Dressed for Success

Do you think it is a good idea to get your car detailed before you sell it?
Do you wear clothes to a party or usually go naked? Why?
When you are having a party do you clean up the house, the bathrooms, the floors, and the kitchen?
Do you generally think people look better after a make-over?
Do you think that the style of clothes a person wears can make them look older than they actually are?
Is it important to you to stay in shape?
If the price is the same do you buy new or used?
Have you ever been surprised by someone’s talent on American Idol? Why?
Have you ever notice that someone had chipped toenail or fingernail polish?                    
Do you dress differently when you are cleaning house than when you are going to work?
Do you wear deodorant? Why?

Like it or not, looks (and smells) do matter. We make judgments about all kinds of things based on what we see. If your house is on the market it is competing with the other houses on the market and guess what….the best looking houses (in each price range) sell first, and for the most money. Understanding this is not rocket science. If your house is about to go on the market or already is on the market (and you are disappointed with the results you are getting) contact us. Staging is an investment that pays very well and it is always cheaper than a price reduction. Staging Matters. Call today.

Susan Boyle, the older woman who appeared on American Idol and shocked the nation with her voice, is a great example of how packaging creates expectations. Susan Atwell, of Atwell Staged Home, writes an interesting article on this subject in her blog. You can read the article here:
It All Boyles Down to this – Looks Count

Quick Checklist Before Any Showing

by Debra Rosser of Staging Matters

1. Beds are made neatly.
2. Clutter is removed and everything is in it’s place. Take a moment to gather any items that are out of place. Keep an empty laundry basket at all times. When a showing is coming sometimes it is easiest to just put anything out of place in the laundry basket (I’ve even known people who put dishes into the basket when they were in a hurry). Put the laundry basket in the car so the mess drives away from the house when you do.
3. Check the kitchen and quickly wipe down all counter tops and kitchen table.
4. Either let some fresh air in the house for a few minutes or spray a clean smelling fragrance. Remember that some people are very sensitive to smells so avoid flowery fragrances using ones that smell like vanilla or fresh laundry instead.
5. Turn on every light and open every blind. People buy bright, well lit houses.
6. Keep the yard free of children’s bikes and toys.
7. Wipe down sink areas so they sparkle.
8. Close every toilet lid, and remove any toothbrushes.
9. Turn on some soft music, classical or “elevator” type music is best.
10. Turn down the volume on your answering machine; your messages are private and you wouldn’t want someone looking at your house to hear them.
11. Remember to remove from the home anything of value.
12. It is a serious mistake to be home during a showing. Plan ahead of time where you will go when there is a showing (park, neighbor’s home, mall, grocery store, on a walk, etc). People viewing your house shouldn’t have any distractions!
13. When you leave if it is at all possible take the animals in the home with you. You only have this one shot to get people comfortable enough to seriously consider buying your home. If you can’t take a dog with you then at least confine them to a crate. Your animal could become a liability if left loose.
14. Any cat litter boxes should be covered, clean and out of the way.
15. Spend time each week looking at the front and back of the home. Keep yards mowed neatly, leaves raked up and weeds out of the garden!


Doing these things will help your house sell! Living in a house that is on the market is very inconvenient but doing these things consistently will increase your chances of a sale with every showing.

Tipsheet: Staging Tips That Can Help Sell a Home

By Mary Beth Breckenridge

Staging a home for sale can set it apart from the competition and make it inviting to the greatest number of buyers. Kiplinger's Personal Finance has these suggestions for staging your home for less than $1,000:

"Focus on a few rooms. Hire a stager to redo just the entryway, main living area, kitchen and master bedroom. Stagers usually charge $75 to $125 an hour. Ignore secondary rooms, or do them yourself once you've seen how the pro works.

Add some pizzazz. Sometimes a few decorative extras can update or neutralize a home's decor. You may be able to negotiate with a staging company for decor items such as wall art, area rugs, lamps or other accessories. One company Kiplinger's checked charges roughly $250 per month, with a three-month minimum, plus one month's fee for setup and breakdown.

Pay for a plan, but provide the muscle. Many stagers will work as consultants, touring your house and offering suggestions on presenting it. Barb Schwarz, founder of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals, says the average fee for a consultation is $350.

Then it's up to you to do the cleaning, decluttering and rearranging. Kiplinger's suggests renting a portable storage unit if you have a lot of stuff to store. One company, PODS, will deliver the unit to your driveway, transport it to a secure facility and charge you a monthly storage fee."

By Mary Beth Breckenridge
Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal
Posted: 04/09/2010 12:00:00 AM PDT
Updated: 04/09/2010 02:59:59 PM PDT

Staging Matters would love to help you stage your house.  Staging increases the profitability and decreases the time on the market.  We'd love to visit with you today.  469-322-9113

Targeting Your Probable Buyers

RISMedia recently put out a great article about how home staging should target buyers by group.  The article talks about how different groups are looking for different things in a house and how to attract your target market.  You can read the article by clicking here  http://rismedia.com/2010-04-13/home-staging-tips-that-focus-on-largest-customer-segments/

Attracting First Time Home Buyers

Click this link for a great article about attracting first time home buyers.  Staging your home to sell to a first-time buyer

Closet Makeover Tips

by Debra Rosser of Staging Matters
It is very likely that serious buyers will look in closets and open cabinet doors. The closets that look organized, clean and spacious make a great impression. Here are 6 things you should do to get a closet ready for viewers.

1. Remove about 1/2 of the clothes. If the closet is packed with clothes a buyer may think there isn't enough storage. Pack up clothes you don't need and get them to out of sight.

2. Clear the floors. The floor of your closet should be empty. Get things off the floor and then vacuum the carpet in the closet.

3. If possible use only one type of hanger. You can pick flocked, plastic, wood or wire but if you only use one kind it will add to the organized feel.
4. Get all dirty clothes out of sight. This isn't the time for people to see your dirty....socks. Get a basket with a lid and keep your hamper covered.
5. Keep the closet smelling fresh. Do laundry more frequently so dirty clothes don't give the closet a "smell". Add a box of baking soda to absorb odors, add some kind of room deodorizer and air out your closets.
6. Use baskets to store things on shelves and remember that the shelves shouldn't look "stuffed". Be sure about 1/3 of the shelves are empty.

Closets can convey to a buyer that a home is well maintained and cared for; that the owners are organized and therefore have probably taken care of the house. Getting the closets in order puts you closer to a sale and will make packing easier in the end.

Carpet in the Bathroom???

Question of the Week - answered by Debra from Staging Matters

How do buyers feel about carpet in the bathroom? Does a seller really need to change this out before putting their house on the market?

Old carpet in the bathroom is not going to do you any favors when your home is on the market. Most buyers see a project like this and really overestimate what it will take to fix it. A buyer may deduct $5000 from the asking price just to fix this and you could easily change it out for about $2/square foot. So by spending no more than a few hundred you would essentially make $4800. It is also important to know that in this buyer's market getting your house as close to "move in ready" as possible will speed up the sale of your home. To maximize your profitability research your Realtor and your Home Stager. You won't have to upgrade everything to get the most money for your house but a good Home Stager can really find a lot of hidden money in your property and most of our suggestions won't cost you a thing. The investment in a Home Stager is small and following their suggestions can easily can make you $10,000 or more. Professional Home Staging is always much cheaper than your first price adjustment!!!

Preparing for a Stager's Visit

Do you clean before the housekeeper comes over? I do. I act like a crazy woman insisting that every tiny thing finds its place. This week was no exception. I gave out the orders and did the inspections. Now you should know that the young woman who cleans my house doesn't speak my language but always finds a way to communicate. She would laugh if she could see all of us running up and down the stairs getting everything just so. She is so important to me (and my sanity) though that I don't want to stress her out by making her "figure out" where things go.

It occurs to me that some of my clients must do this before I come over. In fact, once every couple of weeks someone postpones our meeting for a week or so because the "house isn't ready". When you really think about it

Staged Homes Sell 78% Faster According to RESA

The Real Estate Staging Association (RESA) just released the 2009 Staging Statistics Report. RESA found that last year staged homes spent 78% less time on the market. To a seller this means you save thousands for every month your house is not on the market, and it means the stress of living with a house on the market is much shorter. These are just a few of the benefits of staging and they can really add a lot of money to your bottom line.

Here is just some of the information contained in the report.

The study includes 87 vacant homes (not staged) previously on the market an average of 277 days unsold. Those homeowners had their properties staged. Those same homes sold in 63 days on average after staging. This is 78% less time on the market.
The study includes 39 occupied homes (not staged) previously on the market an average of 233 days unsold. Those homeowners had their properties staged. Those same homes sold in 53 days on average after staging. This is 78% less time on the market.The report goes on to talk about just how much money a homeowner actually saves by staging.

Our study shows 126 homeowners had their property on the market on average of 263 days before they decided to stage. 263 days = 9 months!!!
Our study also shows 284 homes that were staged before they went on the market and they sold on average in 40.5 days. This is approximately 223 days less time on the market.
223 days = 7 months
As an example, using this formula you can determine approximately how much money you will continue to spend while your home is on the market un-staged.

If your mortgage is : $1800.00
If your direct expenses are: $300.00                                     
Total carrying cost per month: $2,100.00
Our study shows home owners had their property on the market for an average of 9 months. $2,100.00 X 9 months = $18,900.00 in expenses.Had those homeowners staged first, their time on market would have been cut by 223 days on average (7 months). $2,100.00 x 7 months= $14,700.00
Staging their homes first would have saved them $14,700.00.These numbers are all relative to individual mortgage and expenses. Use this simple formula to determine how much you will save by staging your home or listing before putting it on the market:
Mortgage + expenses (utilities etc.) = Monthly expenses
Monthly expenses X 9 months (avg. time un-staged) = Cost to list house un-staged
Savings: Expenses x 7 months (average time on market reduced) –staging fee =Savings if you stage your house first!
** If you have a price reduction you can also add that into the loss you are taking by listing a property un-staged

The report goes on then to talk about the Homegain study. You can read the full RESA report here.


http://documents.clubexpress.com/documents.ashx?key=C6oaURUx%2brGhWGW3tE37ikHNu7%2fGqODUv0MjnXT9TTfufcNGMndF4x5%2fctNsrrSkpXgU5b16p4CbW1%2fWL%2bt9GFlDkDcUJelPdFoI%2fqlQFOs%3d

Musings of an Open House Junkie: Part One

by Debra Rosser with Staging Matters

I visit Open Houses in Flower Mound, Coppell, Argyle, Highland Village, and other North Texas cities very regularly. I do this for several reasons. I need to be very clear about what my clients’ competition looks like; I need to know which Realtors are consistently presenting properly staged homes and identify those that could use some help, but most honestly I am just addicted to seeing how other people live. Sometimes I see something in pictures that I just feel like I need to see in person.
Recently I was looking at some homes in my area that were for sale in the $700,000 price range. The first house I looked at was obviously staged and I’d have to admit the Stager had done a great job …until I went upstairs.

Musings Continued: Part Two

The second home I looked at was occupied. The homeowners I suspect had followed their Realtor’s advice about decluttering and cleaning. The Realtor showing the house was very professional and sharp. The sellers had made a great decision in hiring her. The problem was that in this price range the competition is most often professionally staged. The competition is steep; the most beautiful and pristine house usually sells first. If this house was staged it wasn’t staged well or the homeowners hadn’t done everything the stager had suggested. Every closet door was ajar to encourage buyers to feel free to look…the problem was every closet was messy and crowded. They had stopped short and I felt the disappointment.

Top Ten Reasons You Should Professionally Stage Your Home

There are some important principles sellers need to understand in order to get the most out of staging. This article from a Philadelphia Real Estate source is right on track. Enjoy!

http://alturl.com/xh4a

please check with a tax professional in your state to see how this would or would not apply to your situation

Top 12 Do-It-Yourself Home Improvements for Sellers

HomeGain Press Release                                                                   
November 05, 2009


HomeGain Releases 2009 Home Improvement Survey Results

HomeGain reveals new survey findings of top 12 do-it-yourself home improvements for home sellers, based on responses from nearly 1,000 REALTORS®; cleaning and de-cluttering ranks as highest return on investment, followed by home stagingEmeryville, CA - November 5, 2009 - HomeGain.com, the first website to offer web-based free instant home values, today announced that it has released the results of its nationwide home improvement and home staging Home Sale Maximizer™ survey.

HomeGain received responses from nearly 1,000 Realtors® nationwide and configured a list of the top 12 do-it-yourself (DIY) home improvements that cost under $5,000 and benefit sellers most when they sell their homes.

According to the HomeGain survey, the top five home improvements that Realtors recommend to home sellers based on cost and return on investment (from highest to lowest ROI) are:
1.Cleaning and de-cluttering ($200 cost / $1,700 price increase / 872% ROI)2.Home staging ($300 cost / $1,780 price increase / 586% ROI)3.Lightening and brightening ($230 cost / $1,300 price increase / 572% ROI)
4.Landscaping ($320 cost / $1,500 price increase / 473% ROI)
5.Repairing plumbing ($385 cost / $1,250 price increase / 327% ROI)
Cleaning and de-cluttering continues to rank as the top suggested home improvement (since the survey was originally conducted in 2000), recommended by 98 percent of Realtors, costing less than $200 and returning a value of nearly $1,700 to the home's sale price, or an 872% return on investment.

"Many Realtors agree, especially in a buyer's market, that sellers who make these recommended home improvements often get their homes sold faster and at higher prices," stated Louis Cammarosano, General Manager at HomeGain. "We have customized our Home Sale Maximizer online home improvement tool to help identify and prioritize the projects that can increase the salability and selling price of a home."

Rounding out the top 12, the list of low cost, do-it-yourself home improvements includes: updating electrical, replacing or shampooing carpets, painting interior walls, repairing damaged floors, updating kitchen, painting outside of home, and updating bathroom/s.
The home improvement projects with the highest price increases to a home's resale value is Updating the Kitchen ($1,200 cost / $2,850 price increase), followed by Painting the Outside of the Home ($900 cost / $1,815 price increase) and Home Staging ($300 cost / $1,780 price increase)."Inexpensive cosmetic home improvements and basic improvements greatly enhance the value of the home," stated Carol Wilson of Carpenter Real Estate in Indianapolis, IN, HomeGain AgentEvaluator member since 1999.

To see the complete survey results, visit the HomeGain Real Estate Blog.

iLIVEcommunity

Check out this article about how staging helps sellers in this local community news spot for Roanoke and surrounding cities. http://ilivecommunity.com/2010/02/20/home-seller-sanity-saver-from-an-expert/

Home Staging Helps Sellers in a Buyer's Market

As the housing market struggles to regain its footing, more buyers are slowly beginning to enter the marketplace. But sellers continue to face special challenges. There are still a number of unsold homes on the market, which means:

• Buyers can be pickier about what they choose to buy

• Buyers have more room to negotiate price

• Sellers are frustrated because their homes aren’t selling as fast as they’d like

• Sellers are pressured by agents to drop their prices dramatically, since agents don’t get paid until the house sells

How can a home stand out from the competition when there are several homes for sale at similar prices in the neighborhood, or worse, on the same street? Rather than just slashing the selling price, home sellers should consider the less costly option of decorating the property to romance buyers and motivate them to make an offer.

In this market, it is going to take more than a fresh coat of paint and a new welcome mat. A buyer’s market raises the stakes, and sellers will need to do more work on the home to get the highest price possible. Home staging--the art of decorating a house to sell more quickly and for a higher price--is the perfect solution for sellers who are desperate to catch the attention of buyers.

Often we are so familiar with our own homes that we cannot see them through the eyes of a critical buyer. A professional home stager brings the objectivity needed to showcase the best features of each room. This is often achieved with cosmetic changes and rearranging and editing the furnishings that are already there. In the case of a vacant home, a professional home stager will bring in the items needed to add that homey touch.

Expert home stager Debra Gould shares a real-life example of the difference staging can make and how much cheaper it is than a dramatic price cut: A real estate agent wanted her client to drop his asking price by $50,000 after the house had sat on the market for 6 months without a single offer. She was desperate to attract interest since it was costing her money to carry the listing and she wasn’t making anything for her time and effort. Instead of listening to his agent’s advice, the client called in Gould to stage his house. She spent a day helping the client rearrange all the furniture and accessories in every room. Some things were moved to off-site storage, and she purchased a few new accessories, which the client could also use in his new home. The total cost for Gould’s staging advice, storage and the purchases came in at $1,500. The client didn’t have to cut his asking price by $50,000, and instead sold the following week for 98% of the original list price.

A professional home stager can help you draw buyers’ attention so you can sell your home faster. This reduces or even eliminates the need for price reductions, helping you hold on to the precious equity you’ve built up over the years.

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould is president of Six Elements and creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program with over 4,000 students worldwide. Gould is the author of three home staging guides and offers a Directory of Home Stagers to help homeowners and real estate agents locate home stagers who will decorate homes to sell quickly and for top dollar. To learn more, visit www.stagingdivadirectoryofhomestagers.com
Written by internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®, www.stagingdiva.com. © 2009, Six Elements Inc. Used with permission.

Debra Rosser, of Staging Matters, adds "The three things that effect how quickly a house will sell are location, condition and price. Sellers only have control over condition and price. Getting the price right is critical and an agent is the best person to advise you on that but overlooking how you can change the "condition" factor through staging is a mistake that is very costly. I see houses every week where the homeowners are leaving a lot of money on the table unnecessarily, or where they could have avoided a big price adjustment doing some easy/inexpensive updating or simple rearranging. Staging is an extremely affordable investment and the payoff can be huge."

Decorate in No Time Flat

By: Deidre Wengen
phillyBurbs.com

Sometimes the task of decorating our homes can feel like a daunting one. Arranging furniture, putting together collections, picking out paint colors and accents can be tough. And most of the time, getting your decor right seems like a long process.
But professional home stager Jill Vegas has some tips and tricks up her sleeve to making decorating fast and easy.
Her book "Speed Decorating" is packed with useful ideas and suggestions for getting your home looking fabulous in less than a week.
The book includes some advice on shopping, arranging, cleaning, organizing, etc. The book comes complete with tutorial-like instructions and gorgeous photographs to make the process as painless as possible.
So if you've been stuck in a decorating rut, check out this book for some inspiration and ideas that will fit in with your busy schedule. Whether you are decorating for yourself or looking to spruce up your home for a sale, Vegas' tips are sure to give you the help you need.
December 28, 2009 10:09 AM

Top 5 Tips for Home Sellers!

According to internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®:

"Top 5 Staging Tips for Home Sellers"

Home stagers can make a number of small changes to a property that can dramatically shorten the time it spends on the real estate market while also increasing the final sales price. Home staging expert Debra Gould shares her five favorite tips for getting a house ready to sell:

1. Reduce drive-bys

Imagine you’re a homebuyer on a house-hunting mission. Your real estate agent has ten properties to show you on a Saturday afternoon. When you drive up to what could be your dream home, you see a rusted-out mailbox, broken handrail and children’s toys strewn across an unmowed lawn. You don’t have any time to waste, so you’re probably going to say, “Let’s move on,” skipping the showing appointment entirely.

Curb appeal helps draw prospective buyers into your home. If the outside of a house looks unkempt, it creates an impression that the property is not cared for. To enhance curb appeal:

• Ensure the lawn is freshly cut and that leaves are raked. In winter, snow should be shoveled from the driveway and walkways.

• Make the entrance more welcoming with a seasonally appropriate planted urn or hanging plant.

• Repair or replace any obvious defects. Often this is cheaper to do than a prospective buyer will imagine.

• Make sure the walkways and porches are swept clean and garbage and recycling containers are tucked away at the rear of the house or in the garage.

• Ensure the exterior gets a good pressure wash and the decks are scrubbed clean. It’s a good alternative to painting. Once everything’s clean, you might discover it doesn’t need to be repainted at all; perhaps just a touch-up will do.

2. Stash your keepsakes and keep your home clutter-free

Your treasured keepsakes may look like clutter to potential buyers. It distracts them from appreciating the house itself and can lead home buyers to reject your property. De-cluttering is essential. Tackle one area at a time so the task isn’t so overwhelming.

You’ll probably have to go through each closet more than once to get its contents down to the absolute essentials, but it will be worth the effort. Try setting a timer for 60 minutes and it will no longer seem like an endless task.

If you’re having a tough time parting with things, rent a storage locker so you can keep your beloved items while you’re selling the house, and then have them delivered to your new address after your move.

3. Avoid wandering eyes

You want to make sure that little problems in a room won’t cause a potential buyer to focus on one flaw after another, thinking about all the work they’ll have to do and how much less they should offer you because of it. You want them to see the bigger picture and imagine themselves living there.

Do a walkthrough to spot these typical problems. Look for chipped paint on the door frames, which can be filled in with “white out.” Peeling wallpaper should be glued back down. Ensure there are covers on all electrical outlets and light switches, and replace any that are cracked. Repair dripping taps and moldy caulking. These little things make a big difference in the buyer’s mind!

4. Color is your friend when it’s time to sell a house

In most cases, white walls look cold and sterile. If you have to repaint a home’s interior or some rooms in a home, choose a pleasing color palette that allows each room to flow nicely into the next. All colors should go together.

Try to repeat one signature color throughout a home. Maybe the feature color in one room can be used as an accent in the others, through accessories or throw cushions.

5. Make a big impact with a little art

By strategically using art, you can enhance a home’s perceived value, draw the eye away from tiny flaws, give an otherwise uninteresting space a focal point and replace personal memorabilia.

Don’t just throw things on the wall where an old picture hook happens to be. Position art at eye level and use pieces that are appropriate to the size of the wall. Art with a large frame on a small wall can make the entire area seem smaller. Avoid religious art or anything edgy that could be offensive to some potential buyers.

These are just a few of the many things that can be done to improve your home’s appearance and to make it more appealing to homebuyers. While the steps can be time consuming, the results are worth it. A professional home stager makes the job much easier and can give you the specific steps you should take on your own. Stagers bring total objectivity and a creative eye to the process of decorating your house to sell. This increases your chance of selling your property faster and for more money."

http://www.stagingdiva.com

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould is president of Six Elements and creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program with over 4,000 students worldwide. Gould is the author of three home staging guides and offers a Directory of Home Stagers to help homeowners and real estate agents locate home stagers who will decorate homes to sell quickly and for top dollar. To learn more, visit www.stagingdivadirectoryofhomestagers.com
Written by internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®, www.stagingdiva.com. © 2009, Six Elements Inc. Used with permission.