"to be continued " The Transitions Home Staging Blog
Since creating the “to be continued” blog, I’ve been closing each post with the words “dwell in possibilities.” I must confess that I borrowed this phrase from the great poet, Emily Dickinson. I saw her quote and realized that it summed up what I am doing as a professional home stager and interior designer.
I am most grateful to Ms. Dickinson for her insightful and inspiring phrase.
Regardless of the size or price range of a house, my objective is to find the possibilities in that house. I am looking for those unique features of that house and finding possible ways to accentuate them for the potential buyer. I am analyzing those unusual spaces that buyers find difficult to understand upon first glance and finding possible functional uses for those spaces.
In the end, my mission is to help the potential buyer see how they could dwell in the possibilities of this house!
Monday, June 22, 2015
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Just Saying
One of my Realtor
partners was chosen as the listing agent by a home seller because she provides
the services of a professional home stager (yes, she uses me!!). This seller believes in the value of home
staging and wanted to list with a Realtor who did as well.
This savvy seller was so excited when we met for our
consultation. She and her daughter met
me at the front door with pen and paper in hand. We proceeded through each room, rearranging
furniture and artwork. She made a list
of the additional work to be done after I left as well as a list of the
accessories I recommended that she purchase.
This savvy seller was
so open to my instructions and recommendations – she did every single thing
that I asked of her. She called me
later that afternoon with a question about a purchase I asked her to make. During that call, she told me again how much
fun she was having.
Not only was her staging experience fun, it had a very, very
positive outcome – and the goal of every house sale. The
great news for my Realtor partner and her savvy seller is that they had seven
showings on the first day of the listing with two scheduling follow up
appointments for the following day.
By the way, this house had a contract in 3 days!!
You can draw your own conclusions. I am just saying that the perfect
combination of a savvy seller, proactive Realtor, fantastic online photos and
professional home staging delivered quite desirable and hard to beat results.
For the savvy seller, the cost of home staging is an
investment in selling their house quicker and for the best possible price. For this particular savvy seller, it was also
a fun experience and opened up lots of possibilities for her family!!
Dwell in
possibilities
Cindy
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Imagine These Thought Bubbles
Imagine these internal conversations.
“It
is my first date. I don’t need to worry
about my clothes or grooming. I will
just show up and he/she will fall in love with me.”
“My college graduation/church directory picture will work just
fine on Match.com. No one pays attention
to the pictures any way.”
“It
is just the initial job interview. I don’t
need to fix the hole in my shirt or have my suit pressed. I will make those repairs after I get the
job.”
Sounds
pretty absurd – doesn’t it. And yet, are
those thought bubbles any different than these?
“We
are going to put the house on the market for a month or two and see what
happens.”
“We
don’t need a professional photographer for our online photos. Our shots are good enough.”
“We
don’t need to replace or clean the damaged carpeting; wash the windows; paint
the red bedroom, etc. We can do that
after we have an offer and are preparing to move”
There
is another set of thought bubbles you can also easily imagine if you are in the
real estate business.
“Not
much to see in these pictures. No sense
wasting our time there. Let’s look at the
next online MLS listing that fits our criteria.”
“This
house does not compare well with the other houses we’ve seen. I think they just put a For Sale sign out and
expected it to sell.”
“Too
many problems, too many repairs. I am
not interested in buying a house with projects.
I want move-in ready.”
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 when 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?
§ Do
we think that potential buyers will overlook obvious repairs and problems just
because you might be willing to fix them later?
The answer to these questions is very simple
–it is very important that our house
look its best when a buyer visits. It
needs to be “show ready”.
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.
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.
Remember
to dwell in possibilities!
Cindy
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Just the Facts - Less than First Price Reduction
We often make the claim that the cost of
professional home staging is less than the first price reduction. Today, we prove that it is more than just
home staging marketing fluff.
Just look at the facts.
Just 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 $250,000 house equals $12,500.
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.
In the CORT example, the average cost of home staging was $4,700 and likely involves renting
their furniture. The CORT figure is higher than my average vacant staging engagements
but comparable to staging in other parts of the country.
Using these figures, the cost of home staging would be less by $7,800
(or a whopping 62%) than the first price reduction of $12,500.
It is hard to argue - the price of professional home staging is significantly
less than the first price reduction.
The savvy seller and
proactive Realtor also recognize that
the cost of home staging is an investment in selling their house quicker and
for the best possible price –without
having to reduce their price. They
completely understand the reality that their
house is competing with what potential buyers are seeing on TV and in the
magazines as well as with professionally staged houses in their market.
I recognize that it can be a tough sell
to convince a seller to invest in professional home staging. Maybe today’s facts can help them better understand
the possibilities.
Dwell in possibilities!
Cindy
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Help a Seller Out: 5 Tips Buyers Would Give Sellers If They Could
We found this article in one of our news feeds. “Help a
Seller Out: 5 Tips Buyers Would Give Sellers If They Could” was written by Tara-Nicholle
Nelson, a San Francisco area real estate broker, attorney, speaker, author, and
publishing/media entrepreneur. And it is
chocked full of deep insights and great ideas.
Here is Tara’s list of buyers’ tips for sellers:
1.
You should see what your home looks like
online. No, really
2.
If your home is seriously overpriced,
I’ll wait for the price to come down before I even come see it.
3.
There are a whole lot of fish in the sea
- I only have to find one.
4. If I nitpick your
house, that probably means I like it.
5. When it comes to staging, the bar is high. Really high.
As you can imagine, I just love what she has to say about home staging.
“HGTV. Houzz. Architectural Digest. All these
outlets which constantly publish beautifully designed and decorated homes have
influenced what the average American expects their home to look like - and
yours, for that matter. Additionally, all the do-it-yourself publications and
shows along with the advent of home improvement stores which double as DIY
design emporiums have given everyday people of modest means the power to live
in beautiful and functional homes, without breaking the bank.”
“Beyond all this, professional home staging
has taken off in recent years, as data has repeatedly shown that staged homes
sell faster, for more, and more certainly than homes that are not staged, nor
well-prepared by their owners.”
“So not only is
your home competing with the homes buyers are seeing on TV and in the
magazines, it is also competing with professionally staged homes for sale right
in your own neighborhood - homes that the very buyers who will come to see your
home will also have seen, possibly right before or after they view yours!”
This article
appears in Tara’s blog at http://www.trulia.com/blog/taranelson/ As if
you already didn’t need a reason to check out Tara’s blog, she also has an
article titled “Help A Buyer Out: 5 Tips Sellers Would give Buyers if they
Could”.
I plan to go back regularly
to see what Tara has to say about our business.
I can only imagine the possibilities.
Dwell in possibilities
Cindy
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