Rented Furnishings Can Help Sell a Buyer

Make no mistake: On the day the "For Sale" sign goes up on thefront lawn, you go into show business.

And I don't mean that as a bad pun. I mean "show business" asin "show biz," as in "lights, camera, action," as in set design andprops. As in, can you get a member of your audience to suspendbelief long enough to see himself or herself in the starring role asthe homeowner?

Indeed, in the cinema of selling your house, the object of themovie is to get the audience into the scene.

The question is, if George Lucas can take a B-movie plot, addspecial effects, and come up with "Star Wars," can you take anaverage house, jazz it up with special furnishings and come up with ablockbuster sales price?

The answer is a resounding "Well, maybe."

Many people don't have the option of keeping their furniture intheir house until it sells. In a corporate relocation, the furniturepretty much has to go when you go.

Likewise in a divorce: Half a houseful of furniture suddenly maybe missing.

The question those people are left with is: "Should I go to thetime and expense of furnishing it until it sells?"

The answer to that is, unequivocally, probably.

"You hear it all the time. `Sell the sizzle.' `Sell the sex,' "said Erling Smedvig.

"You might have a family room. It should be a selling point ofthe house. But all your (potential home buyers) see are slidingglass doors, doors to the closets, the fireplace down at one end.

"Buyers struggle with that. It's hard to see where thefurniture should go or how it would be arranged."

Smedvig, vice president of Brook Furniture Rental in Chicago,one of the largest furniture rental companies in the nation, citesthe real estate axiom that "furnished houses sell faster and betterthan empty houses" as absolutely true.

He'll even go one step further, suggesting that upscalefurnishings could help bring an upscale price, and that downscale . .. well, let's just say your old furniture could result in a lowerprice.

"Sometimes the real estate agent just needs to be honest withthe seller and tell him to either go ahead and move out his furnitureor even put it in storage," Smedvig said.

The point is, your furniture may not project the image you wantthe final sales contract to project. If that's the case, you mightconsider renting something that does.

"And you don't need to rent a whole houseful of furniture,"Smedvig said. "What you want is to emphasize areas that are thespecial selling points of the house."

For instance, once you clear the clutter from that extra room,you may have to reconcile yourself to the fact that it's too smallfor a bedroom but too large for a closet.

"Maybe you put a desk and a chair in it and call it a writingroom," Smedvig said. "Or maybe you have a room that has an awkwardfloor plan and buyers aren't really sure how they'd work with it.

"You might want to rent a loveseat or a sofa and put it there toshow (the buyer) you really can work with the design."

Better furniture rental companies even have designers anddecorators on staff who can help you achieve the look you want.

Renting furniture isn't cheap, but it isn't necessarilyexpensive, either. At Brook, furniture typically is leased for 120days - which you have to pay for whether the house sells on the thirdday or the 119th day - and is renewable on a 30-day basis thereafter.

"My best guess is that for a typical 3-bedroom, 2-bathroomhouse, say 2,000 square feet, it could range from as little as $400to as much as $4,000, depending on what you wanted and how much youwanted."

That may seem steep, but "furniture will help you justify yourprice," he said.

And the numbers really do work. A full-price contract on animpressive $200,000 home with $4,000 worth of rented furiture is abetter deal than a negotiated $190,000 contract with the house empty.

"You want the (potential buyers) to remember something positiveabout the house after they leave. You want to make an impression," Smedvig said.

At the better rental places, you probably can come up with anylook you'd like to have - from French provincial to American modernto Santa Fe sage. And you can fill in the details.

"You can rent a big-screen TV and plug it in. You can get acoffeemaker for the kitchen counter. You can get anything, rightdown to the napkin-holder rings. We'll even throw in a roll oftoilet paper."

The idea is not only to project the image that the house isalive, but that it's vibrant and its occupants are thriving.

The idea is to create just enough theater for the potentialbuyer to see how he or she could live in the house, whether or notyou've ever lived that way.