Home Staging. Designs. Life.

Not all staging is created equal and not everyone is into staging like I do. Often times I see sellers or agents are really into the idea of staging and its potential on equity gains, etc., but they do things that hinder the results of staging. Here is my opinions why you shouldn’t stager your listing:

*Reaon #1: If you are going to half-ass it on the marketing. Just because you stage the house doesn’t mean it is going to automatically sell. Most people think that, but that’s not the case.

Staging is about 1) MARKETING, it’s about packaging a product. The home styling part is only the PACKAGING, to lure consumers to buy the product, like iPod has its beautiful design & colors. But if there are no buzz nor marketing for the iPod, they won’t sell like hot cakes like they do now. Staging is also about 2) getting traffic to the doors. Time after time I see listings on MLS with poor or no photos while the home is advertised as staged. Well, what’s the point if you are not going to show a great photo showing off your great listing?
Think as a buyer, if you are surfing the web for listings online to go this weekend to see it in person, which following property would you pick?

a) b)

*Reason #2: If you are not going to believe in the staging. There are a lot of (CLICK THIS LINK TO Read more …)

As someone who has staged roughly $30+ million worth of real estate now, I often find resistance from agents to market their listings as Staged Homes. Which I find SHOCKING.

Staging is a great market differentiator and a great tool for agents to utilize and to potentially increase their edge as a selling agent.

In my post Apparently, A Good Stager Is the Buyers’ Biggest Enemy and We May Cost You $5645, quite a few agents & stagers responded to it on Active Rain, a real estate myspace-like platform. All these comments proved that why an Agent should advertise their listings as staged: (I think you may be sick of me talking about staging, maybe some of these real estate professionals can convince you as well )
Ken Realivent of realivent.com said:

“Buyers should appreciate staged homes as they provide more opportunity to look at (CLICK ON THIS LINK TO Read more …)

As part of my ASPM (Accredited Staging Professional MASTER) training with the Creator of Home Staging, Barb Schwarz, my Final was to make over part of my hotel room with $100 budget using the existing furnishing from the hotel. I had a great time shopping at Home Goods (my favorite stores hands down!). It was quite a rush to do everything in a short time frame and a small budget. It turned out to be quite difficult to shop when I was only allowed to use $100!

Here is the Before:

Here is the After: (CLICK HERE READ AND SEE WHAT I DID …)

Carnival of Real Estate Home Staging Ed #7 is now posted!

Click on the link above to read the blog carnival ;)

Again, it's an incredible small edition. Can't do a carnival without your submission! Also I am less inclined to do an edition if there is only my submission... What's the point of having a carnival if you are going to be by yourself? 

To submit to future issues of Carnival of Real Estate Home Staging, do one of the two things here:

1. via blog carnival

2. via email to corehs@staged4more.com. If submit via email, please include:

• Article URL (permalink)
• Article title
• Author name
• E-mail address
• Blog URL
• Brief summary of the post

Per Fernando's request, here is how you get that nifty MyBlogLog About Me Widget.

Log into your MBL account, click My Account:

Click on About Me Widget:

Viola! Just Copy the code and paste it in your AR setting on your side menu bar.

Enjoy your new widget! :)

Cheers,

Cindy 

www.staged4more.com

Staged4more's mission is to provide affordable and flexible staging solutions to San Francisco Bay Area agents & home sellers. Cindy is an experienced pro who had staged $31 million+ of homes to date.

Last Friday was a bit crazy, 3 consultations and spending 2 hours each way driving to Roseville for the Stager’s Round Table, I totally collapsed by the time I got home. I took a “nap” at 6pm and woke up at 3am next to a cold burrito that my sister was kind enough to buy me for dinner.

But it was SO SO SO cool to meet fellow stagers who believe in propelling the staging industry forward. People cared enough to take time off to show up and discuss what are important concerns in the industry: such as inconsistency in the staging education, what qualifies someone to be a stager, how to deal with longevity in the industry and establishing legitimacy in the real estate industry as a whole. It was also great to finally put people to the photos that I have been seeing on Active Rain, a myspace-like online community for the real estate industry. I especially loved seeing my old friend and fellow stager in Chicago, Craig Schiller, who has went above and beyond to try to unify the industry through the Stage It Forward forum. (CLICK THIS LINK TO Read more …)

I was playing with MyBlogLog today (it's SO nice to have internet back!!!) and found out they now have a new About Me Widget. It's actually pretty darn cool. As you can see on the right side of my bar I had decluttered my side bar and condense all these mini widgets from various social networking sites into one big widget. I now even have links to my yelp reviews and all other usual suspects like linked in & facebook.

Now it looks like:

(You can also just look to the right to play with it.) (sorry, Java script failed me on this one) 

Pretty nifty, eh?

Just Staged by Staged4more!

Great Value in this 2 bedroom at The Metropolitan. Best floorplan - Entry foyer leads to Gourmet Kitchen with Bosch gas range, Subzero Refridgerator, Granite countertops. Direct access to large quiet patio area. Deeded parking place, seperated bedrooms, w/d in unit. Free Wifi available in unit and Metropolitan has the best amenities with full gym, theatre, conference room, computer room, library, pool & jacuzzi, 24 hr security and concierge, bbq area etc.

Agent Raymond S Osborne NM
Primary:415-734-8005 Secondary:415-435-3740 Other:858-228-1735
Office Professional Mortgage Service( MLS ONLY) Phone: 858-342-6108, FAX: 530-587-9993

(CLICK HERE TO SEE THE BEFORE & AFTER PHOTOS!!!)

I randomly got a facebook message today from an old school friend: “I was thinking about how your business was doing with the housing market turning south?”

I think that’s an interesting question. If you talk to most realtors, they would scoff “The market is doing fine, it’s all media speculations. Our interests rates are not as bad as they make them out to be.” But has market really not slowed down? Looking from the stager’s point of view, the homes are staying on market significantly longer. At the beginning of the year when I can de-staged a sold home under a month or maybe two, now it’s taking 2, 3, 4 to do so. Has my staging abilities weaken over time? I don’t think so. So why are homes not selling? (Here are some of my own speculations on Why Staged Homes Don’t Sell. Click the link to read them.)

Frankly I think there are no reason to fret nor panic. Like any economics theory, everything comes in cycles. Typically things are slower in the December months, because people are distracted by the holidays. Furthermore, even if it is a “buyer’s market,” most people need to sell to buy, so it roughly evens it out in the end. For people who need to buy or sell, they will still buy or sell. For me personally, yes, there are less staging projects on hand, but it gives me a great chance to do year end reviews and prep for next year. And lord knows there are a lot to do before next year!

How about you, what do you think? How’s your business?