for us to come in,” Crehan said. “An empty vacant room will show the best once we’re in. In other words, if we have a chance to stage a completely vacant room like a blank canvas, the finished product will be the best, will look the best, will have the most cohesive look to it.”
By “staging the space,” Crehan and Coffman will set up the home in a way that the agent or homeowner would be able to convince potential buyers to take a longer time to look around. The longer you can keep someone in your home looking around and feeling that home, the better it’ll be for higher offers, Crehan said.
“Well, like a vacant room, for instance. They can go in and be out in what, two seconds? Versus if it’s decorated properly and there’s enough for their eye to look around at, they could be there for three to five minutes in a room,” he said.
As a staging company, Staged Spaces is also feeling the pinch of today’s economy and finding it more challenging to convince homeowners to adequately stage their property. People are a lot less flexible than they were only a year ago, Coffman said, and now they’re servicing a heavier mix of occupied listings and vacant homes, when the business started with mostly staging vacant homes.
“Many sellers, particularly investors, feel this changing market is time to double down on the marketing and stages every room! Projects like this take lots of furniture,” Coffman said. “The other half of our clients are beginning to tighten the purse strings like never before. Projects for these clients have decreased in size. Often clients are trying to hit the $2,500 staging minimum and nothing more. Planning inventory for these two groups is challenging.”
But more than the challenges, Crehan and Coffman look at the “before and after” as the most rewarding aspect of staging homes.
“It’s an impactful experience for not just the buyer, but for sellers too,” Coffman said. “Having your home professionally staged is like asking a designer to do what they want with the place, no input needed. That always results in ‘Ah-Ha’ moments for sellers. They notice how we change the rooms. They pick up on the sofas sitting away from the walls and how large potted trees can improve the interior experience. When the sellers become buyers and move onto their next home they tell us how they’ve incorporated so much of what they picked up from us while staging the last place.”
The whole process of “staging your space” begins with a complementary site visit, when Crehan and Coffman drops by to get to know the seller, the space, and the scope of the project. Once they’ve seen the space, the team develops a unique staging strategy to boost the sales potential of the listing.
After a deposit is collected, the schedule is set for installation, which they generally finish in one day. When the hard part is done, the Staged Spaces team removes their collections and clean, patch, or repair any damage to leave the space perfect for the next owner.
“Helping homeowners achieve top returns and start fresh with new ideas is what we love to do,” Coffman concludes.
In 2019, Staged Spaces staged the Terrace at the Pasadena House of Design that year: the Boddy House at Descanso Gardens in La Canada-Flintridge. After their work, the Terrace featured “a colorful display of old world curiosities and striking modern textiles,” with Crehan and Coffman meticulously selecting visually delicate fabrics “to create a truly luxurious and unique outdoor experience,” according to a description of the project included in the Pasadena House of Design’s handout.
That staging is mentioned among Crehan and Coffman’s notable projects listed on their website, www.stagedspaces.com.
