Home Stagers – Don’t Undervalue Your Services!
By Debra Gould

Home staging is an extremely lucrative career if you know how to properly charge for your services.

It makes me cringe when I hear figures as low as $31.45 per hour being touted as ‘great income’ for a home stager. That is an impossibly low rate for any independent professional to charge, but an expert home stager should actually be making at least double if not four or five times that amount.

Home sellers stand to profit anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 after employing the services of a home stager, so they are willing to pay a premium for that expertise. The cheapest stager in town will only attract clients who don’t really value what a home stager does. After all, if you save a few hundred dollars on staging advice but you don’t get the results you hoped for, what was the point?

The knowledge of an expert home stager is extremely valuable because of the effect it can have on how long a home takes to sell and its final selling price. A two hour home staging consultation should cost anywhere from $250-$800. After the initial consultation, a home stager can make at least $1,000 if the client wants the stager to complete the home staging project for them. This figure can go as high as $5,000 to $10,000 depending on the needs for that property, the home stager’s expertise and where they live. Typically costs will be higher in major urban centers where house prices are also higher. If the home stager has to furnish and/or accessorize the home, that price can creep even higher.

Now back to why I object to anyone advertising $31.45 as a good income for a home stager. It completely devalues what we do and the difference our work makes to a client. Not only that, it misleads aspiring stagers into believing that this is a good income.

Even bumping that pay from $31.45 up to $40 per hour, if you do three two-hour staging consultation each week, that works out to $240 per week or roughly $960 per month. If you also do three “full-blown” staging projects each month which each take you five hours, you can make an additional $600. That’s an unimpressive $1,560 per month or about $18,700 per year.

Depending on where you live, that amount would classify you as part of the “working poor,” and comes out to around what you’d make answering phones or asking “would you like fries with that?”

When you’re self employed, you have lots to do that you don’t get paid for. For example, talking to prospective customers, standing in line at the bank, doing your paperwork, etc. So when you are working on a client’s behalf, you need to make sure you are well paid for it.

If you charge a rate of $300 per two-hour home staging consultation which is still at the lower end of the industry standard, those same three staging consultations a week will give you $900 per week or $3,600 per month. Those three “full-blown” staging projects per month will give you another $2,250 per month. That’s a total of $5,850 per month or $70,200 per year.

That’s $70,200 per year versus the $18,700 you would make earning $40 per hour.

If you want to grow a profitable home staging business rather than dabble in home staging as a hobby, you have to charge a fair rate for your services.

I can’t fathom a home stager charging anything close to $30 or even $40 per hour unless they are working full time for another company who will be reselling their services at the more appropriate rate. Advertising a home staging hourly rate of $31.45 does nothing but de-value the service. As a home stager, you’re operating a business. Can you possibly sustain (let alone grow) a successful business of any kind at such a low hourly rate? When you’re operating a service-based business, time is your product and we are all only given so much of that each day!

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould is president of Six Elements and creator of The Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program with 900+ Graduates worldwide. Debra is the author of two home staging guides and offers a Directory of Home Stagers to help homeowners and real estate agents locate home stagers who will decorate homes to sell for top dollar.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Debra_Gould
http://EzineArticles.com/?Home-Stagers—Dont-Undervalue-Your-Services!&id=1401025

Technorati Tags: Debra Gould, home staging, stager, home stager, Staging diva,

Technorati Tags: Debra Gould, home stager, Home Staging, stager, Staging div

Home Staging – Curb Appeal

You’ve got only a few seconds to make a good first impression when selling your home and it starts at the curb. If you’re putting your house up for sale, curb appeal can increase the value of your home and help it sell more quickly. Follow these tips…

Technorati Tags: home staging, curb appeal, Increase value of your home

The Master Bedroom is the inner sanctum of the home and an incredibly important room to stage properly. Here are two different videos on staging the master bedroom. Feel free to comment on what you liked or didn’t like about one video or the other. How are they different, how are they the same, or what other topic you care to mention. To comment, go to the very bottom of this post to find the comment link, it may say “No comments” if there haven’t been any yet. Be the first by clicking on it.

Home staging – the master bedroom

Staging has, of late, taken on increasing importance in real estate marketing. Several weeks ago Prudential Rubloff agent Francesca Rose and I shot video of a unit at ParkView Condominiums prior to its being staged. The transformation, as you can see…

Home Staging Tips: Master Bedroom Staging

www.homestagingchannel.com – BEST STAGING TIP Master Bedroom must appeal to both sexes. Keep bedding and décor in a neutral tone. You want to create a space that is warm and inviting. Allow homeowners to envision themselves relaxing in this space aft…

Technorati Tags: Master bedroom, staging master bedroom, homestaging, homestaging tips,

Technorati Tags: homestaging, Homestaging Tips, Master bedroom, staging master bedroom

The Living Room is typically the first room buyers see when they enter your home. As such it is critical in helping buyers form a positive first impression. Here are some home staging video tips from HGTV for living rooms.

Home Staging: Living Room Staging Tips

Stage your living to attract homebuyers. Living Room’s are often the first space that a homebuyer views when walking through the front door. First impressions are crucial when selling your home. Start with a blank canvas and start removing everything…

Technorati Tags: home staging, home staging tips, Staging living rooms, home staging videos,

Technorati Tags: Home Staging, Home Staging tips, home staging videos, Staging living rooms

It’s time to put your home on the market. You’ve hired a real estate agent. You’ve signed all the papers. You’ve been given the typical remarks about keeping your home neat and ready for potential buyers. And now you wait. Or do you?

Instead of waiting the typical 4+ months and then taking a reduced price on your home, why not invest in a home staging professional! Doing so will drastically decrease the amount of time your home spends on the market – up to 20 times faster – as well as increase the amount you get for your home – six percent over listing is typical!

What is Home Staging?

Home staging is simply the art of preparing your home for sale. Basically, there are five steps to home staging:

- Cleaning

- Getting rid of clutter

- Depersonalizing

- Decorating and accessorizing

- Maintaining

In days gone by, home staging consisted of advice by your real estate agent to “clean up” and “de-clutter.” If you had a savvy agent, you may have even been told to add fresh flowers or fresh linens in the bathroom. However, being a real estate professional is not the same thing as being a design professional.

Professional home stagers know exactly what to do to create the right atmosphere. They not only tell you to de-clutter, but know exactly what to do in order to create a clutter free environment. They can walk through your home and know immediately if you need to remove or rearrange furniture. With just a quick visit, they can tell you what will enhance your homes curb appeal.

Why Does Home Staging Matter?

When it comes to sales, first impressions are everything. A potential homebuyer will often decide to enter a home based on the outside appearance. And once inside, they make up their mind about a home within about 10 seconds. This means that you have 10 seconds to create an atmosphere that entices the imagination and creates a longing in the buyer.

Home staging is the way to create that desire and longing. Through home staging, you can put your home’s best foot forward.

Professional or Do-It-Yourself?

Professional home staging services are not free and many people believe that they can save money by doing it themselves. However, there are many pitfalls to the “do-it-yourself” mentality.

1. You obviously like the look of your home or you wouldn’t have created it, right? Making changes can be downright difficult when you love your things and feel that your home is comfortable “as is.” A professional can help you step back and see your home in the same way that a potential buyer will see it. They help you take yourself out of the home so that the homebuyers can see themselves in it!

2. What do you know about color, lighting, and traffic flow? If you are like most people, you know very little about these things. Although the colors or the traffic pattern worked for you and your family, a professional can see issues that will keep your home from having that “instant appeal.” Remember, buyers are not buying “your” house – they are buying “their” house!

3. Can you walk through your home and instantly list 10 inexpensive ways to increase the value of your home? Home stagers can. They know how to make the changes in a timely manner so that you can get your home on the market quickly. They view your home from the buyer’s point of view and can tell you what to store, what to keep, what to move, and what will add that pizzazz that will make your home sell.

Is Home Staging Cost Effective?

One of the most important things you can do to sell your home quickly and for the highest possible price is to “stage” it. The proof is in the pudding:

- According to the National Association of Realtors, for every dollar sellers put into staging, they get $4 back

- The average increase over the listing price is 6.32%. On a $500,000 house, that is nearly $32,000 and will more than pay for your professional real estate agent! Think of home staging as a way to get your real estate agent for free!

A real estate professional has the knowledge, experience, and qualifications to sell your home. A home stager has the knowledge, experience, and qualifications to prepare your home for the sale. Although professional services are not free, the cost of the services more than exceeds the benefits received!

Selling your home can be a trying time. Why wouldn’t you want to decrease the time your home spends on the market while increasing your sales price? Relying on a home stager can make all the difference.

Teri B Clark is a professional writer and published author. Her most recent book, 301 Simple Things You Can Do To Sell Your Home NOW and For More Money Than You Thought, explains these tips in more detail and offers many, many others. To learn more about Teri’s latest book, visit http://staging-your-home.blogspot.com or sign up for a free newsletter

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Teri_B_Clark

Technorati Tags: home staging, homestaging, home stagers

Technorati Tags: home stagers, Home Staging, homestaging

Selecting a Home Stager to help you get a house ready for sale used to be pretty easy since there were so few people in the industry. In the past 6 years we have had a literal boom in this service for preparing homes for sale. There are some that have jumped into this field with no training, no credbility and have not set up their businesses professionally, which could cost the client money. The public needs to know what to ask for when selecting a Home Stager and this top 10 list should help give you some food for thought.

1. What kind of Training Does the Home Stager have?
It is important that the person you invite to help you with readying you house for sale has some training behind them specific to the field of Home Staging. There are courses a home stager can take and earn a designation, certification or accreditation. Of the 3, the accreditation is the highest form of education offered in the home staging industry. You can find accredited home stagers by searching online or by asking for referrals.

All stagers have a natural ability to do their work – that is a given. When a Stager proclaims they don’t need training, what they are saying is they don’t value education, or they don’t want to invest in their education. That is a mistake as Staging is not decorating or design, and handling clients involved in the selling process is very different than a client who is decorating their house. Any person that expects to succeed in business needs knowledge specific to that industry. Home Stagers are no different.

2. Should the Stager have insurance?
YES! Definitely ask to SEE a copy of a current policy that includes liability coverage and coverage for any of the stager’s items they may use to add pizzazz to your house. You don’t want to be held responsible if something is stolen or broken, or if damage is done to the house during the process, you want it paid for under an insurance policy. A professional home stager should carry insurance – both liability and coverage for items provided from their inventory.

3. Is it all about Price?
No. Staging should not just be about price because cheapest does not always mean “best.” You want to interview your Stager and ask for a proposal for services that is reasonable for your house. Most Stagers have a range of fees they charge depending on the service provided. You want to make sure the job that you pay for actually is a good job. When the average price reduction on a house sitting on the market is now between 5-20% (based on National Association of Realtor – July 2008) it’s important to remember: Staging your house is less than a price reduction – in any market and in any price range.

4. Should the Stager be Licensed?
The Stager should have a business license and be set up properly through the proper channels depending on where you live. You can ask to see a business license and also ask if the stager has any additional services or discounts to offer you from vendors they may partner with in your area or nationally.

5. Experience Matters.
Most stagers have been staging their whole life – they just did not realize there was a business they could wrap around their talent. That said, depending on your house, you need to ask for examples of their work and ask how much experience they have. A newer stager can do a fine job on certain houses, but a more complicated Staging job requires the services of an experienced Stager to make sure it is done properly and within budget. As for references and testimonials as an experienced Stager will have those readily available. As Stagers gain more experience, they are able to conduct work more quickly, and have better ideas on how to handle projects.

6. Who Pays?
Staging services are paid by either the homeowner that is selling or the Realtor listing the house. Ultimately it is up to the seller to ensure their house is Staged but some savvy realtors are including Staging as part of their services to list a home – and a way to get a listing over competitors. The dollar amount they are willing to provide for this service is typically $200-$500 and they may require that the seller pay up front and they reimburse at the close of escrow.

7. How much Does it Cost to Stage my Occupied House?
For Occupied Homes a Stager has two types of services. They can provide detailed plan to the seller who then implements the recommendations with a basic follow up on the back end for about $350.00 average. The stager can also bring in inventory to help add “wow factor” which is typically an average of about $200 per house per month. The Stager can provide total hands on staging using the seller’s things – and is paid for their time in the house to transform each room. This average investment for this varies based on size of the house, what needs to be done – and a stager will provide a proposal to the seller.

8. How much Does it Cost to Stage my Vacant House?
For Vacant houses, the staging costs depends on the size of the house and the style, price and location. For smaller condos or townhouses, Staging can start as low as $700 and go up from there with monthly rental involved. For average houses, the fees are on average about $2,000 to Stage. Larger houses have higher fees because there is usually a need for more furniture and decor. The Staging includes the time to install the furnishings and the rental on those furnishings for a designated period of time. The primary rooms of the house are staged, leaving some rooms vacant. With all vacant houses the client pays for rental of furniture and decor that is in line with the price and style of the house. The furnishings help make the house look more inviting for buyers and helps them imagine living in the house. It also helps them envision the scale and size of the rooms using the furniture as a guide. The rental is at minimum 30 days, and can be contracted for a 60 or 90 day period, or longer depending on the market conditions. The house needs to stay staged as it is a key part of getting a buyer to make an offer. The Staging also includes fees for delivery and removal of Staging items.

9. What else should I ask for?
Stagers that are part of larger associations may have the ability to help with some marketing of the house including featuring it on national websites. Stagers can often provide photos of the houses they have staged that may help with the marketing, as well as provide real estate shows that function similar to a virtual tour. You can ask your potential Stager what they offer to help with marketing once the house is Staged. Look for a Stager that belongs to a reputable association that is founded on educational and code of ethics requirements. Associations that include everyone without regard for educational standards of excellence or enforcable code of ethics have no merit. Ask to see membership certificates and find out what else the Stager can offer you as part of a professional association.

10. Rapport and Relationship Matter Most
When it comes down to it – you need to work with someone you trust can do the best job for you. If you find a connection to the Stager’s personality, that helps you to know you are in good hands, and so look for a Stager that is engaging, and not all business. If you are a Realtor, this Stager can become a valuable part of your team, even sending you referrals for future business. As a seller, your Stager is coming into your house and helping you transition to your new home and should be someone that you trust.

These Top 10 suggestions for location a great Home Stager should serve you well when you follow all of them. Ultimately the goal is to get all properties Staged prior to coming on the market so that Buyers get the best first impression of the home. For statistics on Staging you can go to Stagedhomes.com and see current statistics that show a Staged house sells 2-3 times faster than the unstaged competition. Staging also helps a seller keep more money as they are less likely to have to reduce their house either once or multiple times in price than the competition that is not Staged.

Jennie Norris, ASPM, IAHSP is an Accredited Staging Professional Master (ASPM) and Owner of We Stage Sacramento, a full-service Home Staging company serving the greater Sacramento region. She was the first Home Stager to launch a company in that region and has staged thousands of houses. She was privileged to be part of national Home Staging features on ABC’s 20/20 and NBC’s Today Show. A local resource for media and newspapers, Jennie is a recognized expert in the field of Home Staging.

She is the Vice President of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals (IAHSP -http://www.iahsp.com), the President of the local IAHSP Chapter serving Sacramento, and teaches others about Home Staging in her role as a Course Trainer with http://www.Stagedhomes.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jennie_Norris

Technorati Tags: Jennie Norris, Home staging, home staging costs, home stager, home stager qualifications, home staging criteria,

Technorati Tags: home stager, home stager qualifications, Home Staging, home staging costs, home staging criteria, Jennie Norris

This home staging channel video does a nice job of explaining how to stage a living room.

Stage your living to attract home buyers.  Living Room’s are often the first space that a home buyer views when walking through the front door.  First impressions are crucial when selling your home. Start with a blank canvas and start removing everything from the area.  Position furniture in a way that shows off the living room’s potential. Maximize space by removing un-used furniture and decor.  Add tasteful accessories and artwork that are neutral in color and design.  Wow the buyer with your newly staged living room.

Technorati Tags: John Mangano, home staging, living room, Staging tips, First Impressions, video, home staging channel

Technorati Tags: First Impressions, Home Staging, home staging channel, John Mangano, living room, Staging tips, Video

Below’s a video I pulled from YouTube.

If you are a home stager, and want to add some visual appeal and variety to your blog, you should take a look at posting appropriate YouTube videos.

It’s really very easy to do.

First step is to search YouTube for videos relating to Home Staging. You will find a fair number, although not as many as there should be. (Hint – You really should be creating some of your own!)

Second, you will note a button under the actual video on YouTube called, < Embed >

All you need to do is click on that button, and copy the code that will appear.

Then on your blog or website, you would go to the HTML or Source Code part of your page and paste that code in, and your done.

Now you may want to add introductory comments and/or closing comments after the video to explain why you choose it.

In my case, I am using a very professionally done video, featuring Celebrity Interior Designer Cathy Hobbs, who is featured on the nationally syndicated program “Black Enterprise Business Report”. The quality of the video is quite high.

Don’t let the quality frighten you away from doing your own videos. With an inexpensive Flip Camera which you can get from your local Best Buy or probably even cheaper on Amazon you can be creating high quality videos in no time.

And let me tell you, videos on your website will help lift your ranking in the search engines. Google loves video, and it’s becoming the name of the game. So get out there and use the ones that you can from YouTube and start creating some of your own.

Your before and after pictures will mean a lot more once you’ve taken the time to learn how to do video.

Here’s Cathy…I hope you enjoy.

Technorati Tags: YouTube, Using Video, Homestaging, Home Stagers, How to Use YouTube, Using YouTube, Cathy Dobbs, Flip Camera, Black Enterprise Business Report

Technorati Tags: Black Enterprise Business Report, Cathy Dobbs, flip camera, home stagers, homestaging, How to Use YouTube, Using Video, Using YouTube, youtube

As the real estate market has cooled and many Real Estate Professionals and home sellers are struggling to sell their properties quickly, many think the best way to survive is to cut their budgets for staging their listings.

“Studies show that pulling back on staging your listings during a recession actually hurts, rather than helps with home sales. Listings that are staged and priced competitively sell in half the time that non-staged properties do.”

That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t find lower cost options to help you prepare your properties for sale.

I decided to create the Do-It-Yourself Home Buyer Attraction System to meet this need for valuable information at a lower cost than traditional staging services. The system provides real estate professionals and home sellers with the knowledge and skills that I have acquired working in the field over the last few years. These tools and strategies are proven to work in a seller’s market and they will work in a buyer’s market to make your property truly stand out in the marketplace and draw buyers to you.

So, over the next few days I’m going to lead you through a short, but information packed series on how you can start transforming your listing or home into a home buyer magnet.

Let’s start with a very important distinction: What is Home Staging and What is it Not?

Home Staging (House Staging, House Fluffing, House Primping, Real Estate Staging, Staging Design) is the art of decorating a home to sell quickly and for TOP DOLLAR. It is the most proven way to get top dollar for your home as you prepare it for sale.

What Home Staging is NOT…It’s not just decorating. It needs to be strategic. An important thing for both Real Estate Agents and Home Sellers to remember is that before you start the staging process, you need to identify who is most likely to buy the house, otherwise known as your target home buyer.

Staging is not just about hanging up some art, sticking a tree in the corner and adding pretty pillows to the sofa. This seems to be the misconception many times. By knowing who the target buyer is, you will be able to design a lifestyle to appeal to that specific group of prospective buyers. As a real estate agent, you can then design a marketing plan to attract those same people.

I remember a particular property that I was hired to “stage”. It was for a Realtor client of mine. The interesting thing about this property was it was a job that was going to be a favor to him since the original Stager he hired for that project flaked on him at the last minute. I usually don’t work on properties that I haven’t had a “relationship” with, meaning I haven’t seen the property and the sellers have not gone through my staging consultation process so that they fully understand what needs to be done in preparation and shown how they were going to live in their staged home. Well, to no one’s surprise, when I arrived to do my ‘thing”, the house was NOT READY. It was a small house, but it was a family house with parents and a couple of kids. There were shoes and dirty laundry all over the house, the small kitchen and bath were cluttered and dirty, beds were not made, it was NOT READY! When I spoke with the owner, their comment was “well, can’t you just stage around me?” The answer to that was a resounding “NO!”. I left that property, unstaged. My mistake was agreeing to do the job in the first place. I thought I was doing the agent a favor, but really, I wasn’t doing anyone any favors.

I understand that real estate professionals and home sellers are anxious to start marketing their properties as soon as possible, BUT take a moment to consider what you’re allowing to be marketed. REMEMBER, you only have ONE chance to make a FIRST impression, make it the best one possible!!!

© 2009 AKC Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Want To Use This Article In Your E-Zine Or Web Site? You can, but here’s what you MUST include with it: Alice T. Chan, the Staged Home Lifestyle Expert helps Real Estate Professionals and Home Sellers create irresistible, market ready homes that SELL. Alice’s “Do-It-Yourself Home Buyer Attraction System” empowers home sellers to stage their own homes so they STAND OUT from the crowd and make buyers STOP and TAKE NOTICE! For FREE Home Staging tips and to get your free e-course “8 Steps to Creating an Irresistible, Market Ready Home that SELLS”, visit http://www.AliceTChan.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alice_Chan

Technorati Tags: Home Staging, House Fluffing, House Primping, House Staging, real estate staging, Staging Design

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Debra_Gould

Technorati Tags: home staging, home staging business, Debra Gould, home based business, work from home, home staging training, real estate staging, women oriented business, women oriented businesses,

Technorati Tags: Debra Gould, home based business, Home Staging, home staging business, Home Staging Training, real estate staging, women oriented business, women oriented businesses, work from home

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Teri_B_Clark

Technorati Tags: Home Staging, home stager, home staging tips,

How to Pick a Home Stager

Selecting a Home Stager to help you get a house ready for sale used to be pretty easy since there were so few people in the industry. In the past 6 years we have had a literal boom in this service for preparing homes for sale. There are some that have jumped into this field with no training, no credbility and have not set up their businesses professionally, which could cost the client money. The public needs to know what to ask for when selecting a Home Stager and this top 10 list should help give you some food for thought.

1. What kind of Training Does the Home Stager have?
It is important that the person you invite to help you with readying you house for sale has some training behind them specific to the field of Home Staging. There are courses a home stager can take and earn a designation, certification or accreditation. Of the 3, the accreditation is the highest form of education offered in the home staging industry. You can find accredited home stagers by searching online or by asking for referrals.

All stagers have a natural ability to do their work – that is a given. When a Stager proclaims they don’t need training, what they are saying is they don’t value education, or they don’t want to invest in their education. That is a mistake as Staging is not decorating or design, and handling clients involved in the selling process is very different than a client who is decorating their house. Any person that expects to succeed in business needs knowledge specific to that industry. Home Stagers are no different.

2. Should the Stager have insurance?
YES! Definitely ask to SEE a copy of a current policy that includes liability coverage and coverage for any of the stager’s items they may use to add pizzazz to your house. You don’t want to be held responsible if something is stolen or broken, or if damage is done to the house during the process, you want it paid for under an insurance policy. A professional home stager should carry insurance – both liability and coverage for items provided from their inventory.

3. Is it all about Price?
No. Staging should not just be about price because cheapest does not always mean “best.” You want to interview your Stager and ask for a proposal for services that is reasonable for your house. Most Stagers have a range of fees they charge depending on the service provided. You want to make sure the job that you pay for actually is a good job. When the average price reduction on a house sitting on the market is now between 5-20% (based on National Association of Realtor – July 2008) it’s important to remember: Staging your house is less than a price reduction – in any market and in any price range.

4. Should the Stager be Licensed?
The Stager should have a business license and be set up properly through the proper channels depending on where you live. You can ask to see a business license and also ask if the stager has any additional services or discounts to offer you from vendors they may partner with in your area or nationally.

5. Experience Matters.
Most stagers have been staging their whole life – they just did not realize there was a business they could wrap around their talent. That said, depending on your house, you need to ask for examples of their work and ask how much experience they have. A newer stager can do a fine job on certain houses, but a more complicated Staging job requires the services of an experienced Stager to make sure it is done properly and within budget. As for references and testimonials as an experienced Stager will have those readily available. As Stagers gain more experience, they are able to conduct work more quickly, and have better ideas on how to handle projects.

6. Who Pays?
Staging services are paid by either the homeowner that is selling or the Realtor listing the house. Ultimately it is up to the seller to ensure their house is Staged but some savvy Realtors are including Staging as part of their services to list a home – and a way to get a listing over competitors. The dollar amount they are willing to provide for this service is typically $200-$500 and they may require that the seller pay up front and they reimburse at the close of escrow.

7. How much Does it Cost to Stage my Occupied House?
For Occupied Homes a Stager has two types of services. They can provide detailed plan to the seller who then implements the recommendations with a basic follow up on the back end for about $350.00 average. The stager can also bring in inventory to help add “wow factor” which is typically an average of about $200 per house per month. The Stager can provide total hands on staging using the seller’s things – and is paid for their time in the house to transform each room. This average investment for this varies based on size of the house, what needs to be done – and a stager will provide a proposal to the seller.

8. How much Does it Cost to Stage my Vacant House?
For Vacant houses, the staging costs depends on the size of the house and the style, price and location. For smaller condos or townhouses, Staging can start as low as $700 and go up from there with monthly rental involved. For average houses, the fees are on average about $2,000 to Stage. Larger houses have higher fees because there is usually a need for more furniture and decor. The Staging includes the time to install the furnishings and the rental on those furnishings for a designated period of time. The primary rooms of the house are staged, leaving some rooms vacant. With all vacant houses the client pays for rental of furniture and decor that is in line with the price and style of the house. The furnishings help make the house look more inviting for buyers and helps them imagine living in the house. It also helps them envision the scale and size of the rooms using the furniture as a guide. The rental is at minimum 30 days, and can be contracted for a 60 or 90 day period, or longer depending on the market conditions. The house needs to stay staged as it is a key part of getting a buyer to make an offer. The Staging also includes fees for delivery and removal of Staging items.

9. What else should I ask for?
Stagers that are part of larger associations may have the ability to help with some marketing of the house including featuring it on national websites. Stagers can often provide photos of the houses they have staged that may help with the marketing, as well as provide real estate shows that function similar to a virtual tour. You can ask your potential Stager what they offer to help with marketing once the house is Staged. Look for a Stager that belongs to a reputable association that is founded on educational and code of ethics requirements. Associations that include everyone without regard for educational standards of excellence or enforcable code of ethics have no merit. Ask to see membership certificates and find out what else the Stager can offer you as part of a professional association.

10. Rapport and Relationship Matter Most
When it comes down to it – you need to work with someone you trust can do the best job for you. If you find a connection to the Stager’s personality, that helps you to know you are in good hands, and so look for a Stager that is engaging, and not all business. If you are a Realtor, this Stager can become a valuable part of your team, even sending you referrals for future business. As a seller, your Stager is coming into your house and helping you transition to your new home and should be someone that you trust.

These Top 10 suggestions for location a great Home Stager should serve you well when you follow all of them. Ultimately the goal is to get all properties Staged prior to coming on the market so that Buyers get the best first impression of the home. For statistics on Staging you can go to Stagedhomes.com and see current statistics that show a Staged house sells 2-3 times faster than the unstaged competition. Staging also helps a seller keep more money as they are less likely to have to reduce their house either once or multiple times in price than the competition that is not Staged.

Jennie Norris, ASPM, IAHSP is an Accredited Staging Professional Master (ASPM) and Owner of We Stage Sacramento, a full-service Home Staging company serving the greater Sacramento region. She was the first Home Stager to launch a company in that region and has staged thousands of houses. She was privileged to be part of national Home Staging features on ABC’s 20/20 and NBC’s Today Show. A local resource for media and newspapers, Jennie is a recognized expert in the field of Home Staging.

She is the Vice President of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals (IAHSP -http://www.iahsp.com), the President of the local IAHSP Chapter serving Sacramento, and teaches others about Home Staging in her role as a Course Trainer with http://www.Stagedhomes.com

Technorati Tags: Home Staging, home stager, home stager criteria,

Have you ever heard a real estate agent say that “It’s a buyer’s world out there”? The sentiment rings true because due to the economic problems that the United States and the rest of the world has experienced for the past few years, the housing industry has also sank to record lows. While things are still getting back to normal as far as the real estate industry is concerned, how can homesellers make sure that they are still getting top dollar for the residential real estate property that they selling? How can homebuyers get the best value for their hard-earned bucks? This is where home staging comes in.

Here, we will take a look at the reasons why home staging is necessary when selling or buying a home, and also enumerate the top tips on how you can stage your home in such a way that your home buying or home selling goals will be met.

Why is Home Staging Important in the First Place?

So why is home staging important in the first place? Experienced real estate agents would know this: staged homes sell twice as fast as a hastily prepared house prior to selling. Again, this is a buyer’s market that we are talking about so if you are a home seller and you do not exert enough of an effort to make sure that buyers will be interested in purchasing your home, then it might stay in the market for quite a long time.

Another reason why home staging is necessary is simple: staged homes sell for more money. If a real estate property for sales sits on the market for a long time, the seller will usually get lower offers because buyers think that there is something wrong with the property that you are selling. If you want the selling process to be over and done with quickly, you need to make sure to stage it properly.

Next, no matter which part of the house it is that you stage – be it your porch, kitchen or living room – these will have an instant impact to a potential buyer. When potential buyers drive over to your home, make sure that they will be enticed enough to actually get out of the car and get a closer look, rather than just driving by. More importantly, staged homes attract real estate agents; they get more advertising; they can be appraised for top dollar; and it helps you as a seller to speed up your move.

Staging Your Home to be Sold for Top Dollar

Now that you already have a basic idea about the importance of home staging from both the buyer’s and the seller’s perspective, how about when you are a seller? How can you make sure that the way that you are staging your home is good enough for it to be sold at premium value, despite the economic crunch?

It all boils down to how staging your home will make an impact to a potential buyer. To help you out, here are a few home staging tips that you need to keep in mind if you want to sell your house for top dollar:

1. Learn what home staging is all about.
Simply put, home staging is a cost-effective way of enticing home buyers to purchase your home. It’s all about getting a potential buyer to imagine how it is to live within the walls of your home, or beautify the existing garden even more. The basics, however, involve decluttering and cleaning the premises. Make sure to get rid of all the personal clutter like family portraits. Even if those things have a sentimental value for you, a buyer would want to have his or her own family portrait in the living room – not yours.

Remember that home staging is all about teasing a buyer’s imagination so that living in the house in the future would seem like a viable prospect.

2. Remember that home staging is more than decorating.
After decluttering your home from all the personal effects, you can use strategic decorations such as mirrors to make a room appear larger, for example, but home staging goes beyond that. Make sure that whatever furniture’s left is artfully arranged to highlight a focal point in the room. Upgrade accessories if you need to. Naturally, you should have already attended to the needed repairs and fresh paint is always necessary.

3. Do to the exterior what you are doing with the interior of your home.
Sometimes, all it takes is the sight of a white picket fence to entice a buyer to purchase your home. Make sure that the exterior is as inviting as the inside of your house. Replace any dead plants, trim the lawn and add a few outdoor furniture if you have to or go for strategic lighting to highlight the features of the house’s exterior.

On average, a staged home sells twice as fast as the average home on the market. In addition to speeding up the selling process, taking the time and effort to properly stage your home will greatly increase its asking price. It wouldn’t even matter if you take the economic crunch into factor. Generally, a staged home has a better selling value as compared to a run-of-the-mill, freshly painted home.

How to Use Marketing or Design Psychology to Up Your Home’s Value

There is one more important factor that you need to take into account when it comes to home staging. What you can do is combine marketing and design psychology so that the value of the house that you are selling will increase. When creating flyers, for example, create a copy which goes straight to the heart. Instead of saying that the large backyard has a built-in barbecue grill, indicate that the property has a ‘private backyard park with a built-in barbecue where you can entertain your friends.”

At the end of the day, being a home seller or a home buyer requires some effort on your part so that you can go about proper home staging. By doing so, you can sell your home to your target market at top dollar if you are a home seller; and get the best value for your real estate property if you are a home buyer.

Let the Mark Z Home Selling Team help you find your next dream home… Are you looking for Bank Owned Homes in Michigan? How about Commerce MI Real Estate or homes in Oakland County. For more information you can contact us at 248.937.1337.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_Z

Technorati Tags: Home Staging, de-cluttering, design psychology, staged homes

Technorati Tags: de-cluttering, design psychology, Home Staging, Staged Homes

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Debra_Gould

Here is another in my series of articles from Home Stagers who have learned how to drive traffic and back links to their sites by article marketing.

===============================
Home Staging – Why It Works

With the popularity of home staging television shows, many are wondering if staging works in the “real world.” Home staging is more than just good entertainment on a Saturday afternoon, it is a proven technique that sells homes in Hollywood and across the country.

HOME STAGING DESCRIPTION: Home staging is the art of preparing your house for sale by highlighting the home’s features through furniture arrangement, accent placement, and color choices. An Accredited Staging Professional is a real estate expert that performs an objective evaluation of a property to determine any obstacles that may hinder buyer interest in your home. Staging is not decorating. Home staging involves using interior design principles and marketing strategies to best represent your home.

WHY STAGING WORKS: Home staging works because a properly staged house is a house shown at its best condition. Each room contains important design elements: highlighted focal points, proper furniture placement to create a larger space and smooth traffic patterns, tasteful color selections on walls and through home decor, and properly placed home accents. All these principles working together create an atmosphere that triggers buyers’ emotions, causing them to fall in love with the home.

In a staged home, buyers will see that:

* Staged homes look well cared for: staging addresses updating the home’s decor while working within the home owner’s budget.
* Staged homes are uncluttered: staging involves removing excess items so buyers can see the home’s features.
* Staged homes have a pleasant atmosphere: staging displays the best furniture layout for your home, highlighting the focal points and creating easy pathways around the furniture.
* Staged homes appeal to a wider range of buyers: staging neutralizes a homes decor, giving it a model house-like appeal, thus attracting more buyers.

These elements help to generate buyer interest causing wonderful side-effects

HOME STAGING SIDE EFFECTS (BENEFITS):

1. Higher Asking Price: Statistically, homes that have been staged command higher asking prices than non-staged homes, because the house is in top showing condition.
2. Faster Sale Time: Statistically, staged houses sell in one-third time than non-staged houses
3. Greater Rate of Return: Statistically, the investment in staging is returned to the homeowner when their house sells. The average rate of return is about 120%. For example, if a home owner invested $500 in staging their house, they are likely to receive $560 back from the sale of their home through fewer (if any) price reductions or from an increase in asking price.

HOME STAGING STATISTICS:

Staged homes sell quicker than non-staged houses…

* Nationwide, staged home is on the market for an average of 31.9 days
* Nationwide, non-staged home is on the market around 160 days
* 93% of ASP homes sell within one month
* This could mean the difference between days and months!
* For complete statistics visit the Staged Homes Website

Staging is a win-win situation. The sellers win because their houses are sold in a shorter amount of time compared to a non-staged homes, and the real estate agents win because their listing sell faster than agents who don’t recommend staging. Results do not lie. Story after story has been told of how staging made the difference in the sale of a home.

For more information on staging or to view gallery photos of staging projects visit: www.kfmstaging.com.

Kristina, owner of KFM Staging & Design, is an Accredited Staging Professional and has been working with Realtors, builders, and homeowners in the Twin Cities for over ten years. KFM Staging & Design specializes in consulting as a real estate expert, performing vacant and occupied staging services, and working with re-design clients.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kristina_Mosloski

Technorati Tags: Home Staging, Staging, selling houses,

Technorati Tags: Home Staging, selling houses, Staging

You’ve made major progress when you take care of your on page SEO issues.

Your page factors again are your title tags, keywords and description in the hidden meta tag area, and use of H1 tag, and appropriate keyword usage on your page and at least 425 or more words of text on you landing page.

For some people that will by itself be enough to get your site to the first page.

For others, in more competitive markets it won’t be enough all by itself. For example one of my most recent clients Ann Alderson from Tampa is trying to do business in a market that has almost as many home stagers as it does Realtors.  Well maybe not, but it seems the various schools are having frequent classes in the area resulting in a lot of competition, especially for web site ranking.

In today’s economy the various schools are having a hay day, as more and more people are looking for supplemental income.  And that means more competition for you.  And more web sites trying to climb to the top of the search engines.

In Ann’s case we were able to raise her from somewhere in the deep dregs of page 23 or so to #35 overall just by making changes to her onpage factors.

Her site is located at Home Staging South Tampa which is a good example of an anchor text using her keywords of Home Staging and Tampa. (And she just got another backlink)

She uses GoDaddy as her web hosting service. It took them 3-4 days to turn around and do what she wanted, but it did have an immediate effect.

But it’s not good enough by itself in her case and perhaps in yours as well.

That’s why you need to pay attention to the off page factors. And they come down to one phrase. BackLinks, Backlinks, Backlinks to paraphrase our Realtor friends.

Your first step should be to set up an account and post on Active Rain. By putting a link to your web site on your posts, you will create your first back link.  Now ideally this should be an anchor link as I have explained in past posts.

But while Active Rain is a great site, you need to get links from many different locations.

My next set of recommendations is to set up an account at Squidoo and Hub Pages.  www.Squidoo.com and www.hubpages.com.  Just signing up and creating a profile will give you a backlink if you include you web site in your profile. But what really counts is when you set up a page on their sites.

These need not be works of art. They don’t need to be long. They should be about Home Staging in your town.  And your town name and home staging should be in the title.  You have two possible audiences, Realtors and homeowners.

Make two pages to start. One for home owners and one for Realtors.

Do it first on Squidoo.  Write a lens on the Top Three Things a Minneapolis Home Owner Needs to Know about Home Staging.

Then do it.  If  you want make it the top 5 or 7. Feel free to buy my guide on Squidoo Basics if you need help, although they have tutorials on both sites.

Then publish your first Squidoo lens, and immediately start another.

Write a lens on the Top Three Things a Minneapolis Realtor needs to know about Home Staging. Once you get the hang of it, you should be able to get one done in 30 minutes, but plan on spend a couple hours the first time.

Make sure both of them have a link back to your web site.  If you have a separate page on your web site for Realtors, make sure your Lens on Realtors links back to that page.

Once you have these two lens done, go to Hub Pages.  If you’re lazy, use the same text all over again but put the three hints in a different order. Ideally you would reword the entire thing.

The more effort you put into these the better. But you are better off with many short Squidoo lens and Hub Pages than with one or two comprehensive ones.

There are three reasons why you are doing this.

First, they will give you added stature and credibility. Second, these Squidoo lens and Hub Pages sometimes get higher rankings than your web site intially, so it’s quite possible they may get to the top of the search engines before your main site does. That means real potential customers who may never have heard of Squidoo or Hub Pages may find them and you.  The third reason is that the backlinks from these sites carry more weight than many other sources of backlinks. So you want to get them set up for you as soon as possible.

Once you are done with these, you may want to switch to article marketing.

The Good part of article marketing is that your articles can become viral. Once you publish them, they can be posted to hundreds of different blogs each of which will create a backlink to your site.

Most will be from smaller sites, without as much clout as Squidoo or Hub Pages, which is why we start with them. But in the long run, the article marketing effort is what will not only move you to the top of your local search engine results, it will keep you there.

With all the newbies entering the market, that’s one idea you may well want to consider.

Technorati Tags: Article Marketing, hub pages, squidoo

Getting to the Top of the Search Engines 2

There are two main areas of attention when discussing how to move your website to the top of the search engines.  The first are the on-page factors and the second are the off-page factors.

The on-page factors are the easiest and quickest to deal with and are where we will start to focus our attention.  They are critical but not the most important. The off-page factors will in the long run carry more weight. But that said, if your on-page factors aren’t set up properly you can and will lose much of the benefit your off-page efforts could supply.

We will talk about 10 on page factors. Of these four are invisible, and of the six that are visible, one may already be cast in stone for better or worse.

The invisible elements are the Meta Tags. The meta tags are in the hidden code that the search engines can see, but your visitors normally don’t see.  You will learn how to see them, and anyone else’s when we discuss them in detail in our next section.

The meta tags include your title tags, your description and your keywords. The fourth of the invisible items is called an H1 tag.  The results of it are visible, but since it’s also HTML code (of the simplest kind) I am listing it as one of the invisible factors. Almost all of you will be able to make improvement to these elements on your web page.  For some of you this alone will make a significant difference in your page ranking. So stay tuned.

I’ve been surprised at how few websites I’ve reviewed have had adequate meta tags. Even those done by expensive web designers are often poorly done or in some cases missing altogether.

The visible elements include your first 50 words specifically, and the total number of words altogether. The total keyword count within your text and the percentage of the whole they comprise. We call this keyword density. The visible elements also include the internal links you have on your site and the way you link them, as well as the originality of your content.

The one item that may already be locked in stone is your domain name itself. As we will discuss, you will do better with the search engines if your web site includes you main keywords in it. If your site is already up and established you may not want to change it. That’s understandable. But if you are just now starting up and or are considering a complete makeover of your web presence, give serious thought to including your keywords and geography if appropriate in your new domains.

In our next article we will focus in detail on the hidden items. That will be followed by a look at the visible elements. Once we have covered those we will move on to discuss the off-page strategies.

—-

P.S. I have just launched a new service I call the WART Analysis and Consultation

I have been testing it over the past week or so with home stagers and it has been very well received. I’ve got the service rock bottom priced for a short while, but will be raising it soon, so check it out now and take advantage while the price is so low.

Technorati Tags: SEO

Yesterday, I described a problem that a lot of home stagers and other businesses have. When your web site starts out with a splash page, and/or your site uses a lot of flash coding you can become invisible to the little bots Google and others send around the internet to index sites. And that means your competitors have an advantage over you in terms of their ability to out rank you on Google and the other search engines. That costs you opportunities, and that means less jobs, and less money.

Today, I will briefly share more on what you need to do to mitigate the situation short of redesigning your entire web page. The “on page” factors that the Google Bots look for are just a part of the equation. And while lacking all the umph! having them would provide, you can still get yourself some traction using “off page” factors. There are a variety of off page things to do, but they basically boil down to getting BACK LINKS.

You do this by posting on other peoples blogs, writing articles, posting on web 2.0 sites like Squidoo and others.  When you do, you don’t want to link to your splash page if you have one. Instead link to your home page, or another page on your site that is relevant to the topic.

So, picking on my Friend Allegra again, I would have her sign her posts as “www.styledandsold.com/home.html” rather than “www.styledandsold.com”  It may look a bit odd at first, but it will take google to the page that matters and will count as a backlink in many cases. (not all but that is too long a discussion for now.)

Better yet, are situations where instead of signing with your URL you are able to use an anchor tag.  For example, if you are writing an article to post in an article directory instead of using your url, say Allegra Dioguardi is a Hamptons Home Staging Expert.

In this case, the keywords Allegra wants to rank for on Google is “Hamptons Home Staging”.

If she is on a Blog Site like Active Rain that has a Link tool (Looks like three links of a chain) in its WYSIWYG editor, she would highlight the words Hamptons Home Stager, and then insert her URL as the link, using the /home.html version.

That way when the bots find the link they provide not only a backlink but also identify the keywords at being relevant to the site. This process starts building keyword status for your website.

If you are on a site where you need to use html code you would build the link with a standard opening

<a href=”   and then insert your url, again with the /home.html (Or another page on your site) and end it with a   “>  Once that’s done, you add the keyword you want to rank for—  Hamptons Home Staging and a closing code which is  </a>

So the completed phrase in HTML is <a href=”http://www.styledandsold.com/home.html”>Hamptons Home Staging</a>  When this is put in the HTML of a site, anyone reading the phrase once published would only see:Hamptons Home Staging The words would be highlighted and most people will recognize them as a link. If they click on the link they would be taken to the page.

By virture of this post, Allegra now has a back link to her site.  You want to get as many of these as you can from as many different sites as possible.  Some sites are more valuable than others, but we will cover that in the future.

Focus on your major keyword. For home stagers, the number one word is Home Staging. But as I did for Allegra keep in mind that there are over 6 million web sites with the words “Home staging” in them. You want to rank for Home Staging and your town or what ever the dominant regional term people in your market would be likely to use.

I will be starting my new series on getting ranked by the search engines soon. But since I had several questions on this point I thought I would answer it now.

Technorati Tags: anchor tags, Keywords, Linking, SEO

Here is another article written by a home stager on a topic that most anyone of you could write about.

In addition to encouraging you to write articles on your own, you too can borrow articles like this to share with people on your mailing list. What, you don’t have an email list to mail to? If that’s the case, you really need to sign up for Market Maker. Actually, you eventually should develop two lists. One of prospective clients who could use you home staging services and a second of area Realtors who could be using you to help build their careers. At any rate, as long as you include the resource box at the bottom, you can use these articles, which means you don’t have to write each and everyone yourself.

This article is by Katie Mudd of Fredericksburg, Virginia Discusses Curb Appeal.

* Make sure the street and, sidewalk, walkway and porch are free from litter and debris
* Reseal a worn or stained driveway and repair cracks in the walkway
* Re-Paint the Shudders and front door
* Apply new door hardware and a brass kick plate
* Replace the house numbers
* Put a flower box with seasonal flowers alongside the door
* Install a new front light fixture and check that all exterior lights are in working order
* Have a cleaning service wash the siding
* Clean windows and replace any cracked or broken glass
* Replace any missing or broken shingles on the roof/If the roof is very old consider having it replaced prior to showing the property
* Make sure the gutters and downspouts are in good repair
* Mow the grass weekly and keep weeds under control
* De-clutter the deck or patio

Creating a cheerful, clean, neat entrance is one of the best investments of time, money and effort you will ever make. Don’t let a potential buyer slip through the giant crack in your walkway! Fix the crack and keep the buyer! I hope these tips for preparing the exterior of your home are helpful and I will post some interior home tips in a future article.

Technorati Tags: Article Marketing, blogging, eZine Articles, Homestaging Tips

Home Staging Marketing: Winning Over the Null Set

Home Staging Marketing: Winning Over the Null Set

If you remember the null set from your school days, or as likely from your kid’s math homework, you might recall it being used to describe those who did neither a or b but nothing at all.

You put a lot of effort into marketing your home staging services and sometimes get undercut by your competitor, and that hurts.

Marketing is essential in our competitive world, particularly in adverse times. Most people realize it’s all the more important to invest in marketing when times are tough. But do they realize that sometimes the biggest competitor isn’t the gal down the street with that “other” designation, but rather the null set.

In this case, the null set includes the people who come to your web site because they are considering home staging, but then decide to do without.

That’s one of the reasons the little gift or bribe I wrote about yesterday is so effective. If you offer visitors something of value on your web site and then follow up with them; you have a far better chance of getting them to use staging and most importantly your services to stage their home.

If you don’t, it’s like betting your business on one cut of the deck, high card wins.  They either are sold on your services when they see your web site or not.

In contrast, with a little gift, and follow-up you have a chance to continue that conversation for days, until they either say yes or no. You get multiple chances to share with them the value of staging and win their business. You won’t win over the entire null set, but you have a better chance at getting more of them to use your services.

This process is at the heart of the Market Maker system.  Market Maker will be launching very soon. You want to be part of it.

http://homestagingbusinesstips.com/MarketMaker/ComingSoon.html
Now I confess I have been stressing the need to sign up before your competitor does in most of my posts.   And while it’s true that market maker will give you a distinct advantage over your competitor, a good part of that advantage will be in turning members of the null set into customers.  People who otherwise might not have staged at all.

Effective marketing isn’t just about beating your competitor to the job, it’s about getting more people to use your services.  Market Maker does both.

That said, it’s still true that only one home stager will be allowed to join the program from any one telephone area code.  So it’s important that you at least take a good look at Market Maker as soon as possible. And then decide to join or not.  Don’t let your friendly competitor take your option to join away from you by beating you to the punch.

Home stagers who sign up on the advance notice list will get a half hour head start to join and advance notice of the actual start time.  Word to the wise, I would sign up for that head start today.
Market Maker
http://homestagingbusinesstips.com/MarketMaker/ComingSoon.html

Earl Netwal
Micro Business Specialist
www.HomeStagingBusinessTips.com/blog

To get on the advance notice list register your company at
http://homestagingbusinesstips.com/MarketMaker/ComingSoon.html

Technorati Tags: Home staging marketing tips, marketing