Lisa Hynes’ Stage to Show gets homes ready for their close-up
According to a survey published by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 83 percent of homebuyers”™ agents stated that staging a residential property that is being offered for sale makes it easier for buyers to visualize a property as their future home.
“Buying a house is more than a financial decision. It is an emotional decision as well,” said NAR President John Smaby. “Buyers aren”™t just making an investment in a property. They are purchasing a place to call home, to raise their children, to begin a new chapter or to retire to a new season of life.”
But Lisa Hynes did not need the NAR survey to affirm the value of home staging. As the owner of the Stamford-based agency Stage to Show, Hynes is an expert at taking a home and turning it into a desired commodity through artful interior design and a tasteful mix of furnishing and decorative accessories. And often Hynes pulls a feat of real estate alchemy by spinning sales gold from leaden conditions.
“Sometimes we get houses that don”™t even have good bones ”” they”™re near the train tracks or I-95, or they have problems like flooding in the basement,” she explained. “You really have to get that emotional response to get buyers to go over those problems and say, ”˜Who cares, look how beautiful the house is!”™ ”
Hynes was a former fashion designer who worked with major labels, including Ralph Lauren and Liz Claiborne before she acquired Stage to Show eight years ago when its founder, Gabrielle Shannon, put the company up for sale. Hynes”™ sense of style coupled with a gift for spirited diplomacy helped to endear her with the real estate professionals in Westchester and Fairfield counties ”” especially those stuck with some of the more dreadful properties on the market.
“I”™ll have a broker at the door saying, ”˜Lisa, is it a teardown?”™ ” she continued. “And I”™ll go, ”˜No, here”™s what we”™re going to do. We”™re going to pull all of the shutters off and paint the windowpanes black and paint the front door high gloss and we”™ll tear up the avocado green carpet.”™ We basically flip a house. Anything that has to do with the aesthetic of the house, we”™re responsible for.”
Hynes”™ staging work takes place in homes ranging in price from $1 million to $100 million, and she moves in a mix of custom-made furniture made by a local upholsterer along with luxury items from high-ticket retailers, including Lillian August and Design Within Reach. Stage to Show maintains what Hynes describes as “a huge warehouse with millions of things in it” that can be retrieved for the home staging process, and she often includes her original artwork in the staged homes.
“I paint on the weekends, so I will paint big canvases that go on the wall,” she said. “They often get sold with the house.”
The hardest part in home staging, Hynes observed, is trying to decorate a room with two rival focal points.
“Say that you go into a living room and it has a fireplace opposite the TV ”” how do you set that up without having two sofas in line?” she said. “Or if a fireplace is at an angle in a space ”” how do you determine to position the furniture so that it looks good when you enter the room? It”™s also difficult when a homeowner says, ”˜I”™m not going to paint and I”™m not going to remove my floral drapes,”™ and you have all of these distractions. It never looks clean and bright the way that white walls look.”
But Hynes also knows how to wean a homeowner away from a cherished piece of monstrous furniture so it doesn”™t disrupt her presentation. “Sometimes people are really attached to a sectional they have and it might be green with purple stripes,” she added. “So, I say, ”˜What if we upholster it in one color?”™ And they”™re like, ”˜Oh yeah, and then we can keep it.”™ ”
There are some aspects of the home presentation that Hynes defers from coordinating. She leaves pest infestation, mold remediation, water damage and electrical wiring woes to the certified experts. She also abstains from changing large kitchen appliances, but she does bring her paintbrush to the cooking space.
Stage to Show has gained national attention with home staging work performed on the popular television shows “Property Brothers” and “Million Dollar Listing.” For Hynes, however, the ultimate compliment comes when the prospective homebuyer wants the property and all of the furnishings that she placed in the staging ”“ thus affirming her belief that showmanship and salesmanship go hand-in-hand in the housing market.
“It”™s a little bit of smoke and mirrors ”“ that”™s what all marketing is,” she said.