“BEST STAGED PLANS”

As you know, I eat, sleep and breath home staging and interior design.  I guess that’s not enough.  I will now have to be entertained by what sounds like a good book.

The buzz in the home staging world is a new book by Claire Cook called “Best Staged Plans”. 

RESA (Real Estate Staging Association) posted “Home Staging Hits Amazing New Novel, Order Today!”

According to the Amazon.com review:

“As a professional home stager, Sandy Sullivan is an expert at transforming cluttered rooms into attractive houses ready for sale. If only reinventing her life were as easy as choosing the perfect paint color. She's eager to put her family's suburban Boston home on the market, to downsize, and to simplify her own life. But she must first deal with her foot-dragging husband and her grown son, who has moved back home after college to inhabit the basement "bat cave."

After reading them the riot act, Sandy takes a job staging a boutique hotel in Atlanta recently acquired by her best friend's boyfriend. The good news is that she can spend time with her recently married daughter, Shannon, in Atlanta. The bad news is that Shannon finds herself heading to Boston for job training, leaving Sandy and her southern son-in-law, Chance, as reluctant roommates. If that's not complicated enough, Sandy begins to suspect that her best friend's boyfriend may be seeing another woman on the side.

Filled with characters who are fresh and original, yet recognizable enough to live in your neighborhood--plus plenty of great tips and tricks for fixing up houses, and lives--this is a wise and witty story of letting go and moving on. Best Staged Plans is Claire Cook at her most humorous and heartfelt.”

I just placed my order.  Stay tuned for my book review!

Dwell in possibilities

Cindy

The “Put It on the Market” Myth

On occasion, certain Realtors (not usually the successful Realtors I describe in “to be continued”) will advise their home selling clients to just put the house on the market and then if it doesn’t sell in a month or two, stage the house.  I call this the “Put It on the Market” Myth.

My assumption is that if the seller balks at the cost of professional home staging, then the Realtor offers this wait-and-see advice.  Or, possibly, the Realtor is skeptical about the value of home staging. 

Either way, this advice always baffles me. 

Why suggest that a home seller lose the advantage of impressing every potential buyer?  The maxim that you are never given a second chance to make a good first impression truly applies to the real estate process.  If you want to make this house stand out from the competition, why are you waiting to make that happen?  How many missed opportunities have walked in and turned around never to return?  How many Realtors have seen this house and will be hard to convince to bring their buyers back again?

As every Realtor knows, there is an initial flurry of activity when a house first goes on the market.  This flurry includes Realtor tours, open houses, and advertising.  If this house does not show well during the initial flurry of activity, it is quite likely it will not get shown again.

While I recognize that the cost of home staging can appear to be significant to some sellers, my strong belief is that it is more of an investment to be returned when the house sells quicker and for a good price. 

My guess is that these “Put It on the Market” Realtors do not understand or do not really believe in the value of professional home staging. 

My hope is that those Realtors find ways like “to be continued” to learn more and become believers in the value of home staging.  My plan is to keep proving the value of home staging so that it becomes “the standard” for home sales in our area as it is “the standard” in areas like Atlanta, Minneapolis, Chicago, Dallas and New York City. 

Every day I demonstrate the possibilities of professional home staging.  It can make a huge difference and usually does.

Dwell in possibilities

Cindy

Friday Treat - Staged Home / Designed Office

Happy Friday!  Today, we use real projects to demonstrate the difference between home staging and interior design. 

We keep making the point that the ultimate goal of home staging is to make a house buyer friendly – appealing to as many buyers as possible.  The corollary is that the ultimate goal of interior design is to make a home Smith or Jones friendly – comfortable, functional and reflective of their personal taste. 

A real sticking point with some sellers is that they resent having to take their personality out of the house to appeal to as many buyers as possible. 

A real life case in point is Dr. K.  Our first experience with this client was to restyle, update and stage her home in order to put it on the market for sale.  Dr. K and her husband followed all of the advice of my Realtor partner and me by updating their kitchen and bar area with new granite and backsplash, painting the entire interior of the house and installing all new carpeting.  Their goal was to make their house totally competitive with new construction.

Dr. K has definite bold tastes in colors artwork and her home reflected her personality.  We needed to make her home buyer friendly which meant that her fantastic Native American artwork, bold colors and music memorabilia needed to be removed.  After several conversations, she understood intellectually that her house was now a product to sell and not her home.  She was a good sport, but this was not easy for her.  By the way, she affectionately refers to me as the “house rapist”. 

You can see the results of this restyling, updating and staging project at http://www.transitions-home-staging.com/Camelot-Court-Staging-1.html .

It is worth noting that Dr. K’s house sold in about 1 week for their premium price.  The buyer was heard remarking to his family that “it doesn’t get any better than this”.

The second project came about when Dr. K wanted my assistance in designing her new office space.  In this case, my goal was to not only make her space pleasant and comfortable for her patients but to reflect her personality, interests and style.  There was no question that it had to be “Dr. K Friendly”. 

Dr. K loves purple! So we implemented “eggplant” with some beautiful shades of gray and taupe in the design of her new office space and furniture.  She and I picked out some original Native American prints from her collection to complement and accent the color palette.  Then, we accessorized to reflect her style and personality in the waiting room; patient rooms; and, her personal office.

You can see shots of her waiting room in the accompanying photos. 

While she was pleased with selling her house quickly and for a premium price, she loved, loved, loved her new office!  Her staff also enjoys working in this fresh, light and comfortable space.  Dr. K tells me that she receives great feedback from patients, administrators and other doctors who visit her space.  It has been most gratifying to me to have folks stop and tell me how much they love her new office and what a great job I did in capturing Dr. K’s personality!

It is not often that I have the benefit of staging and designing space for the same folks.  In this case, my Realtor partner and I saw the possibilities in updating and staging the house so that it competed with new construction for all of the right reasons – and it did.  Then, I was able to help Dr. K see the possibilities with an office space that was unique and still reflect her style, interests and tastes – and it did. 

Dwell in possibilities

Cindy

For Realtors’ Only - Benefits of Professional Home Staging

The majority of our focus in “to be continued” has been about convincing home sellers to have their house professionally staged.  Today, I look at the benefits of home staging from the perspective of the Realtor.

Like the home seller, Realtors also want their listings sold quickly and for the highest possible price.  In a Real Estate Staging Association (RESA)  study, staged houses sold in about three fourths of the time as the same house when not staged (See the full discussion in the April 4^th posting).  The Realtor clearly benefits when a professionally staged house delivers those results.  There are fewer marketing and advertising costs invested in that listing and the Realtor receives the maximum commission.

Home staging delivers other benefits to the Realtor partner:

·         The professionally staged house appeals to as many buyers as possible.  Gone are the days when you could stick a “For Sale” sign in the yard and sell the house.  Now, you need lots of interested potential buyers.  Home staging makes that possible.

·         Photos of a professionally staged house make that house more marketable online.  Those photos pop out and separate this house from the maddening crowd of vacant rooms, distracting clutter, unflattering furniture arrangements and houses that look similar.  Since the vast majority of home buyers start their search online, home staging can be a key enabler to more showings and quicker buyers.

·         The price of professional home staging is much less than the first price reduction (See the full discussion in the March 2^nd posting).  What realtor likes to reduce the price of one of their listings?  There is a benefit in making the relatively nominal investment in professional home staging.

In real estate, success breeds success as potential sellers want to list their houses with Realtors who deliver results – sell houses quickly and for the best possible price.  Successful Realtors use everything at their disposal (especially professional home staging) to set their listings apart from the competition for the right reasons.  They dwell in the art of the possible (to borrow from my favorite Emily Dickinson phrase).  And as a consequence, successful Realtors deliver results and gain new clients in the process.

Remember to dwell in the art of the possible!

Cindy

True Confessions – What Happens When the Stager Stages Her Own Home

Enough time has passed - now I can confess about what happened when I staged my own home. 

In early 2010, Walt and I were finally ready to sell my smaller home.  It was the right decision financially but it was also a very emotional process for me.  When I bought this house in 2001, I saw the possibilities in a neglected and sad house.  With lots of hard work, major improvements and creativity, it became my much needed nest and cute English cottage. 

Like every home seller, I wanted to sell my beloved home for a really good price.  I loved my house and wanted every potential buyer to love it too!  Plus, I had the added pressure to stage my house to impress any and every Realtor who walked in its doors.

Walt and I followed the advice of our Realtor partner – we had the house inspected prior to listing it and we fixed all of the identified issues.  We also refreshed the painting in a few key rooms like the kitchen and studio.  It was fine structurally and was very clean and fresh- but then my staging fun began.

In addition to the normal staging tactics (solid curb appeal, clean and crisp rooms, removal of personal photos, clutter-free and easy flow), my obsessive staging nature took over.  I must confess a few of the “over the top” staging tactics that I felt obligated to do before my cottage was listed:

·         Color coordinated the clothes (and hangers) and shoes in the bedroom closets to enhance the wonderful maple wood closet organizing system and bedroom architectural features

·         Polished and cleaned all of the silver and arranged them in the cabinets (over Walt’s complaints as he had that job!) in order to emphasize the elegance and graciousness of the kitchen

·         My once just functional studio became my inspiring dream studio by stepping up how I stored and organized my supplies, fabrics, books and other tools of my trade.

·         What was a storage shed for outdoor tools became a very charming potting shed (even I realized that was over the top but once I got started I could not quit!)

A few of the rooms are illustrated today.  You can also see more by visiting our Transitions website (http://www.transitions-home-staging.com/OsageDesign.html)

There was redemption for my obsessive attention to detail.  My charming English cottage sold on the first day for a premium price.  In the end, the first young couple took over the story of the charming English cottage as I was in my own story in Walt’s and my new home.  We each found new possibilities.

Dwell in possibilities

Cindy