Happy 2008 to you all.
We had a record-breaking 2007 in many ways. I have never been more excited about the future of the staging and redesign industry. The certified students who are marketing their services are seeing an increased level of success. The agents who have been trained are selling their listings…one recently in less than a week. Another house we staged during the class sold to the second person who looked at it. We are seeing more and more interior design professionals, ASID, taking the class to add staging to their other services. It’s all good!
To my real estate agent friends and associates:
We are all hoping for a turn-around in the sluggish real estate market this year. The forces that brought about the slowdown, such as lending practices and the economy, are beyond our control. No amount of wishing, stressing-out or hand-wringing can change the correction cycle we are forced to endure. I am here to offer you hope in an area that IS NOT beyond our control.
We ask for the serenity to accept the things we cannot change and the courage to change the things we can. WE CAN CHANGE ONE IMPORTANT THING: Add staging as a home-selling service to your listing package. IT WORKS!!!
The next Staging Certification Class is February 19th, 20th and 21st. More details are on the website. www.transform-us.com The next one-day staging seminar is Wednesday, January 23rd from 9:30 to 4:00 at Queens Harbour. It includes a continental breakfast and lunch in the dining/meeting room that overlooks the yacht marina. It includes speaker’s notes, a “most popular colors” chart from Benjamin Moore and a graph-paper notebook.
There will be a power point presentation with great “before and after” pictures on furniture arranging; a fabulous color demonstration where we answer the question, “What is the most popular paint color in the country?” You will also find out how a size 2 petite lady can move a 500 lb. dresser. And you will never again wonder how to correctly accessorize a cocktail table or console.
The regular cost of $500. is $250. for the general public and $125. for agents and designers. E-mail your reservation today. becky@beckyharmon.com
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THE SOLUTION TO THE EMPTY HOUSE PROBLEM
“We know that furnished homes appeal to potential buyers. Builders pay anywhere from $30,000. to $90,000. to furnish a model because they know it will help them sell a lot of new homes.
“The easiest and most cost-effective way to execute a vacant-home (or empty-house) staging is to plan ahead. Before the homeowner moves everything out, leaving a personality-starved empty shell, a good stager can help them select the furniture and accessories to be left in the house. This is sometimes called ‘partial-staging’. The essential things can be moved out but the make-or-break rooms should remain furnished. A guest room can be moved to the all-important master suite. Spare bedrooms do not need furniture. The formal dining room set is not used that often, so it’s not an inconvenience to leave it behind. The first rooms that you see when the front door is opened must be gorgeous. ‘Nice’ just doesn’t cut it anymore.
“People seem to think that the cost of a second move makes the “partial-staging” option impractical. That is not the case. The average cost of a local move is about $100. a room plus $100. for the truck…pick-up and delivery…according to Harvey Anthony with Mayflower. That means an average house of 8 rooms would cost about $900. To move that house in two separate trips at different times is only $100. extra. For an out-of-town move, which is calculated differently, the second trip would add no more than $500. That is still much less than the first mark-down of the home’s selling price.
>“Last fall, the Transformations class redesigned a bad partial-staging done by the homeowner on their high-end house. They chose the wrong things to leave behind. At this point, the home had been on the market 8 months and even though it had been reduced by $100,000., there were no reasonable offers. The team repositioned art and accessories, rearranged furniture and…voila…a sale in three weeks. If the staging had been professionally planned from the start, the $100,000. markdown might not have been necessary. The staging cost averages $250. to $500. It’s a ‘no brainer’.