Want Fresh?

Want fresh this year and don't know what to do?

Glean the beige and bring on the clean white with crisp greens; any green influenced by yellow is coming into focus with fresh, new botanical greens. Any green representing fresh leaves and grasses (Oprah's favorite is 'new grass green'). Look for greens with names like Gingko and Wasabi.

Purple in any shade will provide the perfect accent.

When fall and winter come, throw in some hues of warm reds, earthy oranges, and healthy browns.



Now that you know what to do, finish your fresh new look with a bouquet of delicious color for your centerpiece. Have your local craft store person put together your favorite flowers in one of these arrangements...and viola!

You Can Put Your Doubts To Rest About the Benefits of Home Staging Once and for All

The Los Angeles Times came out with an article on the Benefits of Staging a Home that proves once and for all that staging a property does make a difference in the outcome (and income) for the seller.

What is really exciting about the article is RESA's very own Vice President of the Year winner Michelle Minch of Moving Mountains Design, who provided the success story.

Congratulations Michelle!

Free Widgets, Gadgets, Music!

This is a growing list...I will add new links as I find them. Please feel free to add your fun gadgets and widgets to the list...

Here goes:

Gizmoz
Free Sign Generator
Smilebox
MyBlogLog
Earn Points While Surfing
Top 40 Music Database
Jukebox
Widgetbox

Can You Stage Your Home Yourself?

What if you REALLY need to sell your house fast before the bank takes it back and you are flat broke. The $2000 budget (without labor of course) as seen on HDTV with such shows as Designed To Sell is unthinkable! Having professionals tell you they want to come in and stage your home just makes you throw your hands up and yell “You’re not listening…I am flat broke!”.

I know I know I know; been there, done that, lost the t-shirt.

This ‘What if’ scenario is not only real but it is happening in every neighborhood across America… stress levels are up through the roof and hope has all but disappeared! You are in a panic and cannot think straight.

• You are behind on your mortgage
• You have to sell your house before it forecloses and what is left of your good credit will be ruined
• Homes are for sale all around you and yours is a mess.
• You don’t have enough money to go around much less enough to hire a stager
• You have no where to go

Is there anything you can do about it? YES! Grab the bull by the horns, as my father would say, and get it done…just do it yourself if you have to!

And that is exactly what I do when things get tough...and that is why I know you can do it too. I wrote Do-It-Yourself Home Staging Instructions just for this situation. It is a step by step instructional tutorial with a to do list and a checklist to stage your own home…as though I were right beside you.

Staging a property to sell is really nothing more than a watered down version of new construction model homes. Staging an occupied home (yours) takes much more effort and sacrifice but it can and must be done! You cannot take the chance of loosing everything when it is a fact that staged homes sell 50% quicker than the competition. You will increase your chances to get your asking price...this isn't just hype; these are current facts!

Who am I and how can I help?

My interior decorating career began in the model home industry…that was almost 27 years ago.
Where am I now and who am I? Currently I am on the board of the Real Estate Staging Association of North America; I am one of the top bloggers for professional home stagers in Active Rain, and help and support the staging industry as a whole through developing activities such as Stager Idol which is going on right now, I am most proud of my Internet business that offers Do It Yourself Home Staging Checklist and Instructions so you don’t have to loose your house. You too can take the necessary steps and increase your odds right now without waiting until it is too late.

I am not suggesting staging your own home in the good times, there is nothing like a professional stager or interior designer/decorator to come in and put the wow factor to work. But in these very hard times, you can do the basics your self! I invite you to visit how2homestage.com and get started…increase your odds of selling right now!

Don't Kid Yourself...Home Staging is a lot of work

I was just reading a post about home staging as a career and the title led one to believe that home staging is the perfect career for the frustrated mid life person. My first thought was "are they in for a shocker!".

Staging homes is very hard work so don't kid yourself if you think you will be able to jump right in and begin satisfying your creative mid-life self. Creativity seldom comes into play in home staging and let me tell you why...

• It is a business so the business needs to be set up and run like any other small business
• You will be confronted with clutter and grime like you have never seen before. Stripping a home down to its basic essentials can be a real challenge for you and if you choose not to do it, then getting your clients to do it is another big challenge...why? If they lived like that in the first place, it will be difficult for them to clean it up to your satisfaction.
• You will need inventory...sometimes a lot of inventory such as plants, art, accessories, bed dressings, towels, lamps, and often times large furniture pieces.
  
• You will need good credit, a place to store your inventory...some have $80,000 worth of inventory and they outgrew their garages and spare bedrooms within a few months.
• Hauling inventory is challenging as well.
• Then you will need to go pick up your inventory when the house has sold or when the contract runs out.
• You will have to keep track of your inventory and protect it with insurance.

So as you can see the fun decorating part is where???

What I am trying to point out here is home staging is not decorating, it is more like a furniture rental business than anything. Could you be looking for something else like maybe a 'one day makeover' business? I'm thinking this might be the case! One day makeovers (or two to three day makeovers) is much more like what you may be seeking because creativity plays the largest role here.

As an interior designer, my experience in preparing a home before the for sale sign goes up is more like re-design, using what the seller has, rearranging it and then making a shopping list, arranging for painting, repairs, etc., then finishing the house as beautifully as it can be. I have never provided the accessories or the furniture but I have purchased or rented pieces for the clients with their money.

I don't think the home staging business was originally intended in supplying furniture and accessories and I think it has gotten way out of hand. How can a creative person entering what is supposed to be a creative field, handle what is in store for them?

Be warned because the home staging career it is not what you think or what the home staging trainers want you to think.

However, I don't want to discourage you as long as you know what you are getting into. I just don't think providing the staging inventory is necessary. These home sellers most likely will love what you have done and want to keep your selections for their new home anyway. Don't even get me started with new home construction...that is a different post for sure.

Visit how2homestage.com for information on how to stage your own house or stage for others for a lot less than you imagined.

Home Staging used for Home Staying?

Fact: The majority of the public, 95% of Americans, cannot afford a real Interior Designer. But what people don't realize is the Professional Home Stager actually uses many techniques employed by high end designers.

What is a Home Stager?

A home Stager is an individual that pears down and rearranges the furnishings and accessories of a homeowner who is getting ready to sell their house. They make sure that every space of a home has been prepared for viewing by potential home buyers. They often use their own "props" to achieve a decorated look and even have their own inventory. But what I want to talk about is the techniques used that are also used by an Interior Designer.

What are these high end decorating techniques?

1. Clearing a space - moving or emptying a room. Seldom does a designer just select one occasional chair and set it in a room full of old and tired furnishings.
   
2. Introduces a new color scheme - of course! Get your color off your walls and onto interchangeable objects like pillows, wall hangings, window coverings, accessories, flowers.
3. Let the room breathe and tell a story - arrange the furniture for ease of flow. If a decorator ever comes into your home and lines the furniture up around the room against the walls, they are an impostor! Group the seating for conversation and stop blocking the windows.
4. Introduce one or two unique objects that say WOW and then leave. Your work is done.

How do I know?

I am one of those high end Interior Designers that has written what I have done to stage homes and it is now available to the public. So if you want to stay put, get a new look that works in your everyday life but says WOW to you, your family and friends then click here.

What if you are NOT selling your house?

Home Staging techniques are not just for home sellers. I use them all the time to de-clutter and refresh my own home. I am in the process of doing just that right now. What am I doing exactly?

I need, and I say need loudly, to get the winter months out of my house now! Spring is here and I am closed in...if I could knock the walls out, I would but I cannot. Here is what I did today and I feel better already. Actually I started yesterday with the housekeeper. I had her move everything in the kitchen including the large appliances and clean around absolutely everything.

The I washed every little decorator plate and garlic cooker and utensils...everything! Then I only replaced what I really use at least once a week and stored everything else in a cabinet in the garage. I know where it is if I need it.

I weeded out my cookbooks and sorted through medicines, glassware, pots and pans. They too went out to the storage cabinet.

I just cleaned off the refrigerator and left only the beautiful magnets with photo's...no notes, phone numbers, recipes, etc. They all have an appropriate place to dwell but I get too lazy sometimes to follow through.

I purchased some hydrangeas in silk and hunted down some glass bowls and made some new arrangements. Here are the instructions if you would like to make the arrangement you see in the picture yourself...

Purchase a bouquet of your favorite flowers in silk from your local crafts store, "Magic Water" which is the material that makes the fake water, and a glass container or use your own.

Cut the stems from the bouquet so you have individual flowers and be sure you cut or pull the leaves off (this arrangement is from 2 bouquets @ $4.95 ea.)

Clean your glass container thoroughly and make sure it is dry

Follow the instructions on the Magic Water.

Tip: The longer your stems, the larger the arrangement.

Set your flowers around the rim first, then the center. Keep it simple. Trim the stems little by little until the right length to match the others.

This arrangement has 8 flowers all the same size. After you have made a few, it would be fun to experiment with other more complex flowers arrangements. (I just bought out all the hydrangea's from my local super market in all the colors and making them for Mother's Day).

Then I stacked all my magazines that I have read and will go through them tonight while I watch TV and tear out all the pages that I am wanting to use for future reference and sending the magazines themselves to the recycle bin.

I have removed everything from my table tops in the living room except for my new flower arrangements and candles. Now I know what spaces I want to fill and will go shopping tomorrow for new sofa pillow fabric and boxes that are light and airy.

I have made room for Spring to move in and Summer as well. It feels fresh and renewed and I hope you will take a little time like this for yourself and 'stay awhile'.

Post Your Newsletter Suggestions Here

I want to thank you for visiting my Home Staging News Blog and I am looking forward to reading your posts and commenting on them. I will do my very best to incorporate your requests into my monthly Home Staging Newsletter.

If you are not signed up for the latest decorating tips and staging ideas, there is a sign up box in the right column of how2homestage.com. Please join us in celebrating diversity and unity through our interior spaces.

Looking forward to what is new in Home Staging

There is an exciting buzz in the air for real estate agents and the specialized function of home Stagers. The relationship is taking shape and teaming up to develop what will be an unbeatable combination in the marketing of previously owned homes.

The beautiful style of model homes are incorporated in home staging techniques achieving dramatic results for the average home owner for the first time at affordable prices. What would cost ten's of thousands of dollars can be duplicated with furniture placements, slipcovers, window treatments, and accessories. The dynamic difference in cost is in using existing furnishings. Once everything is in it's proper place, the entire setting is elevated.

Everyone benefits from home staging.

Really Rich Real Estate TV show

I love reality tv especially when it comes to the lifestyles of the rich and famous!

On Monday, November 13th at 9:00 pm EST on VH1 is the launching of a new reality show from Los Angeles, CA looking behind the scenes of the buying and selling of the high end homes of the rich and famous.

I hope you tune in and share your points of view with others on this blog. It should be fun to explore how to get the looks of the stars to help you sell your homes.

Read the whole press release by clicking on the title of this post.

Interview with an Agent/Stager

Tina Hack is a successful real estate agent at Centoni Realty in Danville, CA. She is also a home stager and a mother of 2 children. I have showcased some of her before and after pictures on my web site as well as my newsletters and I thought it was time for her to share how she manages both roles

It comes to mind that many agents can't imagine how they can ask their customers if they can stage their home. So I thought Tina would have that answer and maybe could put a few other issues to rest for those of you who are interested in becomming an agent/stager but do not know where to begin.

Sheron Did you feel uncomfortable at first offering staging and charging your clients?

Tina When I would pull up to the curb, I just knew I had to do something! Now I would never show a home without staging it first!

So in my presentation, my added value service is how I can make their house marketable to the bulk of the buyers. I use the words of a home stager and not a real estate agent and they listen.

And no, I don't charge my clients. I could if I wanted to though. I include my staging services in all my listings. That way I make sure they are marketable and I feel very comfortable and proud when showing my properties. I would not feel this way if I did not take charge and do it myself.

Sheron What do you tell them?

Tina I say "To sell your home in this current market, you need to appeal to the public, a spacious home and a model home lifestyle is what the public is looking for and that is what I tell my sellers and buyers...I tell them merchandising is very important! That is why Crate and Barrell does so well.

Sheron How do you charge for other realtors listings and are the other agents afraid you are going to take their clients away from them?

Tina I offer a free consultation at their home...I charge based on what is in the house...type of furniture that I can utilize...how much decluttering is required, and how much work needs to be done. I have at times dug right in and faux finished cabinets and added door pulls to take outdated cabinetry and turn it into a beautiful piece of furniture.

The minimum I have charged is $300 for a vacant house with just kitchen and bath accessories up to $2000 that would include window treatments. I have all this inventory and leave it there in the home until it sells and all contingencies are removed from the sale. People buy emotion and you cannot take the emotion out of the sale.

As far as other agents worrying about me, I don't even mention that I am a real estate agent. I am there to prepare their home for maximum value and that is it.

Sheron How do your sellers feel about you being a home stager?

Tina They love it! They know I care and that I will do my very best to get them the most money I can. We really get to know each other during the process too and that bonds us at a level that you cannot get just selling their house. My clients like the fact that I know them so well and they know me...paint all over my face and all. I always keep my clients.

Sheron Tina, you have been very helpful and I think you have answered my questions. Would you be available to answer questions from other agents and home sellers on my blog?

Tina Absolutely! I would be happy to.

Sheron I want to thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule and talking with me and my visitors/members today. I wish you great success. You are a great role model for agents and moms out there who want to increase their income and expand their business. Again, thank you very much!

Tina My pleasure and I look forward to answering any questions that your visitors have.
As an experienced home stager I can walk into a home and start visualizing the process. What was difficult in the beginning was translating my process in a way that the homeowner feels good about what I"m offering. By using my how2homestage instructions as reference material, I am able to give something that explains my process. It's a great service that you offer and my clients have benefited. Thank you!

Sheron Your very welcome!

Hanging old doors idea!

While I was in Seattle in July working on a remodel, I went to the home of the architectural designer to go over some ideas and as I pulled up and entered the yard, I saw these hanging doors at the end of her driveway (picture lower left).

What a clever idea. She picked the doors up at a restoration outlet for a couple of dollars each and voila! What a creative partition!

"How to sell your vacant house" eBook

I just launched my new ebook "How to sell your vacant house" and I am getting a lot of response about this vignette. My members want to see more like this with descriptions of how to create the look in different color ways.

I am in the process of putting together other looks for you and I will publish them on this blog so check in next week for different ways to vignette this room.

PS: I want to thank all of you that purchased my new book and am waiting for your feedback.

Your comments and requests can be posted here 

More On Feng Shui...

In a recent newsletter, we discussed the mystique behind feng shui and the relationship it has with western ways of decorating...


To Feng Shui Or Not Feng Shui?
That seems to be the burning question!
Should we use Feng Shui? Dare we not? I am no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but what little exposure I have had to it, it appears to be rather superstitious at first glance so I thought I should take a closer look.
I have seen homes redecorated introducing the Feng Shui principles that, quite frankly, leave much to be desired, like taking a small bedroom mirror and moving it over the living room's large fireplace, and buying a little fountain and placing it on a lamp table because they needed the water element represented in that room. That just drove me crazy!
Feng Shui says: Hang crystals in your entry if your stairs face your front door because it will reroute your chi and keep it from rushing outside along with your prosperity. Ok, I can see my chi rolling down the stairs and out the front door. If that is true then why not hang a beautiful crystal chandelier instead.
How about the idea that your chi will run down your long hallway too quickly, taking your health and career along with it, without something to break up the space? Ok, instead of hanging a crystal from the ceiling or placing a plant in the hallway (as they suggest), there is a wide variety of wall sconces that have a reflective element to them like metals or glass. Ah, that looks better!
And I understand that in order for your chi to run freely in your living room you need to have your furniture pulled away from the wall a little bit. Well, nothing new there...decorators have been doing that for years. It does feel better! Could it be happy chi?
What do you do if your kitchen has bad chi? Go out for all you meals? No. Fortunately for us westerners, it looks like we naturally follow chi flow. Apparently, you should never have fire and water on the same walls. You are to separate fire (stove) and water (sink) on different walls (but not directly facing each other) because they're oppositional elements. Unless you live in a motor home, were good to go here.
In Feng Shui, the object is to keep chi moving along in a free gentle way. It is recommended, especially in small spaces, to use mirrors. Ok, I have always placed mirrors across from windows, openings, and in corners to expand space and let more light in...is that the same thing?
What is chi exactly? It is defined as the circulating life energy that in Chinese philosophy is thought to be inherent in all things; in traditional Chinese medicine the balance of negative and positive forms in the body is believed to be essential for good health
Oh, and one more thing! Did you know that food is a fire element? If you want to discourage overeating you should use dishes or place mats in the water colors of black or dark blue, as water diminishes fire. Is that why Chinese food is usually served on black plates? What if you live in Florida...is aqua OK?
After writing this article, it becomes evident that the East really does meet West...at least at some design level. I find I want to learn more about it and I will keep you informed with my discoveries. So with that said, I wish for you a very happy and content Chi!

I now subscribe to the Feng Shui Google alerts and found the
funniest article written by a woman from Gilroy, Ca and I am going to link you to it right here. It is hysterical and I love a humorous approach to any mystery...it helps us deal with it as well and learn from it.

Here is where you can post whatever you want to say about feng shui, for or against it, tips for the rest of us, and so on.

Help yourself!