Business Examiner-July 27/08

Design 2 Sell

By Kolby Solinsky
27/07/08

Stage it, show it, sell it! ... That's the message being sent by Design 2 Sell, the largest furniture staging company in the Lower Mainland that pampers homes for sale to ensure that sellers are best able to show off their product.

"Design 2 Sell was created with the idea that we could help clients to sell their homes faster," says owner Liz Clay. "The experience is visual and emotional – it's that feeling you get when you walk into somewhere new that you really can't describe."

Clay's staging operation gives the home owner two possible routes to choose from. They either can hire Design 2 Sell to redesign and work with the furniture they have, or they can order the full design package, where the company provides partial inventory.

Clay says both options have their advantages and their appeal.

"Most people have nice furniture, they just have no clue where to put it," she says in regards to the first option. "For the [full design] package, we can edit some of your items, or we could do a full empty staging – like a new home construction where we're working from scratch and building up the whole room

The Vancouver area has been into home staging effectively for the last two years, she says, but the industry have become increasingly popular over the past year, especially in the Fraser Valley.

According to Clay, Design 2 Sell has also been able to carve its own niche in the market by providing effective checklists for their customers – whether they are realtors or the sellers, themselves – and carrying their own inventory, which is a unique twist on typical furniture staging companies.

By carrying their own inventory, the company has also been able to undercut the Vancouver market, because they don't have to markup on what would otherwise be rentals.

Clay says Design 2 Sell have typically seen their homes sell in 18 days or less, far below the market standard of 45 days.

And at the end of the day, it's the ends that justify the means.

"We simply give the formula that sells," says Clay. "It's a sizable investment, but . . . when they sit back and reflect on what they want out of [the sale of] this property, the dollar staging cost is next to nothing compared to the return."

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