WCCO Feature on Showhomes

Home Managers Could Help Your Home Sell Faster
Reporting
Darcy Pohland
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ―

http://www.showhomesminneapolis.com/With the housing market in a slump, home sellers are looking for new ways to stand out and some are turning to house managers to transform their properties.

House managers basically take staging to a whole new level, by turning ordinary homes into model homes.

Realtor Mike Strand showed off a Minneapolis townhouse that has three bedrooms, four bathrooms and costs $600,000.

"This home went on the market in late August, around Labor Day, so it's been on for about four months," he said.

For most of that time, the house has been empty.

"While we can see all the promises that this property holds, buyers have to have a little help envisioning themselves in the property," Strand said.

Realtors decided to give potential buyers a better look by hiring a home manager to take the place from stark to show-stopping.

"We create a model home atmosphere," said Showhomes owner Cindy Montgomery. "That manager will live in the property, they maintain the property and keep the home in a show-to-sell condition seven days a week, 12 hours a day."

"This is my third move in three months," said home manager Jamie Shock.

In the past five days, Showhomes redesigned the living room of the townhouse, adding paint and the home manager's furniture and accessories.

"Sometimes you have to purchase more, sometimes you don't and sometimes you have exactly what it needs to fit the property," Shock said.

The dining room and kitchen, which once were bare, now have flair. A generic spa bathroom is more luxurious and the bedrooms are more relaxing.

Each home manager has different styles of furniture for different types of homes.

Home managers aren't paid for the service but they get highly reduced rent to live in the property and make it appealing to potential buyers.

"Turn the lights on for showings and make sure music is playing," Shock said. She also bakes cookies for each showing.

The fee to the seller is three-quarters of a percent of the list price of the home at the closing. For those anxious to sell, it's a small price to pay.

The average Showhomes property sells in two to three months. In one case, a home on the market for three years sold in one day after it was transformed.

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• showhomes
• home
• staging
• cindy
• montgomery