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

Michelle Finnamore of Advantage Staging has been busy along with 10 other designers at the fabulous Estate on the Bay Designer showhome makeover for the upcoming United Way 50th Anniversary open house tour.

I chose to stage the exterior grounds including the front door area, the cabana, the top of the 55 foot boat slip and the fish pond. It has been a pleasure working with the many suppliers who have graciously contributed to the fund raising efforts for the United Way. Wander through the home and grounds and see the lifestyle of lakeside estate living first hand.

For ticket information and dates and times in September please visit estateonthebay.com

I would like to thank the following suppliers for their contributions to my design concept-

Martin House Art - exterior Artwork  and mailbox at front door

Hiltz Marble & Granite - bar top on bar in the cabana

UCA Branding - glass door art and exterior signage

Bradford Greenhouses - urns and florals at front door

Nadia Painting. bar base in cabana

Ponds By Design - fish pond and water garden

Recently I was commissioned by the Rainbow Mall to design a wall graphic memorial to the fallen Canadian soldiers who have served in United Nations Peace Keeping efforts.

It was a month in planning and execution and on Monday March 16th the dedication took place.

CFB Borden Base Commander Colonel Hamel, The Minister of Foreign Affairs Office representative Valerie Knight and veterans from the Angus and Barrie Legion along with the Army, Navy, Air Force Club were on hand to witness the solemn event. As four soldiers had been repatriated home to Canada in the previous days it was a poignant reminder that reflected the efforts of our peace keepers in Afghanistan.

The wall graphic shows a field of red poppies reaching up to a blue sky. There are 225 names of fallen soldiers written on the wall and sadly, four more to be added this past week.

Advantage Staging was proud to be part of this community event to show our support to the troops and their efforts to keep peace in the world.

Our local radio stations in Barrie, KOOL 107.5 and ROCK 95 are giving away a house with Zancor Homes.  All you have to do is phone in and be caller number seven. You get a golden key and are invited to attend a party with all the key winners. One lucky person will find that their key opens the lock on the prize house and the dream prize house is theirs to call home. How easy is that!

Advantage Staging can be heard during this prize house give away contest at 8:30 a.m. each morning on       KOOL 107.5 encouraging homeowners to have an advantage in the marketplace by Staging their homes for sale.

After all, when you win a dream home you still have to sell your old one and get the most equity out of it to buy the plasma TV with surround sound movie room, new furniture, landscaping, inground pool with cabana, hot tub...........ooops! I was  dreaming of winning the prize house again!

Thought everyone could use a mini lesson in colour today.

This website has stories about interior indiscretions that will make you wonder what the homeowners were thinking when they put their home on the market.

We have all been there-either as a Realtor or as a Home Stager.

Trying to market a house that has been painted entirely in burnt orange.

Or every surface has been painted shades of green or blue or purple.

When you are selling your home, loud vibrant colours will not market your property to the most people.

How many homes have you seen with bright orange walls everywhere?

That's exactly the same number of buyers you will attract to your property for sale.

I tactfully suggest to my clients that a neutral colour will attract more buyers when they are looking online at listing photos.

Not to mention shorten the number of days on market.

When buyers leave a property painted like this, all they are talking about is the bright orange paint throughout the main floor living area. They miss the features of the property entirely. Advantage Staging will motivate your client to make the necessary changes to get the property on the "must see list" of buyers.

Investment, minimal.

Impact, Priceless.

Advantage Staging will give your property an advantage in the marketplace everytime.

The call came out of the blue. I was driving in heavy traffic, gearing up and down, cursing the downtown core traffic and my phone rang. Someone saying they were from HGTV, The Unsellables.

They were looking at my website, liked my style and wondered if I would like to provide the benchmark property in the neighbourhood for their show. I figured that this had to be a Staging friend of mine that was pulling a  prank on me so I calmly said... "I'll have to think about it, could I call them back?"

Turns out it's for real. The properties were filmed last June and July and are just appearing now on HGTV. Last weeks episode entitled "Carmelina" and the episode coming up entitled "Steve".

The premise of the show is that they have a property that has been on the market for months, lots of viewings but no offers. What could be wrong? They visit another property in the neighbourhood with the property owner in tow and then they visit a second one which has been Staged and has sold very recently or is for sale to show them what their competition looks like. It doesn't take long for the homeowner to see why their home is not getting offers. There is truth in the saying... seeing is believing.

The hosts then do what is necessary to get their property up to the neighbourhood expectation. This all comes back to why Professional Staging is not decorating or designing. Professional Home Staging is the marketing of your property for sale. There is only one reason to Stage it. To get the most equity possible out of the property to move on with your life and to have fewer days on market.

It doesn't matter what the market is, slow or fast- Staging is the one investment that you can make that will speed up the whole process. Investing in Home Staging is always less than the first price reduction.

Here are a couple of photos from the first property. It was a simple war time, red brick bungalow about 1,200 square feet backing onto a ravine. This property sold for the highest price the neighbourhood had seen, $20,000 over list.

I Staged it with unique features that no other comparable listing in the neighbourhood had. It's own tee off box out to the ravine in the rear - who could resist that? Even the videographer from HGTV put down his camera to take a few practice shots over the rear fence. A Pilates area in a wide basement hallway that was only being used as a pass through to the family room. The Realtor said 4 or 5 buyers actually sat down and tried out the exercise area. Even the laundry room which had the same 1960's dark, wood panelling as the basement hallway was given a face lift with up to date baskets to hold the soap supplies.

So if you are you still wondering, if Advantage Staging is worth the investment to save time on the market and get the most equity out of your property. The answer is plain to see... YES, EVERY TIME!

We all have them- at least I hope we do!  Reuseable shopping bags. I am now the owner of 27. That's right 27.

I forget to take them with me when I go shopping, so I buy some more and they end up in the front hall closet too. And now to top it all off, our local grocery chain store is now charging 5 cents for each plastic bag if you want one of those. How to break this guilt inducing cycle? 

You see I am a Live Green, Live Smart Trainer. Someone who is supposed to be setting an example when it comes to living in a sustainable way. Someone who is supposed to be trying to create a smaller carbon foot print on this earth. It seems so simple. Why do I forget to take the reuseable bags when I only shop once per week. I know I am going to the store to buy a week's worth of groceries. It never dawns on me until I actually start to bag the food.

I'll tell you why. Because I am human just like everyone else. I have things on my mind. I am busy. I am on a timeline to get this and that done before I need to be somewhere else.

But I was given a solution today when I attended a meeting at the local Barrie radio station, Rock 95 & Kool FM 107.5.

I noticed cases of canvas reuseable bags sitting in the meeting room. I remarked that I try to use them and always forget to take them with me to the store. The person sitting there said he found a simple way to remember was to change where I stored them. Instead of the front hall, put them all in the trunk of the car. Use them up, say 6 or so each week. Those get put in the hall to pile up again, and then when the  pile looks big enough, put them all in the trunk again.So simple, I busted out in a big laugh. Why didn't I think of that?

It's what I always say. Don't raise the bridge, lower the river. Most solutions in life are right under your nose if you care to see with new eyes. Look for the simple solution, the low cost solution, the solution that will become a habit and you have solved your problem.

I'm off to put all my reuseable shopping bags in the trunk now. I can shop with confidence now that I can make one more simple effort to make my carbon footprint smaller.

What an exciting night it was, meeting Wendel Clark from the Maple Leafs after he had his number raised to the rafters in the ACC in honour of his amazing career with the team.  Some day I hope to Stage Wendel's place. Something tells me there is going to be a HUGE collection that I am going to have to store away until moving day.

Way back in the early 90's, my children attended a school Prince of Wales in Barrie that believed the children should not bring anything to school in their lunch that would have to be sent to a landfill.

Their solution to this was as follows-

In each classroom there was a container with 4-5,000 worms in soil inside a box. All vegetable and fruit scraps would be placed in the box and the worms would take care of it from there. It is called vermicomposting.

Of course it was only a matter of time before there was a box of worms in our home. Children are early adapters to things that make sense. They could see immediate results to their actions and how those choices effect their environment.

Any container that was brought had to be reusable (first choice and heavily promoted) or recyclable (distant second choice).

This pretty much took care of any waste that had previously been taken to a landfill.

A list was provided to the children to post on their fridge with ideas for a healthy lunch that did not produce waste.

Does anyone know of any schools that are practising this method of reducing waste in their town?

It makes more sense to not create the waste in the first place instead of trying to figure out how to dispose of it afterwards. You have the choice in how big your carbon footprint is. How about it? Ready for some worms in your life? They are quiet, you don't have to clean up after them and they cost nothing to feed except your scraps that were previously going to the landfill.

I took the plunge finally.

Realtors are golfers.

Realty companies have charity golf tournaments.

If you want work with Realtors, you should golf.

I usually sponsor a hole or donate a home staging consultation for the silent auction as I don't play golf.

But this time it was going to be different.

I decided that I was going to play golf and take my mortgage broker, Nick Lecuyer from Dominion Lending, with me for moral support and networking reasons.

Now you may think that this was either a stroke of brillance (no pun intended) or complete lunacy on my part.

You see, I am what they call athletically challenged.

Ride a bike, crash into a parked car.

Try skiing, I end up in heap on the bunny hill with my children laughing so hard they can't offer me a hand to get up.

You get the picture.

As the day drew near, it dawned on me that maybe, just maybe, I should actually hit a golf ball  before attending.

I decided the best course of action would be to go to a golfing store the day before the tourney to buy some golf clothes and ask if someone there could give me a few pointers.

A very kind man took me aside and walked me through how to hit a ball off a tee.

He said that for someone that had never hit a ball before that I was hitting it straight off the club in the "sweet spot" and that was very unusual. I asked him if he thought I might be buying a set of golf clubs that day. He said no, I really could hit the ball quite well. I was encouraged at this point.

My husband took me out to the driving range that evening and he commented that I was much better than he thought I would be. I was even more encouraged that I could golf tomorrow and not look like a complete idiot.

The day of the tournament arrived and I eagerly went out with my foursome. I am placed with the broker owners family. GULP.

Turns out I really could hit the ball. They played off my shot for the first four holes. Not bad for a novice. I was making an impression with the Realtors.

Then I did something that became the golfing story of the day. Towards the end of the day, Nick said get my P. Now you golfers know that means your pitching wedge. To this tired girl, it meant the putter. I hit that ball with my putter over 100 yards. Apparently that is not easy. LOL!!!  I am now known throughout the Realty office and the Woodington Lake Golf course as the Home Stager who hit the ball with the putter. Everyone now knows who I am and what I do.

But that wasn't what got their attention entirely.

What really got their attention was when I stopped at the half way point to play a putting game to raise more money for the charity. It was there that I made the fatal mistake.

I putted and then left with their putter instead of putting it back for the next person. I took it for a tour of the next 9 holes not realizing that I had it until 3 holes away. I kept thinking I would return it when I got back to the clubhouse, no big deal. Upon returning, if one Realtor asked me for the putter, 20 Realtors did.It was a huge mistake on my part but it became a great way of introducing myself to the Realtors that I had not met before. Apparently between the two golfing faux pas I had made, every Realtor knew who I was and came up to ask if I had enjoyed my first day of golfing. I was a hit! It made for easy conversation and a laugh over the two situations was had by all.

So the moral to this story is... get out and mingle. Don't be afraid to try something new.

You just never know when it just might be the thing that catapults you to the front of every Realtors memory when they need a Stager.

If you want to see my golf swing, click on the link below. Let me know what you think of my technique.

http://woodingtonlake.athletesvideo.com/public/index/176

P.S.
regarding the link.. you will have to copy and paste it in your search bar as I have not mastered the skill of adding a link either. But not knowing how to do something doesn't stop me from trying!