Dates, Job Interviews, or Selling Your House – Is There Any Difference?

When we are getting ready for a date or a job interview, we make sure that we look our best (that is if we want a second date or the job).  Typically, we are properly groomed and wearing one of our better and appropriate outfits.  We want to impress our date or the person doing the job interview. 

Why should it be any different when we decide to sell our house? 

§  Do we think that our house should not be cleaned and groomed or outfitted as well as we get ourselves ready for a date?

§  Do we not think that the importance of how our house looks is any different than the importance of how we look for a job interview? 

The answer to these questions is very simple –it is very important that our house look its best when a buyer visits. 

Remember – you are never given a second chance to make a good first impression.  If the house is messy, cluttered, or confusing to the potential buyer, odds are they will not be back and you lost a sales opportunity. 

In its simplest terms, home staging involves making sure your house is cleaned, groomed and properly outfitted.  When I stage a house, I make sure that it is ready for its first date with every prospective buyer.  And the results speak for themselves.

Remember to dwell in possibilities!

Cindy

“How to Make Love to Your House”

As you can see in the “all about me” portion of this blog, our company, Transitions Home Staging, L.L.C. is an affiliate of Center Stage Home (http://www.centerstagehome.com).  We received our training and accreditation from this wonderful company that was founded by Lori Matzke, a pioneer in the home staging industry. 

Lori has spent years in the interior design and home staging industry as a trainer, columnist, contributor and author.  She has imparted much knowledge and valuable support to me as well as being a great mentor over the years.  Walt and I were privileged to spend some time with Lori again this summer in her hometown of Minneapolis.  We did training and hands-on staging during the day and then picked her brain in the evenings.

In addition to the Center Stage Home website, Lori has a fun and clever blog entitled “How to Make Love to Your House”.  Just this week, her blog followers got turned on to some finds like the Luxe upholstered chair from Land’s End Country , a canopy bed she found on etsy.com and natural weave drawer and shelf liner from the containerstore.com (my order has been placed).

I don’t know about you, but I love it when someone else wades through the catalogs and websites and finds the deals and information.

“How to Make Love to Your House” promises to cover all sorts of lifestyle topics.  I think it will deliver………

Check out Lori’s blog at www.howtomakelovetoyourhouse.com.  You will like her slant and taste.  

Remember to dwell in possibilities!

Cindy

Cost of Professional Home Staging – Less than First Price Reduction

In yesterday’s blog, I raised the idea that the cost of professional home staging is much less than the first price reduction after a house has been on the market. 

Let’s look at the facts.

·         Using figures provided by CORT, the world’s largest provider of rental furniture, we can imagine a very conservative first price reduction of 5% on a $225,000 house which equals $11,250.  This conservative assumption is supported by the National Association of Realtors which cites a 10% lower sales price associated with more than 24 weeks on the market. 

·         The average cost of home staging in the CORT example was $4,700 and likely involves renting their furniture.

·         Using the CORT figure, the cost of home staging would be less by $6,550 or 58% than the first price reduction of $11,250. 

Realtors can provide their own calculations based on local conditions to this formula.  My guess is that the result will be the same - the price of professional home staging is much less than the first price reduction. 

Plus, home staging helps sell the house more quickly.  We have numerous examples of Transitions staged houses that sold within the first week or two after being staged such as the Peppergrass and Manor homes featured today. 

You can also see more examples of how we transform houses into homes at our Transitions Home Staging website – http://www.transitions-home-staging.com/.

And who can put a price tag on the value of selling your house quickly and moving on to the adventure of settling into your new home. 

Dwell in possibilities!

Cindy

Professional Home Staging – An Investment and Not Just a Cost

Quality home staging by an experienced trained stager costs money!  For most houses, the home staging cost range can be from an hourly rate for a consultation to $3500 or more for the full staging of a vacant house. 

For some sellers, this is viewed as an unnecessary expense.  They are living in the past and expect their home to………just sell.   Gone are the days when you can just stick a “for sale” sign in the yard! 

.For the savvy seller, this home staging cost is an investment in selling their house quicker and for the best possible price. 

The savvy seller and proactive realtor also understand the key benefits of home staging. 

·         They know that it accentuates the home’s best features. 

·         Home staging provides a nice, easy and consistent use of space and movement. 

·         They recognize that a professionally staged house appeals to as many buyers as possible. 

·         Most importantly, home staging helps sell the house quicker and for the highest price possible.

·         Another hidden benefit is that the price of home staging is much less than the first price reduction.

And don’t forget, a professionally staged house dramatically improves the pictures for the online listing (that subject is a blog for another day).

Let us know if we missed any other important benefits of professional home staging by commenting on this blog.

Dwell in possibilities!

Cindy

Welcome – “to be continued”- the Transitions Home Staging Blog

Welcome to the newest and latest of Transitions Home Staging LLC – our blog! 

We have titled it “to be continued” because we want to share the many conversations, ideas, and insights that we experience in our home staging business.

In this blog we plan to

·         Share with realtors and home sellers the insights we learn and the innovations we develop that help get a home sold for the best price and as quickly as possible. 

·         Pass along helpful (and sometime entertaining) experiences we have in staging homes. 

·         Promote the value and benefits of home staging. 

·         Get your reactions to what we share in this blog and answer your questions about home staging.

In other words, we want to give you (as a Realtor or a home seller) another tool to get things sold.

“to be continued” also has another meaning.  Each house is a story with every owner providing a wonderful chapter full of dreams and experiences.  When a person sells their home, they give another person the opportunity to continue the story of the home with dreams and experiences. 

Home staging helps buyers imagine living in that house and making it their home. 

I love this quote from John Tuck which also explains why I love home staging and design – “Your home is the one dream you can actually walk into.”

We hope you join our conversations about home staging by checking out the continuing saga “to be continued” and by adding your ideas and perspectives to our postings.

Dwell in possibilities!

Cindy