REAL ESTATE
54
HOME & DESIGN
INVENTORY APLENTY
They collaborate across all business aspects with Buckley
taking most of the staging responsibilities and Kennedy concentrating
on style and design.
“There is a lot to staging a house,” says Buckley, “including
the ability to warehouse and store furniture and accessories.
And keep an inventory that we can pull from easily.” A warehouse
behind the retail space, and an additional warehouse
and shed, give Hazel House approximately 12,000 square feet
of stock to provide availability for any job.
As design partners they have found several ways to utilize
all those furnishings. Most of their staged homes are photographed
by James Northen, working extensively with Indian
River MLS. Those photographs often bring inquiries to buy a
specific piece.
“We’ve sold a lot of art that way, off of online views,” says
Kennedy. But once a piece has been used in staging, they
never return it to the retail floor. And they minimize overexposure
of creative elements.
“We don’t want to be a staging company that uses the same
furniture over and over again,” says Buckley. “We try and
keep it really fresh with every house we’re doing.” A twicea
year warehouse sale helps turn over the inventory and
introduce new trends and styles.
The new retail shop has been an immediate success. “It
just took off, people really responded to it,” says Buckley.
Even before opening on designers row in downtown Vero,
they had interested clients. The business is going so well that
they’re now looking to hire an additional interior designer.
Bob Niederpreum of Premiere Estate Properties recently
used Hazel House to re-design the interiors of a listing for
the exclusive golf community on Orchid Island — a fourbedroom,
six-bath, 5,300-square-foot home on White Pelican
Circle, marketed at approximately $2.1 million. “Kennedy
and Buckley’s designs provided elegant touches that updated
the property,” he says. “It gives my sellers the tools to position
their home in a better light to market it.”
Providing the tools for buyers, sellers and agents to create
elegant interiors or market a home for sale is the model
around which Hazel House is built, and the reason why the
business is flourishing.
TIFFANI BUCKLEY
The living room and dining area, a blank canvas in a 7,000-plus-squarefoot
oceanfront home, ready for staging by Hazel House.
With the help of
staging by Buckley
and Kennedy, the
property sold for
$6,400,000 in 2018.
JAMES NORTHEN