Home Staging SOP

Don’t be fooled by all the “easy does it” training for careers that are so frequent with advertisers on the Internet. They illustrate this perfect part-time real estate career you can learn at home and by practice on neighborhood homes. Sounds great doesn’t it?

What’s all this hype about?

Haven’t you heard? It’s the wonderful world of HOME STAGING!

Beware folks – I don’t think any of those claims are from people who are the real deal – sorry to burst your bubble.

Today, I wanted to address the part about working part-time and illustrate what’s really possible.

So, is it…really possible to work part-time as a Home Stager? Sure, but I think a more important distinction is not so much part-time or full-time, but what part-time means to you. Does it mean that you’ll be working half the day or part of the day while your kids are at school? Or does it mean that you work full-time at a regular job and you’ll be working on staging projects after your regular work hours?

So, defining for yourself what working part-time really means is very important. Another important distinction is whether you’re “working” as a Home Stager or if you’re “running a Home Staging Business”.

Now, when I first started my home staging business, I was working full-time and let me tell you…it was stressful for several reasons.

1) With promoting my staging business, I never told anyone nor did I want anyone to know that I was not staging full-time. The reason was for positioning. I knew that if they even thought I was not running a full-time business, I would not be taken seriously.

Now, this is me, not you, but I think this is very true, so hear me out. Put yourself in that position. If you were interviewing Realtors, would you hire one that was an expert and you knew that’s all they did all day long or would you hire the person who dabbled in it part-time? Do you see the difference?

2) With working a regular full-time job, I didn’t want them to know I was “moonlighting” as a home stager. I was ducking into conference rooms to take calls from prospects and when I scheduled projects, I would have to arrange for time off.

As my staging business started to get some traction, it got much harder to take the occasional day off. I eventually had to let the job go, which also meant a steady paycheck. Believe me when I say, my staging business was a rollercoaster ride in the beginning.

Before making that important career choice please consider the following points about working part-time v. full-time. They are very valuable aspects in your business decisions.

It would be difficult if you’re running the show, i.e. if this is your business and you’re building it from the ground up. Why? Because most networking activities with your target market take place during regular business hours and there is a lot more to the “business” than just the actual hands-on staging project.

As any entrepreneur will tell you, running your own business means you’re now wearing multiple hats – marketing, accounting, business development, administration, operations, etc. To squeeze all these in generally means working beyond your regular 8-hour day.

Now, can you systematize your business to be more efficient? Absolutely!

Can you outsource some of these tasks to other people? Totally!

Does it take time to get there…you better believe it!

If you join a staging team, that’s a different story. I have an associate who has stagers who work on her Staging team while their kids are at school, but they only work on a project basis. This is not their business, it’s not their company, it’s just their JOB. This is a huge distinction.

If you’re planning on working on staging projects after business hours, my opinion is that that would be extremely difficult unless you’re only working on vacant properties. If it’s an owner occupied property, they don’t want you in their houses after hours.

They want it done during the day while they’re at work. When they return from work, they have family obligations to tend to…kids to feed, bathe, and get to bed. It’s NOT convenient to have someone there moving things around and honestly, you don’t want to be there when they’re home.

I eventually added a clause to my agreement that the property had to be vacant during the time that we were scheduled to stage. If you’ve ever done it, you’ll understand. It’s a nightmare. They follow you around, asking you questions, kids are in the way, and it’s just not productive.

This also applies on the weekends. Either the homeowners are at home on the weekends and have their own things to deal with or that’s when open houses are scheduled. Honestly, despite sacrifices that need to be made initially ask yourself; do you really want to work on the weekends?

These basic facts will help clarify what’s possible working part-time v. full-time. When you are making that future career choice it is very important to research thoroughly so that your decision will be the best for your lifestyle and business needs.

Copyright (c) 2009 Alice Chan

Everyone on a budget today knows how hard it is to decorate a home, or even just a single room. A child’s room can be one of the most challenging rooms in the house to stage. With a few easy home staging ideas and some creativity, anyone can stage their kid’s room to present well to potential home buyers.

Step 1
Clean up the room. Before you begin any upgrades in any room, you need to clean up the mess. A child’s room is an easy target for untidiness. You can expect to find toys, clothes, juice boxes and other items if the room is not cleaned up on a regular basis. Clean up the mess, pass the vacuum and plug in a fresh room scent. Clean any windows and get rid of dirty clothes.

Step 2
Decide on a theme. Start by choosing a theme/color that will be the main focus of the entire room. When purchasing any bedding, curtains or accessories, choose colors that compliment the main theme/color of the room.

Step 3
Paint the room. When painting any room to stage, its always a good idea to use neutral colors. You can buy paint for a fraction of the cost if you are willing to purchase mis-tints. These are paints that were tinted for a customer but didn’t turn out to their liking. Surprisingly, you can get some wonderful colors this way.

Step 4
Frame It. Put themed items in a picture frame. You can actually put items in a picture frame or you can just print something off the computer and frame it as well. In this case, it would be easy to print off a soccer ball and frame it. This is an inexpensive way of tying the themed space together.

Step 5
Sew something. Adding your own talent and creativity, like sewing something for the childs room, is a great inexpensive and fun way to upgrade the room. One homemade sewing project can make a huge difference to the childs room that you are staging to sell. You can begin by sewing a few pillows, shams or curtains and valances. Fabric can be very inexpensive if you shop around for the best bargain.

Step 6
Change the lighting. The lighting in any room can really make a difference. Consider adding high wattage light bulbs.

Step 7
Add a Desk. Stage a small desk area and accessorize with a table lamp and a computer prop. This will allow potential homeowners the opportunity to visualize their kids in the space doing their homework or how they will operate in that space.

A childs room is a fun and creative space that will surely add warmth and admiration to the rest of your house. If staged right, potential home buyers will take into consideration your home if the room or rooms in your house offer them what they are looking for. Make sure you follow the home staging ideas above and expect home buyers to compliment you on a great looking child’s room.

Many communities around the countryhave a very competitive real estate market and Dallas is no exception. Because of this the Dallas area Realtors know that if they want to gain an edge in selling vacant homes, sellers should stage their home to make it attractive to potential buyers. A small initial investment of renting furniture can often result in a finding a buyer faster and getting an increased selling price. A successfully staged home often requires furnishings that are not currently in your home but those that can be easily obtained at the Brook Furniture Rental showroom in Dallas.

A Realtors goal with home staging is to enhance the look of a home with furniture that will make potential buyers feel at home. Furniture rental showrooms, like the one in Dallas, often inspire creativity. As you walk through the Dallas showroom, you will see rooms on display that capture a variety of furniture styles, which can accent any home. In addition, the Account Executives will help you find the finest furniture to present your home for sale in the best light possible.

Browse the showroom to find your vision for your home. You or your Realtor may already have a vision in mind of what furniture would look best to stage in your home. You may have already secured the services of a home staging professional. In any case, you can browse an assortment of styles to find the perfect pieces to match your vision. Additionally, Brook Furniture Rental also provides an online catalog, if you dont have the time to visit the Dallas showroom.

Seasoned professionals make the process easy. Customer Account Executives in the Dallas showroom have an eye for interior design. They have worked with Realtors and stagers during the process of home staging many times before and understand which pieces work to enhance the overall appeal of a home to improve the selling time and improve the likelihood of selling a home for a higher price. Alternatively, an account executive can provide more services by meeting you at the home for sale to get an idea of the needs and space requirements.

Visit a furniture rental showroom with your realtor and home stager. Consulting a professional, such as a Customer Account Executive, whom has experience in home staging as well as your realtor before you embark on the home staging process is always a good first step. They have invaluable experience and will take you through the pros and cons of home staging. With their help, what you see at the Brook Furniture Rentals showroom floor will translate into a picturesque scene in your home for sale that ultimately can assist you in successfully selling your home.

Even though ovarian cysts after the menopause are less common, instances do crop up and may cause difficulties. Post-menopausal women with an ovarian cyst that is not suitable for conservative management may have to have an oophorectomy. This operation is done to take out the ovary within a bag so as not to have the cyst break open in the peritoneal cavity. Post-menopausal women are recommended to take a sonographical CA125 test using transvaginal grayscale. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), and Doppler scans are not as good for the detection of post-menopausal cysts. Transvaginal ultrasound is the best way to understand the situation of ovarian cysts because it gives enhanced detail and more sensitivity. Larger cysts nevertheless should be examined transabdominally.

After menopause, ovarian cysts are contracted by about 17 percent of women. No optimal management solution for cysts exists. Many cysts will be reabsorbed by themselves without major difficulty. Malignancy and ovarian cysts do not appear to have much correlation, but ovarian cancer is showing a disturbing rise in older women. Survival is statistically unlikely, if the cancer spreads beyond the ovary. To be completely sure it is necessary to do a full laparotomy and staging procedure, even though it is well to be suspicious of the possible malignancy of all ovarian cysts in women after the menopause. From a sample of 226 women recent research on post-menopausal ovarian cysts suggests that ovarian cysts that are smaller than 50mm in diameter are benign and can be treated with safe management involving regular monitoring of the cyst size and the CA 125 levels.

For a woman after menopause, ovarian cysts generate two questions, the first concerning the best management and the second concerning where the treatment should take place. A typical test is the measurement of CA125 that is used in more than four out of five cases. A cutoff of 30 u/ml is used typically and the test sensitivity is 81 percent with specificity of 75 percent. The use of ultrasound has been shown to have 89 percent sensitivity and 73 percent specificity. Doppler sonography with color flow has also been demonstrated to usefully assess ovarian cysts. Examining the fluid cytologically from an ovarian cyst is less effective in deciding if a tumor is benign or malignant. The sensitivity is only about 25 percent with a greater danger of breaking open a cyst. When used with an index to measure the risk of malignancy, management changes should be revised accordingly. A general gynecologist will be able to manage women with low risk, but women at an intermediate risk level should be referred to a cancer unit and those with a high risk level should be accompanied to a cancer center.

In the laparoscopic management of ovarian cysts in post-menopausal women, the recommendation is often for oophorectomy instead of cystectomy. Frequently the error is made in choosing ovarian cyst fluid for a cytological assessment in an effort to identify cyst malignancy. The precision factor is only 25 percent in this case and there is also the risk of the cyst disintegrating. It is the high threat malignancy index that shows all ovarian cysts in post-menopausal women, which are suspected of being malignant. If a laparoscopy indicates suspicious clinical findings, then a full laparotomy and other staging procedures are to be employed. These must be done by a surgeon qualified for this as part of a multidisciplinary team working at a certified cancer center. Therefore one may deduce that aspiration has no real role to play in the post-menopausal management of asymptomatic ovarian cysts. Nevertheless, in conjunction with laparotomy and laparoscopy it might be a step in the preliminary surgical management. The extended midline incision should comprise biopsies from areas and adhesions under suspicion, the cytology in the form of ascites or washings, BSO, TAH and infra-colic omentectomy and laparotomy that is well documented. If the cyst is malignant this may have grave further effects on the probability of the patient surviving.

Similar to a number of other chronic complaints, ovarian cysts after menopause are not caused by one factor only. Conventional medicine that only acts on a particular symptom will therefore not be successful in curing ovarian cysts. Several factors need to be treated in the formation of an ovarian cyst. Some of these are directly responsible for the generation of such cysts, whereas others will act to worsen cysts that already exist. A primary cause might perhaps be dealt with by conventional medicine, but the indirect factors will remain and cause complications. A holistic program is the only possibility to fully relieve yourself from ovarian cysts after menopause. The treatment needs to be multi-dimensional because of the multiple factors involved in ovarian cysts. This is the only way of getting to the underlying problems and eliminating cysts forever.

Do you know what freedom fighters like Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Ghandi, Rosa Parks, and so many others have one thing in common? At one point they decided that enough was enough and that they could be invincible by standing on a platform of excellence. That is how they achieved what they went after. When Nelson Mandela said: “Does anybody really think that they didnt get what they had because they didnt have the talent, or the strength, or the endurance or the commitment?” he is talking about setting your sites on excellence so you can be the best you can be.

Now, this does not mean that you have to be the next President of Africa, but that you would want to be the best Home Stager in your area. Once you decide to be “invincible” as a Home Stager, you immediately set the course for excellence just like all the people before you that want to be “excellent.” After having studied great world leaders, business leaders and visionaries, following are the steps that it takes to create your path of excellence in your Home Staging Business.

Step #1 – Focus on Specificity. You must decide specifically what your area of expertise is within the Home Staging industry, then who your customer is as well as your message. By telling someone you are just another Home Stager you remove your opportunity to tell them you are extraordinary. What makes you extraordinary? That is what you need to say. Usually it should be said in such a way that it solves your client’s problem.

Step #2 – Do what you say you will do. Call when you say you will call, confirm the appointment, show up 5 minutes early, dress professionally, have your paperwork with you and in order as well as the client information.

Step #3 – Perform an amazing home staging service. Start by being very specific as to what your client wants and what they will receive. Then deliver that, plus a little more so you can always Under Promise and Over Deliver.

Step #4 – Offer to put together the photos of the property and hand deliver them to your clients office (send a digital copy as well, all of it should include your company name and contact information).

Step #5 – Send a follow up thank you letter with an offer to check on the status of the Home Staging within the next 30 days to tweek the set in case it needs to be adjusted at no extra charge.

Step #6 – Keep in touch every 30 days for the rest of your relationship.

By following these 6 steps you will stand out in the sea of other Home Stagers with your unique message positioned directly at the right customer, you will set a new standard of professionalism by doing what you say you will and more, the home staging service you deliver will thrill your client, and your gratitude, level of customer service, and follow up will ensure that this client, is yours for life. Now, just repeat the process for all future clients and you will find that you have easily created your own Path of Excellence for your Home Staging Business.