All I did was....Home Staging Success Stories

In this home staging in Vaughan I would like to show the difference between what your home looks like while living in it compared to when you are selling your home.

When you are living there you don't really think about how other people see your home. When you are selling, you are now selling a product.... and you have competition.

To accommodate your active family when you live in your home you typically

• place furniture against the walls to make room for active children

• no artwork is hung over sofas as the children play there and might bump their heads

• toys take precedence in the room over any adult activities

• don't think about drapery as the kids tend to pull on it while playing 
  

When you are selling your home it is now a product for sale.

Buyers are looking to check off their wants and needs when they view your home. 

To get the most equity out of the sale of your home and to have it sold in the least amount of days there are steps you can take to make this happen.

Step One- Hire an real estate agent that includes a home staging consultation as part of their marketing plan. To sell your home and get the most equity out of  it you must prepare it for sale. A home staging consultation will give you the plan to make that happen.

Step Two- Follow the plan as closely as you can. If you have little time or budget to spare to do the prep work, let the stager know so that they can advise you on where to spend your limited time and budget to reap the most rewards.

Professional home stagers know what buyers are looking for. They can advise you on "staging safe" paint colours that buyers find appealing. Also, whether to replace worn flooring and with which product that buyers find appealing. 41% of buyers will pay more for a house with no "honey do" list.

Step Three- The staging day. Hire your stager to either stage your home to market it for sale or to do a follow up walk through to see what you have done and make simple suggestions if it needs some tweaking.

In this home all I did was take the "kid" centric feeling out of the room and show it as a place for family time with parents and children together. Baskets in red and white store the children's toys for easy access and to indicate whose toys are where. The client was buying new sofas, so I negotiated a discount for their purchase. Simple draperies were bought at a local discount store for $15 each. Artwork, vases, coffee table and end tables were purchased from Ikea and area rug from Rona Hardware. 

Investment, minimal.

Impact, priceless.

Voted Trailblazer Company of the Year 2009.

H

I find Active Rain such a useful building block of my business that I recently held a seminar at Remax Premier in Vaughan. I encouraged everyone to bring their laptop to the seminar and I would get them logged on, fill out their bio's and start their first post to their blog. As most were not familiar with Active Rain or what blogging was it was an adventure for everyone.

Well here is the first agent to participate with their own blog. Allow me to introduce Sergio DePinto. 

You only come across a person as fine as Sergio every so often in your life. When you work with Sergio, he makes you feel like you are his only customer. Attention to detail and follow up are his motto. Treat everyone with respect and the courtesy of listening intently when speaking with them.

Take a look at his first post. I think he followed the suggestions I made very well

• write a catchy title to get reader interest
• write short paragraphs to keep reader attention
  
• write like you speak so that readers get to know you and respond
• write content from the heart, little copy and paste, include pictures
• write a series to keep readers coming back for more as they like your style and what you have to say
• include personal pictures of your town, your activities, the people in your life

Here is a link to Sergio's Blog 

He has written three posts in a few days, all worth your time to read. Get to know Sergio, you won't be disappointed.

The agents in attendance asked me how to find the time to write posts to their blog, they are so busy now they will never find the time. I suggested that in the time they spent at the coffee station in the morning, they could write down what they were saying to the other agents around the coffee pot and their post would be done for the day.

As I often write at the end of my posts,

Investment, minimal.

Impact, priceless.

Advantage Staging....preparing your property for sale.

Winner of the Trailblazer Company of the Year Award  2009

In this home staging in Vaughan I would like to show homeowners and agents the importance of updating your look to attract todays buyers. Sellers want the highest price in the least amount of time and agents want to market a home that is ready to sell. Professional home staging is a key part of your marketing strategy to get results. HGTV has created an educated public that will not settle for less than perfect.

If you give your buyer what they see currently in stores and magazines you are bringing the dreams of their next home to life for them.

Buyers start their hunt for their next home with a logical list of things that they want in their next home.

An extra bedroom.

A larger kitchen.

A larger bathroom.

In the end, most buyers still purchase on emotion. Buyers remember how you make them feel when they enter a home.

When buyers walked in the front door of this home, the dining room immediately created an impression that you were somewhere special. Buyers wanted to see the rest of the home. Each room created desire in the mind of the buyer and encouraged them to make an offer.

All I did was paint, move their Ikea table, chairs and buffet from the kitchen to the dining room, add a rug, drapery, artwork and a lamp.

Investment, minimal.

Impact, priceless.

Advantage Staging creates homes that sell with effective, simple and inexpensive solutions.

Winner of the 2009 Trailblazer Company of the Year Award.