Home Staging SOP

It is a good idea to protect yourself as much as possible when you are selling or buying your home. It is within your ability to protect yourself, especially against making costly home selling mistakes.

Finding this information online, or from your real estate agent, is possible and within your abilities. To ensure that your deal is successful, you would be wise to accept any responsibilities that come your way. Your agent may care enough to go the extra mile, but if you will placing a lot of trust in that person. The following three approaches can be used to protect yourself from making some of the worst home selling mistakes possible.

If you list your home and it doesn’t sell during the life of the listing, there is a kind of black mark – stigma – that surrounds your home. Much of it is a psychological effect which is typical with stigmas. Potential buyers will wonder why the home didn’t sell during the original listing and assume that it must have a problem. To prevent this from happening with your home, there are steps you can take to safeguard against this problem. When this happens, you will have lost time and money. It is necessary for you to address to this problem before listing your home. See what kind of solution or recommendations your agent has to avoid this problem. Then, consider the efficacy of their answer. Nobody who wants to sell their home should settle for the first real estate agent they talk with. You need to gauge the experience of the agents you talk to and you can best do that by talking to a variety of different agents. While you are interviewing a prospective listing agent, discuss what they suggest as the listing price for your home. When you list your home, you hope that you will get as much from the sale as you can. However, this is an area where a home seller and their agent can make a big mistake. How fast your home sells will depend on a pricing compromise between too high and too low. Your potential buyers will instantly know if your asking price is reasonable or not as they have been looking at other comparable properties. You may lose many sales if your home is not priced according to the local market for homes like yours.

Getting acquainted with the real estate industry, and its many diverse terms and expressions is something that you should do. For example, there is the home showing which is a fairly intuitive term. In most cases, the buyer is coming over to look at your home. That’s what it means. But then there is what’s known as staging your home. You are getting your house ready for showing – that is what this means. You need to let a professional do this for you. It is worth your time and money. The person who does home staging will know exactly what to do and all the little tricks that are known to work. The money will be a very good investment and should be considered.

Costly home selling mistakes happened to many people. You need to avoid these and remember that your house is your investment. You need to take this seriously! Truth be told, it’s not as difficult as it may seem to be. It’s all about taking control over what is happening and using the information to do things the right way.

Staying out of this mistake it may be carried out such lots of ways. You can find some ways by letting in contact with this expert to assist and educate you on this concern.

Be sure to check out our website to get some good suggestions Click Here!

Home staging can help you achieve maximum dollar for your home and sell it faster. Here’s why it works:

1. Unstylish means unsold. More often than not, people can not look past empty rooms or even unattractive decor. Successful builders usually use model homes for this reason. Home staging will give the home a more unified, up-to-date, simplified look that people are looking for.

2. A Buyer Can’t Fight the Feeling. House hunters usually start off with a list of things that they want in a home or reasons why they won’t buy. In the end more people tend to buy for emotional reasons sometimes disregarding their list of criteria. Staging your home gives it more of an emotional feeling, it will change, “The second bedroom is too small” to “Wow, this feels like home” and “I can see us living here.”

3. Sold is in the Details. You have been living in you home for a few or even many years. You are used to it. The best thing you can do to improve the look of your home is to have a fresh set of eyes come in to see what you may not. Stagers give you professional advice that you may not have thought of. Even the smallest changes can make a big difference. When buyers come through a home looking to buy they will notice the smallest details even if you don’t anymore.

4. Don’t Trade Sleep for Upkeep. When people have their homes up for sale they often times are too busy and tired to do work on their homes. Buyers see that the house could use some tidying or there is too much clutter. Home stagers come in and do that work for you. They can quickly get the home ready for sale so when the buyer comes in it is organized, clean and has a functional traffic flow.

5. Seeing is Believing. By staging your home you are creating that “model suite” look. This clean, organized look appeals to a broad spectrum of potential buyers. Your home will look better on the internet, in print advertising and in person.

6. Your Home has Gold Status. Realtors look at staged homes as the premium homes to be viewed. As a result you will get more viewings. Staging works and costs less than the usual first price reduction. So, there is nothing to lose, just more to gain.

Permission to reuse or redistribute these materials is hereby granted provided they are reproduced or redistributed in their entirety with full attribution. (c) 2008 Colette Robicheau Colette Robicheau, President of Organize Anything, is a consultant, coach, and public speaker offering corporate, residential, and personal organizing services. For more information contact Colette Robicheau, Organizing Consultant and Coach visit her website www.organizeanything.com or email .

When you are trying to sell your home it’s about minimizing the number of days that you have it on the market and it’s about getting top dollar for the purchase price.

In order to get these numbers right, it’s important to reduce some other numbers.

Take a look at the following list of things you have in your house. Here are some key areas and items where the numbers need to be reduced:

1. Books in bookshelves can be reduced by at least a third

2. Items on countertops should be minimal

3. Knick knacks

4. Extra chairs around dining room table

5. Extra pieces of furniture in living room- too many small pieces will detract from any room. Leave a few prominent larger pieces

6. Personal photos

7. Clothes and shoes that are piling up in closets

8. Plastic containers and plastic bags that fall out when you open up cupboard doors

9. Papers and magazines that are piling up

By reducing the number of items around your home you can count on getting a faster offer and one that will add more to your bank account.

Colette Robicheau, President of Organize Anything, is a consultant, coach, and public speaker offering corporate, residential, and personal organizing services. For more information contact Colette Robicheau, Organizing Consultant and Coach visit her website www.organizeanything.com, email , or read her blog at http://organizeanything.blogspot.com/

by
Sophie Bureau

Two common problems at loading docks are damage to the loading dock door and dock drop-offs that involve an employee and/or a forklift. Both problems can easily be prevented if the issues causing them are completely understood.

Loading dock door damage

Loading dock door damage typically results from either a staging or hauling operation or a situation where the loading dock door is hit. When the loading dock door is hit, the mechanism that opens and closes the dock door may be damaged, resulting in the inability to completely open the loading dock door. A door that is not fully open offers a potentially unsafe condition because the door can drop on employees, cargo, or loading equipment.

Loading dock door drop-offs

Statistics indicate1 that every day there are over 260 forklift truck accidents at loading docks. In fact, every three days there is one fatal loading dock accident where a forklift drops-off of a loading dock. For each loading dock accident, there are approximately 600 near misses.

Many of these accidents can be serious. One loading dock door drop-off can impact a companys reputation and its responsibility to provide a safe work environment. The last thing a company wants to read about is a loading dock door drop-off that occurred in one of their facilities, especially if the accident could have been prevented. Nor does any company want to be a statistic in U.S. Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administrations (OSHA) Weekly Fatality/Catastrophe Report2. In addition, an investigation may follow to determine if the company was in compliance with OSHA’s applicable standards.

OSHA may cite the General Duty Clause, which requires, “Each employer shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which is free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.”

Another standard that could be cited is 1910.22(c), “Covers and/or guardrails shall be provided to protect personnel from the hazards of open pits, tanks, vats, ditches, etc.”

Impact of loading dock door drop-offs and dock door damages on corporate profitability
Even a single loading dock door drop-off accident can greatly impact a companys profitability. Not only is the company responsible for the costs of the persons injuries, but significant costs, potentially thousands of dollars, may result from a lawsuit. In addition, if a fatality is involved, or there are three or more employees as a result of a work-related incident the company must report it to OSHA within eight hours (29 CFR 1904.39). This will most likely result in an OSHA inspection and investigation.

Profitability is also affected when the loading dock door is hit. Once impacted, the door cannot be opened or closed without further damage to the door mechanism, and sometimes the dock door cannot be opened or closed at all until it is repaired, leaving the company with one fewer loading dock in operation. Just to replace a damaged door panel costs between US$200-US$600. This does not include the downtime created by lost use of the door, the 2-3 hours of labor costs to install the new panel, or the cost of the repair persons travel time.

There may be additional costs related to product replacement if the loading dock door is also used to:

maintain proper refrigeration temperatures and keep the cold-chain from breaking during palletization, staging, loading and unloading of containers; or

protect products from exposure to environmental contaminants such as microbes, dust, moisture and other physical contamination, there may be additional costs related to product replacement.
The company may suffer additional losses resulting from the loading dock door being fully or partially opened for an extended period of time until the repair can be made.

The solution

Today many safety-minded companies are using safety barriers in place of a single chain across the loading dock door. The use of a chain is an outdated practice that offers minimal, if any, protection against loading dock drop-off when material handling equipment is involved.

The newest technology in dock door protection is the use of a safety barrier that provides a constant visual warning and a safety reminder. In addition, an audible alarm is triggered when the safety barrier is hit. This provides an additional warning to the dock employee, allowing for adequate reaction time to reduce the risk of accidentally hitting the dock door. If the barrier is struck, it safely detaches upon impact and can easily be reattached in just a few seconds. No special skill is required to reattach the barrier. This product can also help prevent forklift drop-off at raised docks and pedestrians from walking off the edge of the dock.
Below are supporting statements from several large distribution companies as to why they now choose to use loading dock door safety barriers in front of their loading dock doors to prevent loading dock door damage and dock drop-off:

Mario DAmours, Vice-President Distribution, Colabor L.P., an integrated food marketing and distribution network which warehouses food products until they are supplied to wholesalers: On a regular basis, we move a lot of skids full of products, as well as empty skids, through our dock doors. We were looking for a solution where there would be a safe distance between the door and the truck and where we could also alert the yard to any potential safety issue. Safety barriers are the perfect solution to support our companys commitment to safety.

Serge Guy, Director, Molson-Coors Brewing Company: Our situation is a little different. We have an interior loading dock and hence we dont have loading dock doors. Nevertheless, to secure our loading operation we decided to equip all of our interior loading docks with safety barriers. This has made our loading process significantly safer.

Denis Trois, Logistics Director at Colabor L.P., a Canadian integrated food marketing and distribution network operating in Quebec, Atlantic Canada and Ontario. Colabor warehouses food products that it supplies exclusively to wholesalers: To solve our costly loading dock door problem, we installed safety barrier at each loading dock door. Since that time we have not had a single loading dock door accident.

Summary

Loading dock door safety barriers, from companies like GMR Safety, are now considered the best solution to help protect loading dock doors from being hit and damaged and the best option to help reduce the need to replace overhead door bottom panels. They also provide a safer environment at the loading dock and aid in preventing loading dock drop-off accidents. Dock door safety barriers help reinforce a companys commitment to accident and injury prevention.

Concurrently, loading dock door safety barriers also:
Restrict access to the MTZ (material transfer zone).
Reduce employee and facility downtime.
Reduce maintenance and repair budgets and thus avoid loss of corporate profits.

About the Author
Sophie Bureau is the Marketing Manager at GMR Safety, Inc. in Terrebonne, Quebec, Canada.

1 U.S. Lasers Inc., Hazlehurst, Georgia. Three Causes of Truck Lift Accidents. Material Handling Management. August 2008, 6-7.
2 United States. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Weekly Reports of Fatalities, Catastrophes, and Other Events. 3 April 2010.
3 United States. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 29 CFR 1910.23. 3 April 2010.

Do you need to sell your home fast for a great price? Try home staging! This article tells you how to use home staging to decrease your homes days on the market and increase the sales price!

Home staging helps homeowners to prepare and market their home by setting it apart from other homes for sale in the same real estate market. Professional home stagers are professionals that help you in preparing your home for sale. They help you create a very good first impression on potential home buyers by taking care of your house and improving its appeal.

Professional home stagers rearrange your homes furniture, making it more organized and improving the flow from room to room. They help you redesign your house so that it appeals to potential homebuyers. They can also suggest and, in some cases, purchase furniture or fixtures to make your home show its absolute best!
To put it differently, they make your house sell-able with their design experience and expertise. Home staging is particularly useful where prices appreciate slowly and finding a buyer takes a lot of time.

The Home Staging Process

The first impression is the key to a good offer (read: high price) and quick sale. Most buyers make up their mind even before entering the house! That is why it becomes so vital to create a winning first impression. The professional home stager helps you prepare your house for the best impact possible.

Zeroing in on a professional home stager is not difficult. You can ask your friends and acquaintances who have recently sold a house for references. Your Real Estate Investor Deals, real estate agent or company can also help you in this regard. In all probability, they might have already utilized the services of the professional home stagers in your area.

Once you have zeroed in on a few home stagers, the next step is to get an estimate from them. Mostly it is a quick and accurate process. You should then make calculations and comparisons. It is always a good idea to discuss their estimates with them before making a final decision.

It is also important to take into account others factors like the condition of your home, asking price and average time the houses are for sale before a deal is clinched. Asking price is the most important factor. If the asking price is low, it may not make sense to hire a professional home stager. These factors and others go a long way in helping you make an informed decision about hiring a professional home stager.

On occasion your real estate agent may also contribute to the fees of your professional home stager. This may be done when your real estate agent is convinced that the fees are reasonable and the investment is worthwhile.

Doing It On Your Own

If you dont want to spend money to hire professionals you can do home staging on your own. Here are a few tips on do-it-yourself home staging:

Clean your house, yard, kitchen, bathrooms, drapes, and carpets. Wash the windows.
Make your home organized and less cluttered. Remove all the unnecessary objects. If need be, rent a storage unit for all your extra stuff. This will make your home look neat and spacious.

Clean out and organize all closets.
Have the interior of your home freshly painted in neutral colors.
Check the floor. It might need refinishing.
Rearrange furniture, or even rent some pieces to showcase your living spaces.
Update bathroom and kitchen fixtures. Replace cabinet pulls.
Remove personal pictures and rearrange others.
Home staging can help your house sell faster and at a better price than you probably would be able to without any preparation. The thing to remember is that your home should appeal to a wide variety of buyers. Staging your home will put your home in its best light and help potential buyers to envision themselves living in your home.