Broker Spends $6,000 To Attract Buyers to Apartment

Drawn to the apartment at 60 Gramercy Park North by the exclusivity of the area and the charm of the building, broker Jacky Teplitzky was faced with a challenge. Here was a golden opportunity – a $2 million pre-war cooperative in Gramercy Park with great bones – but after 30 years with the same elderly tenant, the apartment was a mess with dark walls, an orange formica kitchen, and bathrooms that haven’t been renovated since the Hoover administration.Because so much work needed to be done to get the empty apartment into selling shape, Ms. Teplitzky did something unusual in the world of real estate: She split the cost of sprucing it up. The owner paid for the painting and floors, while Ms. Teplitzky rented furniture and hired architects to draw up alternative floor plans. She expects to spend at least $6,000.Even more unusual, instead of hiring a professional to stage the apartment, a growing trend of temporarily decorating available properties to appeal to buyers, she decided to do it herself. “People tell me I have good taste, and I have a good eye for what the buyer is looking for,” Ms. Teplitzky said.Still, staging has its limits. While its purpose is to stimulate the buyer’s imagination, sometimes the power of suggestion can be a bit off-putting.A potential buyer being shown the apartment by Ms. Teplitzky’s partner at Douglas Elliman, Alexandra Bellak, said he had looked at rental apartments last year, and the model units helped him visualize what the rooms would look like when furnished. But, he said, at the same time, if done wrong, staged rooms can be a deal-breaker.The potential buyer recalled model furniture that was “either too big for the space, too retro, or too modern. Or there was a painting or something that could put you off. Or a bad rug,” he said, stepping over the questionable looking brown area rug in the foyer.Even more important than the overall look is the sense of scale, to get an idea of what size furniture would fit in the room, said a staging professional, Deborah Novick. As a partner at the company Showcase Your Space, she transforms homes and apartments in Manhattan, Westchester, and Fairfield County. Ms. Novick said while it is uncommon for brokers to stage their own properties, it’s not unheard of, noting that staging is not for every broker. “Unless they’re good at it, it may not be a good use of their time,” she said.One of three architects interviewed by Ms. Teplitzky, Steven Sivak, said while the floor plan may need work, the furniture was a nice touch. “Empty houses have a hard time selling because people can’t imagine how they will look in them. You could imagine being here,” he said, poking his head into the warm living room.The staging has also increased the interest of potential buyers who have seen the photos on the Internet. Since the rooms were staged, there have been more hits on the Web site, and when buyers come in person, they tend to stay longer, Ms. Teplitzky said.Of the five and a half rooms in the apartment, Ms. Teplitzky staged three of them. She said the empty rooms offer the buyer a chance to start fresh and decorate those rooms in their own taste.For the rooms she did decorate, she brought in furniture worth $3,000 for three months. Ms. Bellak said she is confident the apartment will sell by the time the furniture must be returned.Most brokers would pass on expenses like these to the seller, but, Ms. Teplitzky said, “Sometimes you see something you really like and you go for it.” She added, “I wanted to go the extra mile.”Now, instead of an empty room, the spacious living area looks quite inviting, with a soft peach blanket draped across the arm of a cushy chair. The wood-burning fireplace is cozy with tiers of candles at the base. One can easily imagine flopping into the sage colored overstuffed couch or matching loveseat. The scene looks like someone could be living there now. On closer inspection, though, a piece of fruit carefully placed on top of a novel sitting on an ottoman turned out to be plastic and hollow.Directly opposite the front door, what the brokers believe was once a formal dining room has been staged as a bedroom. Ms. Bellak acknowledges the photo of a happy couple displayed on the bedside table came with the picture frame.Ms. Teplitzky’s unusual undertaking speaks to the apartment’s condition before the staging, her partner says.“It was in vile shape,” Ms. Bellak said. “It was a disaster. Everything looked like the kitchen.”

Broker Spends $6,000 To Attract Buyers to Apartment

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