I was browsing the internet today and found The Home Staging Cheat Sheet by US News & World Report that was an interview with one of my staging teacher, Barb Schwarz.

Barb listed out 6 points for sellers that can help them in a sluggish market:

1. Get them inside (curb appeal)
2. Pretend you are camping (clutter)
3. Balance hard & soft surfaces
4. Work in Ones or Threes
5. Decide from the doorway
6. Make your place Q-tip Clean

I want to especially highlight #1, 2, and 6. You only have ONE chance to make a great impression for your buyers, and Curb Appeal is very important. You want to give people a great impression that you have been taking care of your house. So if you see paint peeling off your exterior walls or unruly trees, it’s time to do something about it.

Do: Show a nicely maintained exterior. It gives people a great impression that you have been taking care of it and it’s nice to live in. (photo credit notnek)

Don’t: Show a haunted house (it’s only cool 1 day out of 365 days a year). A house that is ill-maintained on the outside gives people a bad feeling and impression when they first see the house. (photo credit mar52laine)

With #2, we are in the business of SELLING REAL ESTATE and that is your square (more…)

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(photo by ShutterSparks)

I recent took on a client who wants me to redesign her existing home right now but at the same time preparing it for sale 2-3 years down the line. When I suggested green finishes, she was very open to it.

This is why:

a) Green finishes are healthier to live in the home, especially if you have young children and pets. They roll around in those finishes every day on the floor, touching the wall, you want to make sure the finishes are quality green materials that is safe to live in. It’s also better for your installer, they don’t need to breathe in those terrible chemical smells. Moreover, you are not exposed to off-gasing from non-green materials or chemical glue. In typical carpet installation, the chemical glue emits toxic off-gasing for 8 years after it is installed. 8 years!!! Do you want your children or grandchildren to breathe that toxic in for 8 years?!

b) Quality green finishes and materials perform just as well as non-green finishes, if not better. Take the new green fabrics for example, they breath well therefore reduce the chance for skin allergy. They are not processed in chemicals so they are healthier to wear or to sleep in. You are not rubbing those chemicals off your skin that can cause irritations and rashes, you sleep better. You sleep better, you perform better during the day. Not a bad bargain at all.

c) Green finishes increase RESALE value. It’s true. By being more environmentally conscious and by installing green finishes and green appliances, you are reducing the costs to maintain your home, utilities and helping the planet out. With an rapid increase awareness of being green and eco-friendly, using green finishes and materials make the (more…)

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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 (more…)

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I came across an article by Amy Chorew recently and she literally took the words out of my mouth. This is something every seller & agent should know (I took the liberty of highlighting the key points to look at by underlining the text):

What Do Consumers Want?

Every year NAR publishes its Profile of Today’s Homebuyer and Seller and one section focuses on the “Most Valuable Features of Web Sites” – items consumers demand when they are on your web site. Here is the breakdown:

• Photos: 83% [note how Photos are more important than Property Details!!!]
  
• Property Details: 81%
• Virtual Tours: 60%
• Maps: 43%
• Area info: 37%
• Agent info: 31%

NAR says that 96% of consumers start with a property search. If you don’t have a search button predominantly displayed, allowing the consumer to drive the experience they will search somewhere else. A consumer will stay on your web site for just a few seconds if they can’t find what they are looking for.

When they find listings, do you have the featured items above? If not the consumer will eliminate properties from their home search. If they do a search and half of the listings only have one photo, those listings are eliminated immediately.

Do you have more than 10 photos per listing? Even shoe web sites like Zappos has ten photos of shoes. Shouldn’t your listing client at least enjoy the same amount of photos that a pair of shoes does?

Staging is key with today’s photos. Martha Webb author of “Dress your House for Success” says “With all the emphasis on staging, it’s important to remember that preparing a home for market is a process that starts with the basics of cleaning and uncluttering. Clean, clutter-and-odor-free account for 35% of a buyer’s first impression. This can be accomplished in a few hours and at almost no cost. Next, a coat of paint will create a clean, fresh feeling for minimal cost. These simple steps show buyers your house has been well cared for, and that translates into value!”
Just by uncluttering a listing will make your photos more appealing. You listings will have more staying power on the internet. Take time to revisit your listings and the photos. If your photos need help, consider hiring a professional. If you can, investigate a staging course like Certified Home Marketing Specialist and learn the dialog to help the consumer partner with you to make their home look the best it can in photos.

Twenty-four percent of homes sold last year were found directly on the Internet. That means after filtering through home after home the Internet consumer found the actual house they wanted to buy. They called or emailed you and you showed it to them, and SOLD it to them. The first showing for many buyers is happening on line.

New standards of performance are simple. Give the consumer what they want, photos, lots of them. Make sure they can reach you by email, phone or text messaging – in the time and way they require.

Technology can help streamline your communication process and your marketing efforts. Welcome to the new millennium.

Here is the link to the entire article: New Standards for Modern Real Estate Professionals.

When I first started blogging about real estate & staging, it was only a year ago, and about 80% of the buyers start their search first on the internet before they go to the open house. Now, it’s at 96%!!! If another agent tells me that internet presence doesn’t matter, I would think they are insane!

Like Amy said, staging can help to clean up the online presentation dramatically. Moreover, as stagers, we should constantly think what’s the best photographic angles while we stage.

I would love to hear about your thoughts on this article! Do so by commenting in the white blank box below.

Cheers,

Cindy

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I posted my previous post Seller’s Over-Confidence Killed The Deal And His Own Pocket on a real estate community called Active Rain (think of it as myspace for real estate but without the porn) and the lovely Marzena Melby of Counselor Realty.com had a comment that captured the post so well that I think it deserves its own post:

Cindy,

In more than 12 years of my real estate practice I have seen many sellers do this. Whether they are selling themselves or with an agent, they self destruct for many reasons:

• “I set my budget at a minimum of $250,000, I know my house is worth that much, so… $235,000 won’t work at all”
• “I know you told me that we should list at $375,000 but that doesn’t give me any room for negotiation, so I want to start at $425,000″!

I could fill a book with examples of conversations with clients (buyers also (more…)

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I still can’t believe 2007 is already over. A year has changed a lot! Pamela Anderson has gotten married… and err.. divorced. Paris Hilton went to jail. Facebook is now yesterday’s Friendster. K-Fed is actually proven to be the “better” parent than Britney Spears. Oh my my!

And these are the staging “Trends” that need to go with 2007 (These photos were pulled from Redfin’s search. The criteria was set at 90+ days on market. After viewing the photos, it’s not difficult to imagine why these properties stay on market for so long):

10. Terrible View

This is really nothing to write home about. Why feature a terrible view that is full of weeds and a shack? Each listing photo should tell a story, what is the story of this one?

Or what is the use for this photo of the staircase? Does vertigo come with the house?

9. Forgot the Outside Curb Appeal

Right, I understand you are selling a house. What house?!

8. (more…)

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Wednesday Series: Why Staged Homes Don’t Sell. In the series, I am going to cover:

1. What A Well Staged Home Does for a Sale
2. How Listing Agents Unintentionally Sabotage Their Own Staged Listings
3. What is the Seller’s Problem?!
4. How A Stager Can Potentially Kill Your Deal
5. Other Real Estate Professionals’ Play in the Mud Too

Let’s face it. Sometimes we can get a little bit “forgetful” and “blindsided” and completely forgot there are many other professionals involved in a real estate transactions. We are so tuned into our own jobs, we simply forgot there are the others that hold the sale together, and we stagers, too, just another link in the grand scheme of things.

Staging is not a true guarantee of a home sale, as I have covered in the past few Wednesdays since there are many variables that can play into the sale, causing the success rate to be unsteady. ONLY when all parties work together, a sale can be successful.

And when I say party, I mean it’s a party. In a real estate transaction, many people come into the play, not just sellers, agents and stagers. There are loan officers, mortgage companies, inspectors, title companies, appraisers, photographers, virtual assistants, insurance brokers, builders, attorneys, mortgage processors, lenders, property managers, escrow companies, financial planners, and sometimes even tenants.

Here is a flow chart of home selling process courtesy of Brian Block — Northern Virginia & D.C. Real Estate from his blog Selling a Home in Northern Virgina & D.C.: Step by Step Flowchart. Your process may slightly differ in different states, but generally it’s about the same roughly. You still have to go through so many sets of hands. (more…)

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