In last year's red hot real estate market, all you needed to do to sell a house in the Bay Area was post a "For Sale" sign at the curb and of-fers came pouring in - usually for more than the asking price.

But home sales slowed early this year, and suddenly real estate has returned to an era when a house actually has to look good to sell.

At first, local stagers - decorators who have honed the art of prettifying homes for sale - worried that the slowing home sales would hurt business, leaving them with warehouses full of furniture, bedding and kitchen gadgets. In-stead, stagers say the slowdown in sales has turned out to be a tremendous boon for business.

Homeowners, eager to make their homes stand out among a glut of inventory not seen in the local real estate market for years, are paying between $3,000 and $35,000 in hopes of attracting an eager buyer.

Indeed, staging - where decorators clear out the family home of all personal effects and bring in tastefully selected sofas, dining room sets and even decorative bottles of olive oils for the kitchen - has been so brisk this year that stagers have, at times, found themselves running out of some accessories and furniture.

Arthur McLaughlin, one of the leading stagers in San Francisco, had to rent more white couches this spring when he ran out of one of his favorite furnishings.

We are busier this year than last year, and I didn't expect it," he said. Where last year agents used stagers to push the price of Bay Area homes farther into the stratosphere, this year, sellers are more concerned about making a good first impression with potential buyers who aren't lacing as much competition.

"Last year, a home that was staged you would get more offers and significantly more money," said Barbara Callan, an agent with McGuire Real Estate. "This year, you really want to showcase a house when you show it."

Contributing to stagers' shortages is that houses are staying on the market weeks and even months longer than they did last year.

In Santa Clara County, for example, the average house that sold this May spent an average of 39 days on the market versus just 18 days in May 2000, according to the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors.

Instead of moving their stock from house to house in a month, stagers say their furnishings and decorations are staying in houses nearly twice as long and sometimes even many months.

The bigger stagers charge a onetime design fee and monthly rental on sofas, dining room tables, chairs, paintings and other accessories.

"The stagers are really backed up. It's hard to get many of them," Callan said.

McLaughlin, an interior designer who was one of the first to begin staging homes 20 years ago, said he's booked three months in advance.

"We even have bookings into the holidays, when things should be slowing down," he said.

Excerpts from the San Francisco Chronicle.