Archive for August, 2008

(photo by woolloomooloo)

Presidio’s Too Far? Hike the Faux Trail [Curbed SF]

SF Gate: Neighborhood Homes Sold (8/24/2008) [SF Gate]

Surviving the Bad (And Other People’s Foreclosures) in San Francisco [Socketsite]

Fresh Price Reductions (8/19/2008) [San Mateo Home Sellers In Trouble: Bay Area Real Estate Bubble]

Homestead, San Mateo Market Update [Call Vicki! San Mateo Real Estate Blog]

Understanding RE Web2.0 - btw Where are my meds? [Bloodhound]

A second straight good-news post: New home sales rise, too [Property Crossroads]

SEPTEMBER 13-14, 2008

HOME TOURS TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE
VIP WEEKEND PACKAGE ON SALE NOW!

L-R:Terry and Terry Architecture, Choy Residence; Walker Warner Architects, Wurster Renovation/Addition; Kwan Henmi Architecture/Planning, Arterra

AIA San Francisco’s popular San Francisco Living: Home Tours weekend is the first tour series of its kind in the Bay Area to promote a wide variety of architectural styles, neighborhoods, and residences—all from the architect’s point of view.

The annual program provides design enthusiasts and the general public with an inside look into the world of distinctive residences in San Francisco. Projects are showcased with the designer(s) via an open house format, and tour participants have the opportunity to see continue

I watched this last night and thought this is a pretty accurate update for our bay area real estate. Despite the media reports, we in the bay area are still going pretty strong. This video update is by Ginger Wilcox of Blog by the Bay

It’s always cool to get these in your inbox. It certainly has REALLY brighten my day!

LinkedIn Recommendations

Melissa Casciato Roybal has endorsed your work as Owner, Principal Designer at Staged4more Home Staging & Redesigns.

Details of the Recommendation: “Cindy is a wonderful Home Stager, but that is not what makes Cindy an exceptional person to work with. Cindy is punctual, amicable, creative, inventive, and flexible. She takes her business very seriously, and it shows. Her follow up is impeccable. The first time that we hired Cindy for one of our listings, the home showed so well that it was sold for $114,000 over asking price in May of this year in San Francisco.”

Service Category: Home Staging

Year first hired: 2,008 (hired more than once)

Top Qualities: Great Results, Personable, High Integrity

WOOHOOO!

I recently got an invite from California Home + Design for their Green Issue launch and a private reception since I got a brief editorial in their mag couple years ago . But I didn’t realize this until I get my Room & Board newsletter that there is a public tour!

This definitely is a must-see.

Proving that great design and green design can happily coexist, Mike McDonald and Jill Martinson built the country’s first new home to be both LEED-H certified and GreenPoint Rated. We’re always looking for more ways to spread the word of responsibility, so when they visited our San Francisco showroom looking for furnishings that combined style and sustainability, we were more than excited to be a part of it.

The house features a host of innovative practices like solar power, in-floor heating and a living roof. To see these green strategies first hand, you can tour the Margarido House on September 6 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Margarido House is located at 5950 Margarido Drive, Oakland, California.

To learn more, visit [Room & Board's] San Francisco store for a special exhibit August 22 - September 7 on the home’s construction and the local partners who helped make it possible—including Heath Ceramics, Chris French Metal and Concreteworks.
Step inside this remarkable home

[per Room & Board e-newsletter]

When Bill Cliton saw Monica Lewinsky, he thought “hmm, I can cross that line, because I am the President!” Obviously, an impeachment trial later and many months of public humiliation, he finally admitted: “Yes, I did have sexual relationship with Monica.”

Well, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

Through my life, I have learned that I can’t be all things to all people. If I can be all those things to all people, I will be a very unhappy and tired person. It’s difficult to please everyone! If I followed my parents’ wishes, I would become a doctor and a lawyer and a financial banker, married to some guy, have 2 kids, 1 dog and live at their house. Scary thought, isn’t it??

Similarly, as professionals, we can’t be all things to our clients. As much as I would love to make more money, I can’t paint my clients’ walls, landscape their yards, or power-clean their houses, etc. Why? Sure I can, I can hire couple guys to do it. BUT, are the end results are going to be as good as the jobs done by professionals? By doing everything for clients to “save” them money, is this the best for MY client? No, I think not. My clients hire me to stage their houses well so the listings will sell, not to do all these other things. Ultimately it will be much cheaper and cost effective to have the job done well by professionals who are pros in their fields. That’s why I leave the painting to the painters. They know how to deal with different textures of the wall, and how different types of paint affect the overall effects. Well, I don’t. I just know what color looks good. Application of the color is a total different story. Similarly with landscaping or cleaning, I will never landscape or clean as well as professionals who do this EVERYDAY. I have a black thumb, I have even killed cactus.

As a professional, I intend on doing what’s best for my clients, not what I can do “okay” for my clients. That’s why I am skeptical when I see ads of cleaning companies or furniture companies start offering staging as part of their services.
I also hear this a lot from sellers & agents “I can totally stage the house myself, I watch HGTV.” I also get a lot of calls from agents: “Um, my clients staged their house and it looks terrible. What can you do?” Just because I watch food channel, it doesn’t mean I can do whip out a 8-course meal like Bobby Flay. The professionals who work on these TV shows have a lot of trainings and professional experiences, and that’s why they are good at what they do. True, staging is not rocket science, but there are still some finesse to it.

A fellow real estate blogger and a realtor Jessica Wynn Horton shared similar sentiments on her post at Bloodhound: continue

I’m wondering what your day is like?
My day to day is very different. It’s like snowflakes, no 2 days are alike. On days when I am doing installations, my call time starts at 7am to pull inventory, or the night before to pack everything up. With bigger jobs I tend to rent a box truck, which means it’s extra hours to pick up and return vehicle. Typically I spend 5-8 hours on job site with 1-2 assistants. That does NOT include prep time and clean up time after we return to warehouse.

On days when I don’t have installations, I have things range from appointments to visit home owners for consultations, meeting with potential vendors, meeting realtors, networking events, to admin work like invoicing, billing, writing, researching, working on expanding my business, marketing, continue education, cleaning inventory, cataloging inventory, moving furniture, shopping for new inventory, working on current trends, reading, LOTS of things to do.

I typically work 6-7 days a week, ranging from 6-12 hours per day.

And how you feel the market is doing?
Market is market, there will be hot times and cold times, busy times and slow times. It’s cyclical, just like any business. Like ice cream truck does better in summer than winter, or coats are more popular in winter. We have ups and downs as well in real estate. The market timing depends on where you are in the country. In San Francisco bay area, the market continue