Dramatic Spaces Home Staging and Design

I have been reading the book Nothing Down for Women: The Smart Woman’s Quick-Start Guide to Real Estate Investing, which I highly recommend, and the author Karen Nelson Bell says “in real estate investing, we are not in the house business, we’re in the people business.” This is so true in the home staging business as well.

As a home stager our objective is to solve problems.  The problem or the goal for most homeowners is to sell their home quickly for as much as they can in order to get on with their life.  It just goes without saying that in doing this we are making their life easier and making the whole process simpler.

Statistics show that predominately women are the ones buying houses.  She is the one who decides where the family lives.   Karen Nelson Bell says that 18% of first time home buyers are single women.  The advantage that women have when selling a house or in staging a house is that we know what we are looking for in a home.  We don’t like cold, impersonal vacant homes, but homes that we can see our family living in, homes that have a warmth, welcoming and relaxing atmosphere.  We want that emotional connection to the home.

Sure we want everything on our logical list, but when a house feels right, it just is. The way you create this for the buyer, again the woman, is to show the homes warmth and potential.  The details are what seals the deal.  The majority of home stagers are women.  We know what to pay attention to, what really captures our heart within a home.  Anyone who tries to tell you that their is no emotion in buying a home is wrong.

If you are selling your home and thinking of hiring a home stager, remember that we want to help you solve your problem. Whatever your circumstances or your budget your home stager wants to help you as a person deal with the selling process as efficiently and as effectively as possible. Home staging is a people business, not a home staging business.

Karen Nelson Bell’s book, with co-author Robert G. Allen Nothing Down for Women: The Smart Woman’s Quick-Start Guide to Real Estate Investing has a lot of great information and ideas on how to become financially free. It is written in bite size chunks for easy reading. It is for those who don’t have a lot of time for reading, but who want to have more time in life for the important things.

Believe it or not the real estate season is slowing down.  Spring is the time that most sellers put there house on the market and there is a flurry of activity.  What if you missed this hot selling/buying period and your home is still on the market or you haven’t even listed it yet?

I went on MLS the other day, as I frequently do, and it is unbelievable the amount of little red dots that pop up.  Those little red dots show the location of all the houses for sale in a particular area (I know you know this).  I often wonder what these homeowners are feeling at this time. Are they totally stressed and freaking out or just feeling it’s okay, someone will eventually come along and want my house.

My guess is most homeowners are experiencing the stress and the freaking out feeling.  Whether to fret or not depends on your selling strategy. You do have a selling strategy, don’t you?

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I visited a few open houses this weekend and none of them had decor that screamed out to me as needing a lot of work. But as a home stager I did notice a lack in the detail work. There were so many little things that could be done that make a HUGE difference. They were all older homes as I like their character and the fact that every home is not the same.

These are the types of homes that the homeowner may feel that nothing needs to be done to them. Nothing caught my attention when I viewed the pictures on the internet to say that these homes needed work done. But I am a home stager and I can spot every area that can be improved so that the buyer has less to pick apart, which will bring down the price. My philosophy is to create a win-win scenario. A win for the seller so they can sell quickly, for maximum profit and a win for the buyer so they feel they are getting value for their money with little work to the home.

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This time of year is when the real estate season will start to build momentum. There are always homes to be bought and sold, but for most it is a time of year for planning and organizing for what needs to be accomplished next.

This is the perfect time of year for you to start thinking about what your home needs in terms of repairs and renovations if you are planning on selling in the spring. You don’t need to wait until spring to make things happen and you shouldn’t. If you do, time seems to move quickly and before you know it spring will be here and you’ll wonder why you didn’t start this stuff earlier. If you put it in your calendar to do a little this week a little next week you’ll find that the tasks aren’t as overwhelming.

This is what many of us do, even me. We look at everything that needs to be done as a whole and become frustrated and do nothing. This doesn’t have to be you. Instead break the work down into chunks and start small. When you break down the task into manageable pieces you are more apt to feel like you can accomplish them.

So, as you approach the New Year, plan out not only how you want to fulfill your New Year’s resolution, but your home repairs, your updates and your home selling readiness. You’ll be surprised what you can accomplish when you plan on it happening.

Your mindset could be what stands in the way of a quick sale. I so often hear from realtors that their biggest challenge with clients is that the seller thinks their house is beautiful just the way it is. What happens is they price it too high, they don’t make any changes to its appearance, and here I mean simple changes that make a huge difference, and then their house sits on the market with no offers.

In this video on 20/20 Kirsten Kemp, host of TLC’s show Property Ladder, explains that if you get your emotions out of the way you will be able to move on with your life. She goes on to say that you need to price your home right, market it correctly and give yourself a reality check on what is a fair price and how your home really looks.
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I don’t know too many homes that are completely organized and clutter-free. We are living in an age of high tech and speed. Everything has to be done yesterday. Does anyone really keep up? Not many, so don’t be too hard on yourself.

So when you step down the road of getting your home ready to sell why not take that opportunity to capitalize on this new beginning. It is like making a New Year’s resolution any time of the year. How cool is that. Making a commitment to yourself to change your habits and to live a better life is the first step. But how many of us stick with it? And why is it so difficult?
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