The Staging Magic

It is much easier to identify homes that have been professionally staged.  We have had great success with many clients which we have guided and have implemented our home staging recommendations, following the consultation and prior to the MLS photos.  More ‘savvy real estate representatives’ are connecting with one or more home stagers to perform a consultation with the home sellers and where required, stage their listings prior to ‘hitting the market’.  Home sellers, too, are hiring professional home stagers prior to securing a listing sales representative. 

Staged homes sell quickly and usually for list or above list, depending on the market.  The longer a home is on the market, the home listing becomes ‘stale’. 

Home Star Staging, out of Texas, has explained the process and it’s worth sharing (excerpts taken and have been adapted for the Canadian real estate marketplace)!

 “While home stagers "magically" transform a vacant property or room, there are many details behind the scene which account for the fees we charge.”

“Home Staging Accessory Rental 101: Some staging companies will rent accessory inventory for staging homes that may need it.   For a vacant property or an occupied home, there are areas which often require some enhancements” to provide ‘emotional buyer connections’. 

Accessories are NOT large furniture. They are the "small" décor, artwork, greenery & linens that accent the furnishings, walls and rooms.” (Quoted from Home Star Staging) 

Rental of these items can run anywhere from 20% - 25% of the retail value. So for $1,000 of inventory it's not uncommon to invest $200+/month for rental (plus HST).  

This rental fee is in addition to the staging services fee. 

“Someone had to purchase, warehouse, pick, pack, load, deliver then install/stage it. Then when the staging company de-stages, someone has to remove, pack, load, deliver and re-stock these items. They won't just magically appear or disappear! 

There are costs and investments made by home staging companies who offer this service. When considering hiring a home staging professional or company for this level of service, please keep the entire process in mind.”

Home Staging 4 Success provides our clients with options; best suited for their budgets, and utilize the seller’s home furnishings wherever possible.  If rental of ‘large’ furnishings are required, we source the best value of modern furnishings best suited to the price point of the home, demographics and potential home buyers.

When budgets are tight, our comprehensive home staging consultations offer home sellers those easy-to-implement recommendations utilizing their own home décor accessories and furnishings. 

It is much less expensive to recommend a staging consultation, which is more acceptable with the sellers, than suggesting a ‘price reduction’   

DIY Renovations When Selling Properties

I have entered hundreds of properties where I have been informed of upgrades installed or performed by home owners themselves.  In many situations, these upgrades are easy to distinguish between professional workmanship vs. DIY project.   

 Then there are homes with extraordinary upgrades where the home owner implements their expert skills and those of affiliated professional connections to create outstanding spaces.

Ultra Modern Features in Custom Home

Credit should be given to those that attempt these tasks themselves.  However,  in the real estate market, buyers are looking for ‘move-in ready’ homes with little or no work to be performed prior to the moving date or shortly thereafter, unless there are looking for a fixer-upper.  There are advantages to building a ‘new’ home or a custom built home for this exact reason where no work is required.

Let’s be honest.  Over a period of time, home owners become oblivious to everyday imperfections within their homes.   When selling, these imperfections become distractions and may prevent your home from selling quickly, limit the number of buyers looking at your home, or initiate a discussion with your listing realtor to reduce your original list price.  This is a very short list of reasons.

Hydro Panel obscured with DIY project to transform this space into Hall Closet
Photo Credit:  Cheryl Trudell, Lead Property Stylist of Home Staging 4 Success

Painting over a nail on an obvious wall surface is suggestive of a ‘lack of attention’. This is a small detail but may have implications and cause an immediate RED FLAG (psychology from a buyer’s standpoint)  - what other obvious or ‘behind the scene’  items has the owner paid little to no attention to. 

Staging Tip 101:  For painting projects, use Frog tape for sharp lines and demarcation between walls, ceilings and trim.  Lay plastic or painter’s drop clothes to avoid paint splatter or drips on floors and windows.  Remove nails used for artwork and patch walls prior to painting.   Choose warm neutral colours vs. bold colours to create spaciousness and distract from imperfections of wall surfaces.  Use caulking to eliminate gaps or spaces between walls and trim. 

Is there a professional service that can assist home buyers prep their homes for sale prior to listing or if a listing is about to be considered ‘stale’?  A certified professionally trained home stager is experienced to view homes as a potential home buyer.   We can point out distractions or areas that require attention.

Generic to-do-lists can be found almost anywhere today.  However, an on-site consultation ensures the recommendations are customized and tailored to your specific home or listed property.   Too, more experienced stagers have affiliates that offer many of the services home sellers may require, including renovators, handymen, painters, cleaners, organizers, movers, home inspectors, electricians, plumbers,  etc..

Unique to our staging company, we provide a complete project management service for local or out-of-town home owners with properties to be or are currently listed locally and where prep work needs to be accomplished.  

Consult with your real estate agent or check in the yellow pages (www.yp.ca) for the names of professional home stagers best suited for your specific needs.  Ensure the home stager will provide you with a full written report detailing areas discussed and recommendations to refer to as you prioritize the tasks, your budget and time-frame prior to the 1^st public viewing.  

Have an awesome summer!

Real estate: Two-bedroom versus three-bedroom homes - Style At Home

Real estate: Two-bedroom versus three-bedroom homes - Style At Home

How Home Sellers Leave $$$ on the table

Educating home sellers is one of my most rewarding aspects of representing the home staging profession.   Home sellers may not be aware how to increase, or most importantly, protect their home equity they have already invested prior to selling.  Let’s take a look of ways sellers discourage serious buyers from  investing time and further interest in their properties:

1.        Unattractive Curb appeal   

The posted For Sale sign brings attention to your neighbourhood and property.  Tidy the yard and gardens, remove out-of-season décor, add seasonal foliage that will add both interest and colour, and remove any debris including obvious tools, recycling bins, outdated or worn garden features.   Repair or replace broken fences.

2.       Leaving a home ‘naked’ or ‘vacant’.

  Although it may be impeccably clean, buyers will focus on the negatives of empty spaces and find faults.  More importantly, only 20% of buyers can envision their furniture in an empty space.  The other 80% will be influenced by homes that are furnished and appealing to the senses.  Leaving a property completely vacant is a sure way to leave your $$$ on the table.

3.       Consulting a designer friend to ‘stage’ your home.

  Interior designers ‘design’ with the emphasis of the decorating preferences for 1 family or individual.  Experienced home stagers style homes to appeal to the mainstream of potential buyers so a greater audience will be drawn to your home. 

4.       Selling privately.

 This is a personal choice and can be appealing to some degree.  However, the legal implications for the inexperienced home seller compared to the knowledge of a professional real estate agent will outweigh any unforeseen consequences.  Unless you are a marketing expert in real estate, leave it to the pros. 

5.        Over up-grading your home or implementing no up-grades and selling as is.

 A definite way to leave $$$ on the table.  

6.       Unprofessional photography of your home’s interior spaces and exterior curb appeal.  

What is the quality of images you or your agent wish to convey – professional or unprofessional?  A picture is worth a thousand words.  Reaction to what is displayed will be instantaneous to the immediate interest to view your home with an onsite visit.

There are so many other deterrents how to leave $$$ on the table when selling your home – outdated furniture and fixtures, outdated flooring, DIRT,  poor furniture layouts, too much ‘stuff’,  multiple or no functions for the use of a space,  more than one focal point, etc.

This is only the tip of the iceberg how to leave $$$ on the table when selling a home or property.  Need to have a further discussion with actual statistics and a visual presentation to improve your home equity, schedule a consultation with an experienced property stylist or home stager.  Many real estate agents in your local area can recommend one that can meet your needs.

Beware generic lists to improve your home’s presentation are not customized or tailored for your specific needs. 

“Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.” 
 –Guy Kawasaki, Alltop Co-Founder and Entrepreneur

Cheryl Trudell, Lead Property Stylist of Home Staging 4 Success provides both home sellers and real estate professionals  ‘one stop’ staging services to fit the needs of clients (estate sales, home builders, vacant or occupied homes, rental properties, investors, home sellers and buyers)  with her team encompassing handymen, renovators, painters, re-organizers, movers, garbage disposal, , professional home and window cleaners,  furniture/home décor/ and artwork rentals,  professional home stagers and interior designing.  Contact Cheryl@hs4s.ca to schedule a consultation.

10 tips to sell your home - Style At Home

10 tips to sell your home - Style At Home

Home Staging 4 Success: Home Staging 4 Success: Home Staging 4 Success: Qu...

Home Staging 4 Success: Home Staging 4 Success: Home Staging 4 Success: Qu...: Home Staging 4 Success: Home Staging 4 Success: Quick tips for Real Estate... : Home Staging 4 Success: Quick tips for Real Estate Professio...

If you Hang it - Be Prepared to Remove it!

 This week I recommended a home owner remove outdated wallpaper that lined the walls in each of the primary rooms within this 1960's home.  It had obviously been applied professionally, was tasteful but so very outdated.

Wallpaper Nightmare

Here’s what we found – a nightmare to remove!   Two layers of wallpaper in each of the bathrooms was so adhered after years of bathroom steam and cooling off periods, that we tried various techniques and recommended products to remove without damaging the gyp-rock walls.  End result - didn't work.  This endeavour was very time consuming with only small patches removed after 3 separate team members attempted to apply their mastery skills.  These were the worst scenarios we encountered.  Rooms where there was an applied layer of one wallpaper, steam and wall paper stripper worked easily, following the removal of the vinyl coating.

If you plan to downsize or sell your home anytime in the future, begin removing the wallpaper now!  Home buyers are looking for move-in ready homes to decorate in their own style.  Wallpaper isn't appealing to potential buyers – it’s exactly what it is – WORK!

Solutions to wallpapered walls:

•  Multiple layers of wallpaper – apply ¼” gyp-rock over the walls, tape, mud + prep walls prior to painting 
•  Single layers – remove vinyl covering, steam for 30 secs and/ or apply solution of wall paper stripper, allow to soak for a few minutes, remove backing with ergonomically good scraper, wash walls thoroughly to remove traces of glue, repair and sand walls, dust clean + paint
•  Skim coat over the wallpaper and paint over the prepped walls (beware – the underlaid wallpaper may lift if not prepped adequately when using water-based paints)

My #1 recommendation for pursuing this task: 

Patience, calming background music, and a positive attitude!

Smiles + a Positive Attitude from Jason

There are so many fabulous wall coverings on the market today.  I’m not against wall paper for a focal wall but if you install wallpaper in any of your current living spaces and will be living within your home for the next 10 years, enjoy the beauty of your wall(s) but be prepared to remove this wallpaper in the future.

Cheryl Trudell, Lead Property Stylist/Founder of Home Staging 4 Success, is honoured to be the recipient of staging awards in 2 consecutive years ~ RESA®'s 2014 Top 10 Best Occupied Stagings™ North America and RESA®s 2013 Top 10 Rising Star Home Stagers™ in North America. She brings her true passion for working with people and natural flair for home design to each client with respect and sincerity. Her customized services are tailored to fit individual needs and budgets with exceptional service and outstanding results. She is an active member of the Real Estate Staging Association, the trade association for professional real estate stagers and redesigners. .

Home Staging 4 Success: Quick tips for Real Estate Professionals when Mark...

Home Staging 4 Success: Quick tips for Real Estate Professionals when Mark...: Discussing the idea of a professional home stager to assist your 'newly listed' clients may not be within an agent’s comfort level ...

Quick tips for Real Estate Professionals when Marketing Your Listings with Home Staging Professionals

Discussing the idea of a professional home stager to assist your 'newly listed' clients may not be within an agent’s comfort level especially  if you believe  the home owners will ‘boo-hoo’ the idea or may be personally insulted.  Here are some quick tips to ‘teaming up’ with home stagers and incorporating home staging into the scheme of marketing your listings.

•        Connect with one or more home stagers for your listings as early as possible.

 This will allow you the opportunity to select the stager whom may be the ‘best fit’ or connection for the specific needs of individual clients and their personalities.  Use the analogy of ‘Goldilocks’.  Arrange a coffee meeting for a personal meeting with the home stager to review their consultation processes – vacant, occupied homes – and fee structure.   Select only those stagers that are insured, properly trained with both a legitimate home staging business and have a current website complete with testimonials and portfolio.

There is extreme value in collaborating with an experienced home stager that is highly knowledgeable in the creative science and  psychology of marketing properties for sale, and with a keen eye for detail.  Avoid a home stager that offers 'free consultations'.  

•        Pay for the staging consultation from your marketing budget OR consider reimbursing your clients for this cost upon the sale of their home.  

 If this home has been listed previously by another realtor and/or real estate brokerage, this gesture demonstrates an added value benefit to securing you as the listing agent and further solidifies your marketing plan to sell their home.  

•    Communicate with the home stager to share pertinent client and listing information, including the preferred method to contact the home seller. Allow the professional stager to recommend or suggest any changes with the home owners directly.

Providing DIY generic lists to clients how to stage their homes is not the ideal or more importantly, be effective to achieving the end results in the home’s presentation.  Each home required a customized and tailored look. Honest communication with the home stager is key to a successful consultation and implementation of shared collaborative ideas prior to the consult.  This prevents any road blocks and confusion which recommendation(s) the home owner should consider to be the 'best bang for their buck.'  Too, decide early in the process, the preferred method of communication between the real estate professional and the stager.  

Prior to meeting any client, I consult with the listing agent(s) to identify any specific changes they may have suggested previously, or if any, with the home seller.  In the event this is a repeat client or a new client of the real estate professional, I highly respect and value this information. 

This photo is an example where the real estate professional was concerned about the outdated melamine cabinetry.  During the consultation, I presented another option to revamping this kitchen - installation of a new 'classic white subway tiled' backsplash and new cabinet hardware.  Both the home owner and real estate professional were delighted with the impact of these simple revisions within their home seller's budget and the overall impression of an updated kitchen.  

• Arrange  photography with a professional real estate photographer immediately upon the completion of showcasing the property

Enlist a professional photographer with real estate experience to obtain professional photos of the home immediately after the home is prepped, cleaned and ready for sale.  If the home is being professionally staged, this is vital in any home currently occupied by the home owners to avoid re-tweaking of the final staged presentation and reduces the stress for home owners to maintain this 'showcased' look when currently living within this home.

Professional home staging + professional photography equates to an improved MLS presentation, more interest from motivated buyers, increases your individual statistics of successful sales within a shorter period of time,  with the potential  for  increased profitability with fewer marketing dollars spent per listing and more time to secure other listings.

London-based professional property stylist , Cheryl Trudell, Founder and Lead Property Stylist of Home Staging 4 Success, has been honoured with two RESA®  awards ~ RESA’s 2014 Top 10 Best Occupied Stagings™ North America and  RESA’s 2013 Top 10 Rising Star Home Stagers of the Year™ .North America. The Real Estate Staging Association® (RESA®) is the trade association for professional real estate stagers and re-designers.   Real Estate Staging Association® (RESA®) is recognizing leaders within the staging industry for their outstanding contributions and personal accomplishments. 


#londonhomestager, #homestaging4success, #cheryltrudell, #realestateprofessional, #homestagerinlondonon, #realestatemarketing, #realestatemarketingstrategies