The number-one question I get asked on a regular basis is: “How’s the market?”

My answer is always one word, boring, and is always the same: “depends.”

It depends on whether you’re a buyer/seller, whether it’s a house/condo, what area, price, size, and most importantly – whether or not the property has been staged…

I know what you’re thinking – “he’s over-selling it.”

You’re thinking, “There’s no way you could point to staging as the all-important factor over things like location and price range.”

Well, that’s why I”m about to write 1600 words on the matter…

The following is a tale of two ladies, who I’ll call Ms. Merton and Ms. Downtown.

Both ladies asked me to list their properties, and both ladies received my most brutally frank assessment of their condos in their current conditions.

One took my advice, and one didn’t.

If you’ve never shopped for a house or a condo before, then perhaps this will fall on deaf ears.  But I firmly believe that a property that shows well compared to one that doesn’t can make a difference of as much as 10-15% of the purchase price.  Does that sound like a lot?  Well, hell yes it does!  Are you telling me that a “well-staged” house can sell for $950,000 whereas the exact same house next door that shows poorly might sell for $825,000?  Yes.  Yes I am.

When you sell a house or a condo, you’re not just selling the property itself; you’re selling a lifestyle.

Why do you think people read Chatelaine and Glamour magazines?  Well, because they like to fantasize about looking like the girl on the cover, wearing the same clothes as the model, buying the watch in the ad, or taking the trip that an article was written about.

I don’t see real estate as being any different.

Many sellers don’t care, and many agents could care less as well.

Many people just “list” a property on MLS and away they go.

But that’s not how you maximize the value of the property.  Buyers don’t pay top dollar for that empty house with no furniture, no character, no warmth, and no lifestyle image.  They’ll pay the top dollar if the house shows like a model – or like something in a magazine.

That’s where I come in, or more specifically, where my stager comes in.

I bring a professional stager into all of my listings as part of my service, and he is just as thorough and brutally honest as I am.  However, as I discovered this week, some sellers don’t want to hear it…

I met with Ms. Merton last week and had a look at her one-bedroom condo, which was a great space but needed a LOT of changes in order to maximize its value.

I started in the living room and said, “These green couches are pretty bad, you know that right?”  She laughed, and admitted, “I didn’t spend any money on furniture when I moved in here and these were FREE!”

I suggested that rather than spend $1,200 to rent a couch and a love-seat for one month (the shortest period most rental companies will allow), she should buy new furniture from a lower-end store like Leon’s.  The furniture would look great for staging purposes, and she’d have brand new couches to take to her brand new condo!

I sourced a couple of items for her that would fit the space and look good in her new condo as well, and the result was this:

How can you go wrong for $499?  This couch is 89-inches long, thus it’s more than your typical “three-seater” despite the two cushions.

Add the loveseat, and a new dining room table from The Brick, and we’re talking under $1,500 all in.

It makes perfect sense to me.

We’re designing a space and making it look like a model suite.

I told Ms. Merton, quite bluntly, “You need to pack up about 70% of the items in this condo and get them out of here.”

Her bedroom closet was overflowing.  I said, “You can’t have a single thing on the floor, and you can only have about 15-20 items hanging from the racks.  You want to show the space!  Nothing on the racks above unless the items are neatly folded.  Get some boxes and get this stuff outta here!”

I pointed to her bookshelf from 1989 – “Get rid of it.”

I pointed to her dresser from 1988 – “Get rid of it.  Your new condo has a walk-in closet and you’ll never use this dresser again.”

Both of those items were on the curb within a day.

I pointed to the TV in her bedroom and said, “When was the last time you watched this TV?  You’ve got a 46-inch plasma in your living room and a 1994 JVC  with built-in VCR in your bedroom.”  She admitted that she hasn’t turned the TV on in two years, and I told her, “Get rid of it.”

She asked, “What about the TV stand?”

I said, “You mean the file cabinet that you’re using as a TV stand?  Get rid of it.”

If it sounds like I’m being harsh, that’s because it’s my job.  I don’t sugar-coat things, and I aim to maximize the saleability and marketability of a property and as a result, maximize the price.

Ms. Merton took all of my suggestions to heart, and within a week, she had cleared out half of her belongings, many of which she admitted that she doesn’t need and should have thrown out in the first place.

The new couches are on the way, as is the $299 five-piece dining room set.

I told Ms. Merton, “See that piece of art – the poster that says ‘1995 Arts Festival’?  Take that down.”  We’ll replace it with something cheap and neutral from HomeSense that we can return within a week – effectively renting it for free!

You don’t want to date the condo in any way, shape, or form.  A 1994 boxed-TV says “old condo” just as a poster with the date “1995” does the same.  And since the condo was built in 2002, why pre-date the property with “1995” on the wall?

I’m amazed at how many sellers leave up their University diplomas!  Not only do they date you and your condo (“this guy graduated in 1992 thus he’s xx number of years old”), but buyers lose focus.  I can’t tell you how many times my buyers have looked at the school, the program, the year, and then said, “My friend Jenny graduated from Western in 2001 as well!  I wonder if she knows this guy…..’Remmy Sinclair.’  I’ll ask her!”

Anything personal – take it down.  Anything with dates – take it down.  Anything that isn’t completely neutral (like your collection of African masks…) – take it down.

Ms. Merton transformed her space from a used-furniture warehouse into a model suite.

Ms. Downtown, however, did not.

I met with Ms. Downtown and before we even had any paperwork signed, I brought my stager through for a consultation.  I was that confident in our relationship and from our discussions that we’d be bringing the property to market together that I went ahead and paid for the staging consult.  Sadly, Ms. Downtown and I won’t be working together, although she did send me a very polite, very respectful email saying that she wanted an agent who was more her “speed.”  I wish her all the best.

But I fear that Ms. Downtown doesn’t fully grasp the task at hand.

Forget for just a moment that her property is in a 30-year-old building, which many people don’t want.

Also forget for just a moment that there was a special assessment in the tens-of-thousands last year, that there was a flood, and that the Board of Directors has undertaken to build three new condominium suites where the gym and party room once stood so that they can add some funds to the severely depleted reserve fund.

Ignoring these massive hurdles, I explained to Ms. Downtown that her condo was a fantastic space, but needed to “show better.”

Along with my stager, we tore through that unit like the Tasmanian Devil, and friend.

I compiled a list of about forty things she needed to do/change/move/repair/clean, and I broke it all down for her in a well-organized email.

Some sellers will fight you tooth-and-nail when you make suggestions on how to “show” a space, and I when this happens, I know right off the bat that there isn’t a lot of synergy.  But as I said – I don’t just throw up a “FOR SALE” sign and call it a day.  If sellers want an agent who does the bare minimum, then they can contact one of the many discount brokers who are popping up in our city and who regularly under-sell properties.

A lot of my suggestions to Ms. Downtown were, as I figured them to be, common sense.  She had about five rugs on the main floor and another seven or eight on the second level, and I suggested that she roll them up and put them in storage.  She didn’t agree.

There was a LOT of artwork in the condo, most of which showed the age of the owner, which is something you don’t want to do when you’re trying to appeal to 100% of the buyer pool and not just 20%.  I suggested that Ms. Downtown remove the seven small pieces of art on the living room wall (which ends up looking like polka-dots in a photos) and replace them with ONE large piece of art that is a little more generic and easy on the buyers’ eyes.

There were stacks of old books that were literally collecting dust that needed to be removed along with the broken-down shelves they were on, as well as bulky end tables, and items that did not help a condo to scream “Buy Me!”

Bottom line: there was a lot of work to be done in order to have this condo show its best, which still would have put it in the C- category.  I hesitate to use the term “gut reno” on a condo, but this was pretty close.  I think it’s a fantastic space, but the property needs work and a low price can only do so much to entice a willing buyer.  You’ve truly got to polish the space to give it some hope of appealing to the masses.

As I mentioned, Ms. Downtown politely declined the use of my services, and pointed to our meeting as the reason.  I can only assume that she didn’t like being handed a page-long “to do” list and being told that the place she calls “home” doesn’t show well.

I understand that some sellers don’t want to lift a finger when it comes time to sell their properties, but as Handsome Dan said in Wayne’s World 2, “Yeh, for sure, work is hard!”

Work is hard.  No doubt.

But isn’t it worthwhile in the end?

If you could maximize the value of your $600,000 asset and get $630,000 for it by spending a few weekends cleaning and organizing, wouldn’t you do that?

Where else can you make that kind of money?