Wasilla woman stages, sells own home and starts staging business

WASILLA — Alyson Tuomi sells possibilities.

“It’s all about appealing to the broadest amount of buyers,” she said of her business, Set the Scene Home Staging.

March 12, Tuomi was working in a house off Bertha Lane in Wasilla. The seller wasn’t completely sold on hiring Tuomi to stage her home, so she offered to demonstrate the possibilities.

The home has been on the market for six months and the seller has dropped the price $40,000. Now she’s considering hiring Tuomi to stage her home in an effort to sell it more quickly and at a better price.

A new graduate of the Accredited Staging Professional Course created by Barb Schwarz, Tuomi got started staging homes three years ago when it was time for her young family to move to a larger home.

Born and raised in Wasilla, Tuomi said after high school she had big plans to attend the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in California and get a degree in Visual Communications. But her career plans were sidetracked when she fell in love with Justin Tuomi. They have three children together — Eli, Jackson and Abbi.

Shortly after the birth of their third child, Tuomi said they decided to try to sell their house themselves and keep more of the profits.

“I started researching home selling tips and came across information on home staging,” she said. “I researched and found that it is similar to visual communications in that you are putting a product on display and enticing buyers to stop and look.”

She staged their home, two weeks later it sold and the couple turned a profit.

“I was thrilled and know that staging was a big part of that,” Tuomi said. “It’s something I enjoy.”

When she staged her own home, she relied on a book by Schwarz, who came up with the concept of home staging. Tuomi turned to her again when she decided to make a business out of staging homes. She completed a three-day webinar class taught by Schwarz through her Stagedhomes.com website.

Working in a basement bedroom at that Bertha Lane home last Monday, Tuomi said she tries first to use the homeowner’s furniture and decorations before moving in a house full of her own home decorations.

“It’s all about perception when the buyer walks in,” she said.

To that end, she moved a light colored dresser into that Bertha Lane bedroom, raised the blinds, removed the brass footboard from the bed, added a light colored bedspread and placed some complimentary pictures on the wall above the headboard.

The idea is to help buyers imagine their family living in the space, she said. But most people need a bit of help imaging the possibilities.

“Only 10 percent of people can see what it is going to be,” Tuomi said.

Set the Scene Home Staging offers clients a price range of home staging services from verbal and written consultations to full-service staging of either vacant or resale homes, she said.

To compete in the marketplace, Tuomi said houses must be priced right and look better than the other houses on the market.

She said selling a home is no different than selling other products; you must present them to buyers in the best way possible.

“People compare the homes — stage and unstaged,” Tuomi said. “Before buyers decide to buy, they need to mentally move in their own things into a home. If a home has too much or too little in it, it is difficult for buyers to visualize how their own things will look in the home.”

Staging is a tool to prepare a home for sale so it appeals to the largest number of buyers and generates the highest price in the least amount of time on the market, Tuomi said.

“I know that this will help many homeowners trying to sell in this market,” she said.

Tuomi is an Accredited Staging Professional and a member of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals.

For more information, contact Alyson Tuomi at 232-9116, Alyson@setthescenestaging.com or visit setthescenestaging.com.

Contact managing editor Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.