Archive for March, 2008

Maria Ogneva presents Top 10 Ways to Sell Your Rehab posted at Will the Real Estate Investor Please Stand Up?.

Sandy King presents Home Staging and Mirrors « Writer/Photographer Sandy King’s Weblog www.sandyking.ca posted at Writer/Photographer Sandy King’s Weblog www.sandyking.ca.

Sandy King presents Home Staging - Lighting Tips posted at Writer/Photographer Sandy King’s Weblog www.sandyking.ca.

John Duffner presents $ Sense: Feng Shui versus Home Staging–A Perspective. posted at Ventura County Real Estate Talk.

Cindy Lin presents What Eliot Spitzer Can Teach You About Listing Photos

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of real estate home staging using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

(this is a guest post for 3 Ocean Real Estate Blog)

Unlike Hollywood, sex scandal is not a career launcher for politicians like Eliot Spitzer, now former New York Governor and someone who had single-handedly tanked his own career.

First of all, he is no Paris Hilton. People don’t want to link him with a sex scandal. Second of all, there is a drastic difference between his political image & persona comparing to his exposed image, unlike Paris Hilton who has at least been very consistent in her image as a party girl. So it was not a huge shock that Paris made a sex tape somewhere.

Eliot Spitzer, right, apologised to his family for “private failings” [AFP]

What does that have to do with Real Estate & Listing Photos?

Like someone in the limelight, your listing needs to present a consistent image front and back, inside and out. In a competitive market, your buyers are critical and they will be picking your listing apart. Also with the ease of internet shopping, it is very easy to overlook your listing while someone else’s looks much nicer and easier on the eye.

I see many MLS photos that present an inconsistent story that does not tell the story of the house.

Let’s look at some real MLS photos I recently pulled off the web: (Read the rest of the post over at 3 Ocean)

This is an update rewrite of my previous post: 5 Tips on How Do You Hire a Stager?!

If you run a search on Craig’s List for “staging” under real estate services, several pages worth of stagers pop out. All of them promise to sell your home faster and for more. But are they going to fulfill their promises? How do you know? Do you dare to use your equity to gamble on a stager you randomly found on the web?

Here are 6 tips to hire a qualified stager:

1. Ask for qualifications. But don’t mistake this with the letters behind this person’s name on his/her business card as qualifications. When I was working as a Realtor, although I passed my exams, taken my GRI and e-PRO courses, these letters didn’t mean anything until I was out on the field.

What I mean by qualifications is how much work has this person done in the staging industry? Ask to see resume, portfolio, past before & after pictures (*be sure to ask if the photos are done by the stager and they are not some stock photos from some website. There are many new stagers out there that use stock photos from training schools, as well as copying other experienced stagers’ photos, which is why I watermark every Staged4more’s photos, even the before. Usually a good way to tell is “Oh, tell me about the story behind this picture!”).

Also ask for certifications and continue education if this is important to you.

2. Ask for their professional policies. As a professional, everyone works to their set of guidelines. For example, if you are a bank teller, you follow procedures when a customer shows up at your window. If a customer is doing continue

Fortunately for many people, hiring a lawyer is not something they do often. Many stagers I’ve met are reluctant to meet with an attorney, thinking that they can do everything they need themselves, or that nothing will happen to them that requires hiring an attorney. This is not a phenomenon unique to stagers – it happens across the board in small businesses. Reluctance to hire an attorney is understandable. Many people think that it will be too expensive, or that just by consulting an attorney they’re “jinxing” themselves and inviting litigation to come knocking on their door. Others know they can pick up any Yellow Pages and find hundreds (if not thousands) of lawyers listed, but are afraid that they will randomly pick the worst kind of shyster from the bunch.Not consulting with an attorney in forming your small business and drafting documents can be disastrous, though, and result in expenses far greater than the up-front continue

UPDATES: SOLD OVERASKING $36,000. Closed in 21 days! Sold for $635,000!

Listing Agent: Jenn Davis, McGuire

Telephone: 415.351.4694 / Mobile: 415.812.2340

See the Before & After Staging photos below or check out the nifty slideshow via flickr:

continue

Received a very awesome phone call yesterday afternoon from Melissa Cassiato, the Listing Agent of 121 Wilde, San Francisco, that the property is ready to be de-staged any time because it has SOLD!

I am so very happy for the seller and the agents because I know the seller needs that money to move ASAP. Moreover, it is SOLD! We staged it on 2/29/2008 and contingencies are removed on 3/17/2008. So in less than 20 days, the property has sold in a market that media calls “slow,” with 21 offers, and sold $114,000 more than its asking price. (Listed at $498,000 and sold at $612,000)

That’s a 22.89% increase in selling price and its Return On Staging Investment is 5672.15%!

Staging really provides a win-win-win situation for everyone involved. Not only buyers find their dream home sooner, the seller sells the house sooner and for more money, the agent also gets more commission.

A happy day indeed!

Here are some of the before & after staging photos of this listing, or you can view the slide show via flickr:

This is going to be a great event for budding stagers. I will be there as well, feel free to say hello!

The San Francisco Design Center, in partnership with the Design Trade Resources Association and the Real Estate Staging Association, presents a seminar just for stagers.  Kym Hough, CSP, ASP, will share 10 steps to growing an exceptional staging business.  Hosted by the Henredon showroom, enjoy light refreshments during the seminar and then take a tour of 12 showrooms at the San Francisco Design Center.

Date: March 20, 2008
Time: 1:00 - 4:00 PM
Maximum of 70 guests
Please RSVP to 888.201.8687
Event is free of charge

Tour showrooms include:

Ann Sacks
Couristan
GaulSearson, Ltd.
Henredon Interior Design Showroom
Jalili International Inc.
Lee Jofa Inc.
McRae & Company
Murray’s Iron Works
Policelli Italian Lighting and Design
Provasi
RJ Collections
Tansu