Month: October 2017

Selling the home is a process that is time consuming and laborious. Although agents can help put the house in the market and cut a nice deal, the process of making the house appeal to buyers is tiresome. The home staging process is nothing but preparing the home for the sale, incorporating several selling points and making the home look like a good value for the asking price. There are many things to take care of, when staging the home before opening the doors to the market. Through the staging process, the home owner should put themselves in the shoes of buyers and do the adjustments accordingly.

The first step of staging process is de-cluttering the space. Everything starting from the garage to the storerooms should be de-cluttered, so that the prospective buyers can picture themselves living in their future home. De-cluttering has another big advantage. It makes the space appear much bigger than it actually is, and so makes the house appealing. De-cluttering means removing all the personal belonging from the most obvious places, and organizing them neatly in closets, or closed storages. Removing the personal belongings like photographs, personalized artwork and trinkets puts a fresh touch to the home, and helps the buyers visualize the space according to their requirement.

Changing the paint color is the easiest job which can make a huge change to the interiors of the home. Neutral shades and light tones open up the space make them airy. Brightening up the space as much as possible is recommended, since it adds a positive note to the interiors. Fireplaces should always be the focal point of the living rooms, and must be painted according to the color scheme of the rest of the house. Painting the ceiling in a very light shade is very important, since it can add height to the room, and make it appear bigger. Before the home is open for buyers, all lights must be switched on, and the house should be dust-free.

Adding greenery to the living space makes it lively and inviting. Any artwork that is displayed should fall in place with the dcor of the home, and the color scheme. Sometimes, rearranging the furniture can make a huge difference to the space. Living room furniture should always be arranged keeping the focal point of the room in mind. Bedrooms must be staged carefully, since it is the most personal part of the homes. Paint colors must be in tune with the rest of the house. The bed must be made before staging and must be clean and fresh. Lighting a few candles before opening doors can add a fresh note to the bedrooms.

Staging the kitchen can also be tricky, since getting rid of the utensils and clutter on the counter tops can be difficult. Keeping fresh fruits or flowers on the dining table or on the counter tops can freshen up the kitchen. Appliances must be extremely clean and polished before inviting home buyers. Polishing the cabinets makes them look like they are newly installed. Home staging can effectively increase the home value and make selling an easier process. Are you looking for Homes for Sale in Pinole CA or Pinole Real Estate, Marco Rodriguez Team is just a call away!

Winter brings its own set of problems to home sellers. Home buyers don’t feel as motivated to go home shopping in cold, wet weather. Plus, the early nightfall makes buyers want to wait until the weekend to view houses. When the weekend rolls around, home shoppers get sidetracked with holiday activities.

Besides the typical winter slow down in sales, today’s market also makes selling your home more difficult. Market concerns include:

1.Rising interest rates

2.More houses on the market

3.Longer time frame–days on the market

If you’re selling your home or investment property during this shifting real estate market, you can tempt buyers to get out of their warm cars and take a look at your home with home staging methods. Here are a few home staging strategies to help you sell your home during the holidays:

Home Staging the Exterior

Door wreaths welcome all to your home and set the stage for celebrating. Make a simple wreath to hang on your front door with holiday colors that blend in with and dress up your homes exterior colors. Use tree branches from your garden; attach a few gourds or pomegranates, nuts, and ribbons.

Group vines and mums or poinsettias for display impact near the front entrance. Adjust the vines to add height and movement. Add colored ribbons and fall leaves or evergreen branches.

Holiday Dcor and Your Target Buyers

Do your neighbors decorate their home exteriors with Christmas decorations? If your neighborhood supports Christmas themes, then your prospective buyers will appreciate your Christmas dcor.

However, if your neighborhood doesn’t decorate for Christmas, then your buyers may feel more comfortable without Christmas decorations. Play down Christmas if you live in an area that promotes “politically correct” holiday and seasons greetings instead of “Christmas Cheer.”

If you feel that you want to celebrate Christmas your way, go for it. Just understand that your home sale may take a little longer.

Home Staging with Christmas Decorations

Use less of your ornament collection this year. Don’t over-crowd your rooms. You want your buyers to see your homes features. Rooms filled to the brim with decorations stop the buyers eyes from visualizing their own furnishings in your home. Plus, crowded spaces feel smaller.

Examine your room colors and compare to your Christmas decorations. Do the reds clash? You may want to store ornaments with colors that don’t add to the setting.

Design Psychology Home Staging for the Senses During the Holidays

Appeal to your buyer’s senses to make them feel at home.

1. Sight: Use amber-colored lights that give a rich warm golden glow to your rooms. Switch out your regular white light bulbs in a few table lamps with amber bulbs to make your home feel toasty-warm and inviting.

2. Sound: Play gentle well-known music without words. This makes buyers feel like singing along and picks up their step. Music helps buyers feel joyful in your home.

3. Smell: Use natural essential oils in a diffuser. Many people suffer from allergic reactions to artificial sprays. Simmer cider with orange slices, cinnamon and cloves.

4. Touch: Add silky and velvet fabrics to table tops that tempt the buyer to feel the softness. The brain interprets the sense of touch just by seeing softness. Also, use thick, fluffy hand towels in the bathroom and kitchen to soften the cold, hard surfaces of room typically filled with tile, granite, and porcelain.

5. Taste: Yes! The sense of smell contributes to the sense of taste. Make sure you’re cooking something heavenly. Treat your prospective buyers like a guest. Invite them to share a warm drink and a sweet snack.

The more time your buyers spend in your home, the more they have invested in it. Houses do sell all year long. If you’re selling your home during the frantic holiday season, taking a few extra home staging steps can make a big difference in your sale.

Happy Holidays!

Copyright Jeanette Fisher

Is Your Marketing Hot?

The number one question that I always get from all of my clients, whether they are Certified Home Stagers, Home Stagers in Training, Real Estate Agents or Investors, Small Business Owners, Speakers, Entrepreneurs – you name it, this is their question: How do I market my business?

Many have some idea how to market their business, but they don’t know how to effectively market, in order to get the results they desire, which is the key. Usually, they delegate their marketing to an advertising channel such as the yellow pages, some random online marketing or a flyer or two that has been passed out at a meeting in the hopes that everyone that takes one will call you back keep hoping!

I love the coffee cup above as an extra hot marketing tool. Not only is the Bakery advertising with each cup of coffee, but they are in turn selling advertising to other clients on the mug. Super Smart! And of course the mug makes sense to their customer since they serve all sorts of coffee drinks at the Bakery.

Could they have done better with an extraordinary offer and a guarantee? Of course! The problem was lack of space, so they worked with what they had.

The real question though, is what does it take to make your marketing hot?

1) It must speak to your customer- Just like the coffee speaks to the customers buying a croissant, yours must do the same. Ask yourself who your customer is and what appeals directly to them. Is it a real estate agent, an investor, a home seller who is your customer and what speaks to them? Then, make sure your message sizzles!

2) Scare them or speak to their greed- Yes, that is the truth. The best way to capture your customer’s attention is by scaring the pants off of them or appealing to the sense of greed. So, if you are marketing your Home Staging Services, then you would send them a message like; Are you ready to sit on that listing for another 6 months? Or, Would you like to make an extra $5,000 this month?

3) Make in Incredible Offer- You can do this in a variety of ways. It can be accomplished with a 100% money back guarantee, the offer of a FREE flatscreen TV, 50% off, Buy One Get One Free, or even thru a great prize that your customer wins by participating in your contest. The idea is to give them something so juicy that they feel compelled to give you a shot.

4) Market Consistently- One of the most attractive things to potential clients is that they see your marketing consistently. Now they know you are not a, fly by night, home stager, running your business as a hobby instead of as a real company, and that you are smart enough to know how to market. That in and of itself is often appealing enough to some future clients.

5) Surprise them with your Marketing- The coffee cup was a surprise, so it was fun. When we stage homes and hide a pocket of emotion in the drawer and the buyer opens the drawer, that is fun (and it is house marketing). Having a message like the 25 reasons a rubber duck can sell your home is a fun surprise because they don,t expect it. If you really want to have ..hot..marketing, surprise them with the unexpected.

I think the last thing I would say about marketing is to simply look and see what your competition is doing and do the opposite. They are the ones inclined to post an ad and then not get any calls so they quickly determine the ad does not work. Hmmm, maybe they did not place an ad in a location that their customers see, or the ad just was not compelling.

The best example I can give for this is when I started my own Home Staging company, I looked around at all the other Home Stager Certification Program out there talking about making houses pretty and it dawned on me that there marketing was all about them instead of the results they could achieve for their potential clients. That is when I came out with our tag line of “Anybody can make your house pretty, we make it SELL.” Obviously, that did the trick.

So, let’s get you a great list of customers beating down your door so you can show them how extraordinary you really are, while introducing them to your hot marketing.

Sincerely,
Karen Schaefer – Home Staging Training and Certification APSD
Karen Schaefer

Despite the proven fact that every person has his or her own necessities as well as tastes, most people still possesses a very similar comprehension of comfort and luxury. For that reason, staging a home for sale, it could be not difficult to follow some general factors, applied to create a unique atmosphere within the exterior and interior of a house, that may be appreciated by many.
So, first of all it can be important to make your house looking nice and trim. The presence of garbage or clutter will unquestionably spoil the impression made by the house, if you will show it to your potential buyers. Secondly, the rooms at your residence should be well-lit, to permit your potential buyers to see the furnishing of the house. And thirdly, the furnishing of your home as well as its style should provide the atmosphere of harmony and comfort, where your prospective buyers will be able to relax and enjoy their time, while staying at home.
You can attempt to create this sort of pleasing atmosphere, hiring your own idea of style and comfort along with some general principles we have already mentioned above. Nonetheless, if you need to get the ideal results, while making your property looking expensive and even obtaining the highest price for its sale, then it could be of great importance to consider the advices of an expert to be able to stage a house to sell.
At present the real estate staging a house to sell seems to be quite intricate issue that will require a unique approach and consideration of the number of significant points, which could be missed by non-professionals. Just to start staging a residence we offer you to learn about the decorating ideas provided by Lise Desormeaux, who is known as the successful Home Staging and Decorating Educator. Her home staging tips present a superb guide as for realtors as for homeowners, which are in a position to transform their homes into the million dollar homes, which might be instantly sold. These guidelines could be also great for those, that happen to be going to enhance their abodes into the clutter-free and beautiful homes by not using a decorator.
Follow the tips of Lisa Desormeaux, located on www.lisedesormeaux.com, and you’ll be prepared to save plenty of cash, discovering the powerful steps to home staging.