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Home Staging Essentials – 50 Tips To Get You Started on Your Home Staging Journey

ETN — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 01:31:30 +0000

“Home staging” was coined by Barb Schwarz back in the early ’70s, and the concept has become well known as “house fluffing,” “dressing to sell,” and “home presentation” to name a few, but the concept has not taken hold among home owners when selling a home because many people do not understand the idea or cannot create a workable plan for staging their home correctly.

The focus of staging is to make a home more marketable by creating the most appealing home to the greatest number of prospective buyers. It should be impersonal enough not to infringe on a buyer’s own sense of style.

Decorating is optional. Staging, on the other hand, is essential – that is if you want to sell your house for the most possible money in the shortest amount of time. Staging – it is the difference between ordinary and extraordinary.

Since home staging is truly an essential part of selling your home, I wanted to share these 50 Tips To Get You Started on Your Home Staging Journey.

1. Be sure that your home is staged before you or your realtor takes the photos for the web. Over 70% of all new apartment/home searches are started on the Internet. It is imperative that the property looks good in the photos so that it can attract as many people as possible to see the real thing.

2. You should not have one person look at your house until it has been staged completely. It should not go through the broker walkthrough, MLS, open houses, or anything. Stage first!

3. Kate Hart of Hart & Associates Staging and Design LLC knows that home staging works for all properties regardless of the price point because home staging is about preparing your home for a faster and more profitable sale and marketing your property to the most potential buyers for its target audience. “I have staged homes ranging from $100,000 to $10 million and have had the same result- the homes sell faster and for top dollar compared with the competitors within their price range.”

4. If you have dark cabinets, a light colored handle or something in shiny gold will enhance them. If you have light cabinets, you can give them the sleek look by using handles of the same color so that they are hardly noticeable or by using brushed silver handles. With light wood, you can also use darker handles, gold, bronze, or even colors.

5. Sometimes renovations are needed. However, here are five that you should avoid:

· Adding high end appliances to a modest home

· Adding hand painted tiles to the bath or kitchen

· Adding a central vacuum

· Adding air conditioning (unless you are in an area that all homes have it)

· Replacing windows with newer models

6. Be sure to check with your city or county building inspector before beginning a new project. Many departments require permits, even for things as simple as changing a dishwasher.

7. Everything in its place is a good motto to remember. Always find appropriate places to store your items. Litter boxes in the kitchen and trashcans in the pantry are just two examples of inappropriate placement.

8. Julie Dana of The Home Stylist has the following tip: Do not have any cleaning products visible. You want the buyer to think that the house cleans itself. You do not want to remind buyers that there will be work to do in this house, so put away laundry baskets and dish drainers as well!

9. Lisa Wonsey of Space/Lift explains that selling an empty home can be a huge mistake. Buying or renting furniture is especially vital in an empty home. Empty homes do not show well and can sit on the market for months until a buyer with a good visual imagination comes along, or until the seller drops the price so low that the home is a steal.

10. Your refrigerator will need to be cleaned, even if you are not leaving it. People will still look inside and a dirty refrigerator will turn them off. If you are taking it with you, you may as well clean it now. If you are leaving it, then it is imperative to have it sparkling.

11. Ruthanne Hatfield of Art of Interior Placement emphasizes that taking away items is needed, but adding back is essential, too: Each room should be embellished with accessories artwork, mirrors, accent tables, silk trees and florals, as well as dishes, bedding, and towels so all areas look inviting.

12. Check for unusual odors in your house. It may come from a pet or even from your upholstery.

13. Cleaning is rarely fun for anyone, but it does not have to be a terrible chore. Play some fun, lively music. Before you know it, your adrenaline will start pumping and you will be dancing your way through the house.

14. To clean those irritating stains in the bathtub, make a paste by using hydrogen peroxide and cream of tartar. Use an old toothbrush to rub the mixture into the stain and rinse thoroughly.

15. To clean the microwave, fill a paper cup with water and a few tablespoons of baking soda. Nuke it for about 30 seconds, or until you see the contents explode. Then just take a paper towel and wipe it all off. The explosion spreads the cleanser over the entire area, and you can even use the moistened rag or paper towel to wipe outside the microwave and its surrounding area.

16. Mary Larsen of Larsen-Trochlil Designs offers the following professional tip: Do not offer money towards painting or installing new carpeting. Remember, if you are not willing to do it, your buyer is not likely to either.

17. Take a look around you. Do you have items in your home that are unused and have no real sentimental value? If so, get rid of them! These types of items can often be found in closets, cupboards, basements, and garages. Sometimes they are on bookshelves or even in your everyday living space. The more you are able to move out the more the next buyer will want to “move in.”

18. If you do not have a plan for what to do with the stuff you no longer need, it will get put in the basement or the attic or the garage or simply stay in a pile in the room where it began. If this happens, then you really did not get rid of clutter – you just moved it to another location. When you are clearing the clutter for home staging purposes, you will have many different piles. Some things may go to a thrift store such as the Salvation Army, some things may go to the dump, some things may go into storage, and some things may be set aside for a garage or yard sale. Knowing what you are going to do with the extra clutter is essential to really decluttering your home.

19. Sylvia Beez of m.a.p. interiors inc. reminds us that: A home for sale should always be presented in its best light and immaculate condition, which is not the reality of everyday life. Potential buyers do not want to see how you live, with your children, cats and dogs, and mess. They want to see themselves in a perfect house under perfect conditions and that is how a home on the market should always be presented.

20. If your kitchen cabinets, pantries, and drawers – even your refrigerator – look jammed packed, it sends a negative message to the buyer. This message is that there is not enough room in your kitchen. If they were looking for plentiful storage space, after opening your crowded cupboards, they will believe that they will not find it in your kitchen. The best way to change this negative first impression is to have as much “empty space” as possible.

21. Marlene Feldman of Marlene Feldman Associates has the following suggestion for small dining rooms: If the dining room has an oversized china cabinet, consider removing it. Or, if has a top and bottom, remove the top. This will open up the space considerably

22. Take a look at your bathroom. If you are like most people, you will find half-used shampoo bottles, a jumble of hair accessories, a curling iron, foam curlers, several cans of shaving cream, tub toys, lotions, medication, books and magazines, oils, candles, toilet paper, and on and on and on. The amount of stuff we store in our bathrooms is far greater than the storage capacity for these small rooms, especially, if like many bathrooms, you have just a medicine cabinet and a very small vanity. The “stuff” that is not in use needs to be boxed up and moved out.

23. Katie Joanow of Star Staging explains that: You should remove extra chairs from the tables. Unless you have a massive space, you will not need more than 4 chairs around a table. Also remove extra leaves from the table. This will make the room feel larger.

24. Buyers want to see your carpet or your hardwood floor or your linoleum. Most home stagers suggest removing all area rugs, unless you have a large area of hardwood, where one rug is acceptable. Area rugs make spaces seem more crowded. Without them, your floor plan opens up.

25. Closets are great for accumulating clutter, though you may not think of it as clutter. Perhaps the clutter is wrapping paper, or Christmas items, or an old sewing machine. Maybe you have some keepsakes, or photo albums. Then of course there are the extra clothes and shoes. None of these things are likely to be in the throw away pile, but they should not be in your closet if you want to reduce the look of clutter.

26. Gail Greer of All Rooms Great and Small gives this tip about painting your home: You need to be willing to change paint colors. There are certain universally accepted colors and these should be used when repainting your home. Yellow or shades of gold are warm and inviting. You should also accent with yellow. Your eye absorbs more yellow and therefore sees it first. Green or blue in the bedrooms are great colors because they are restful.

27. Stand a few feet away from the entrance to the bedroom. What do you see? Whatever you see is the first thing that a buyer will see. Is it pretty? Is it bulky? Does it make the room feel small? Move anything from the doorway that is not inviting.

28. A spare room should be viewed as a bonus. It is a “plus” feature of your home, but only if the buyers can view it as such. For example, if your spare room is used mostly as an office, then, during the selling process,you need to make it just that – an office! Get rid of the spare bed and the extra dressers full of last season’s clothes. Get rid of the boxes of storage items in the closet. Keep the essentials of your office such as a desk, filing cabinet, bookshelf, and a nice chair in the corner with a small table and lamp.

29. Holly Weatherwax of Momentum Realty explains that whenever possible, she recommends leaving the garage free from storage. If people see that the seller does not have enough storage and has to use the garage, they will begin to wonder if the same thing will happen if they buy the house. People like to think that they might actually be able to use a garage!

30. Find out what organizations in your area pick up items. Such organizations often include Goodwill, The Salvation Army, veteran’s associations, and other local organizations. Another good way to get rid of items you no longer need is to use Freecycle. Here, you can list items you no longer need and then choose someone from a list of takers to have them. The best part is the person wanting the items comes to your home on your timetable to get them. You can find a freecycle group in your area by going to http://www.freecycle.org.

31. Get everything off the counters. Everything. Remove all appliances from the countertops. Even the toaster. Doing so will make you kitchen look larger and more spacious. It will also keep the buyer’s eye from stopping on a particular item rather than getting a full view of the room. Put the toaster in a cabinet and take it out when you use it. Find a place where you can store everything in cabinets and drawers.

32. Charlie Ann Taylor of C.A.T.’S ROOMER has a lot to say about these focal points in your home: The kitchen and baths need to be model perfect because the kitchen and baths sell the home.

33. Have you taken away so much that your home no longer has any sparkle? Although YOUR personality needs to be removed, the personality of the house still needs to come through.

34. One of the most important factors to consider when placing items into a room is the idea of transition. As your eye moves around the room, you do not want it jumping from place to place or piece to piece. The movement of the eye should flow – not bounce. To accomplish this, you want to avoid abrupt changes in height.

35. Gail Jackson of Weichert Realtors explains that home staging does not need to be expensive: Paint is very inexpensive and gives you a big bang for your buck. Although a bit labor-intensive, painting is not expensive and gives your home a new, fresh, clean look.

36. Give each room a touch of the unexpected. This can be done with artwork placed in an unusual way, using a piece of furniture in a way that you normally would not use it, or adding a dash of color where the eye least expects to find it. Be creative.

37. Follow the “like-with-like” rule of the thumb. Tall with tall, small with small, wide with wide, and narrow with narrow will guide you throughout the decorating process. Mimic the shape of each space you are decorating. For example, a sofa should be accessorized with horizontal art so you are complementing wide with wide.

38. Marcia Smart’s (Smart Interior Styling) tip is to: Recognize that your major competition comes from newer homes. People will take a newer home over an older home if all else is equal. That is why it is essential to give an older home something that puts it above the rest.

39. My favorite decorating tip is to look outside the box. You do not always need to use an item for its intended purpose. For example, do not just use a tablecloth for a table; make it a slipcover for your ottoman. It can save you lots of money and time when you purchase a tablecloth at a local chain verses buying yards of fabric and by purchasing the correct size it can become a no-sew project. Always keep your eyes open for new uses for everyday items.

40. Select a focal point for your room and subtly orient other furnishings and some lighting toward it. If there is a fireplace, it will nearly always be the focal point; other focal points might be bookcases or built-in shelving to house lovely collectibles, or a sofa with a striking painting on the wall above it.

41. Donna Reynolds of Home Rearrangements explains that there are two times that you can angle furniture: In a square room and if a room already has an angle in it, like a corner fireplace or a bay window.

42. In a bedroom, unless you have no other choice, you want to see the foot of the bed when you walk in. You do not want a bed to cross the doorway because it blocks the flow and makes the room look smaller. It is better to see the foot so that you can see the pretty pillows.

43. One of the easiest ways to create color is to add beautiful accent pillows to any room. Introducing a complementary accent color in a room can make a room “pop” and come alive. Accent pillows not only add color but texture and warmth as well. By adding throw pillows in a coordinating or contrast fabric to a couch chair, bench, or bed, you can transform your room and add instant warmth inexpensively!

44. One way to see if your home has curb appeal is to walk across the street and have a good look at your house. where did your eyes go? They should be drawn to the front door and entryway. If they are not, then you need to do something about it.

45. Kimberly Cash of ASPM Tidewater Home Staging Consultants, Inc. offers the following advice: People do not see their house as a product that you have to market and sell. However, selling your home is like packaging. People look at the outside before deciding to come in. Then they look at the inside before deciding to buy, and it is mostly based on looks. It is packaging. You need to wrap up your product, your home, like a beautiful package.

46. Once you have gotten the front yard in shape, it is time to work on the backyard. The most important areas of the backyard are the patios, decks, and porches. Getting these areas up to date will give the buyers a feeling that they are getting bonus space.

47. New window treatments can make a world of difference. They can add value and style to your home and be something the buyers view as a bonus – something they will not have to buy or replace when they move in. The caution, however, is that you keep the treatments neutral (keep your personality out of the room) and that you make sure they do not block the amount of light that comes into a room.

48. Debra Blackmon of Blackmon Design offers the following suggestion for your windows: Many homes have the louvers of the blinds turned down to face the floor. A more enhancing way to use blinds is to turn the louvers up to reflect much-needed ambient light onto the ceiling.

49. Sometimes, refreshing a room can be as easy as changing a light bulb. Bulbs like GE Reveal filter out yellow rays common in ordinary light bulbs, making colors, fabric, walls, and artwork appear richer, crisper, and more vivid.

50. Add pampering accessories! Things like bath bubbles, fluffy towels, and candles not only add the pampering feeling you are trying to achieve, they offer visual comfort with color and texture as well. Psychologically, we all crave that long soak with a good book, and even if we are only in the bathroom for 10 minutes to whip on some make up, just seeing those items displayed promises wonderful baths to come!

As you know, your home becomes a house – a product for sale. Staging your property gives you a more competitive edge in today’s market by transforming it into a marketable product. A staged property helps you sell your investment for top dollar and is the first line of defense over lowering the price. Do not settle for less at the closing table simply because you did not understand the value of staging or did not want to take the time or spend the money to do it properly.

In this world of busy buyers, a property has to be staged to appeal to the their imagination. They want to be able to look at your home and know that they can live there. They want to know that their furniture will fit. They want to know that everything is in “move in” condition. That is why staging is so important. It allows buyers to imagine themselves living in your home with their stuff, not yours.

Presentation is everything and staging is presentation! The result is improved functionality and complementary space. Following the techniques in this book will maximize your equity while reducing the market time for your home.

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, home stager, home staging tips,

Home Staging – What to Look For When Selecting a Home Stager

ETN — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 01:15:30 +0000

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,

Home Staging Strategies to Remember!

ETN — Fri, 21 May 2010 20:32:57 +0000

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

Top 10 Reasons Home Staging is a Great Home Based Business

ETN — Thu, 06 May 2010 01:16:54 +0000

If you have a flair for decorating and an interest in real estate, Home Staging could be the right career for you. This service business, also called Real Estate Staging, is based on the art of decorating a home to sell quickly and for top dollar.

Home Staging is a great service business to run from a home office for these 10 reasons:

1. It is a low cost business to start.

You can work from your own home office. You don’t need a store front or inventory. You also don’t need expensive advertising to grow your home staging business successfully.

2. There is no need to invest in inventory or recruit others into the business. Home Staging is not a multi-level marketing scheme.

If you’ve researched the subject of home-based business, you’ve probably encountered lots of schemes that want you to buy inventory and recruit others into the business too. These are multi-level marketing businesses. Home Staging is not a multi-level marketing business. You don’t have to buy anything and you don’t have to recruit anyone else to join the business. This is something you can do on your own without any recruiting pressures. You aren’t expected to pester every friend and casual acquaintance you’ve ever had to invest in your “unique opportunity.”

3. It has been recognized as one of the best growth businesses.

Entrepreneur Magazine identified home staging as one of the hottest growth businesses, and the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program is the ONLY home staging business opportunity recognized by the magazine for the last three years in their business start up guide books.

4. The financial rewards are there if you work hard to build your business.

Home Stagers create real wealth for their clients by effectively decorating their homes to sell quickly and for top dollar. Once clients realize the significant return they can make on their investment in home staging services, they don’t feel it’s unreasonable to spend several hundred dollars for even two hours of a stager’s time. In other words, working only half a day, you can make what many people take a whole week to earn. If you have five clients in a single week, you can earn more than you did in an entire month of working full time.

And with real estate markets slowing in many parts of the US, the demand for (and interest in) staging services will continue to grow as desperate home sellers look for an alternative to the costly price reductions their agents recommend.

This business can also thrive in a hot real estate market as savvy home sellers realize the greater profits they can make when they have 10 or 15 buyers bidding on their homes, instead of the two or three they might have had before staging.

5. You can still have time for your family or other demands while running a your business.

You control when you meet clients. If you only want to work during the day when your children are at school you can arrange it that way. “I have an opening for you on Wednesday morning at 9:00 AM works well!”

Or, if you want to start this business on the side while you already have a full time job, then you can meet your clients on evenings and weekends. Many of them will really appreciate it as they work themselves.

6. You will have daily opportunities to be creative and meet interesting people.

Home Staging projects very much depend on the creative solutions you develop for your clients, and each one is unique. You get to see the end result very quickly and meet lots of different people as you deal with real estate agents and homeowners.

7. You will enjoy variety and a sense of adventure in a Home Staging business.

Home Staging projects are very short term in nature, lasting days or a couple of weeks. Each house is different and you’ll be visiting streets and neighborhoods you didn’t know existed as you build your home staging client base.

8. You decide who you want to work with and what kind of projects you want to take on.

Since a project is short term in nature, if you find yourself with a “client from hell,” you know they won’t be in your life very long. If you find there are certain real estate agents that don’t share your approach to business, or treat you with less respect than you deserve, don’t work with them again. There are thousands of real estate agents to choose from in most markets. Did you know that in California alone there are 200,000 agents? Clearly not all of them are equally good or equally pleasant to be around.

9. Since you visit clients in their homes, you do not need to worry about what your own home looks like to run a successful staging business.

Nobody needs to know where your home office is and they certainly don’t need to visit your home. So, don’t worry if your house isn’t a reflection of what you want to present to Home Staging clients. The most important thing is to always present yourself in a professional manner.

10. It does not require specialized training or official credentials.

Despite what some organizations claim for their own marketing reasons, there are no official credentials to be a Home Stager. You can call yourself a Professional Home Stager today and no one can say anything about it.

Of course calling yourself a Home Stager doesn’t mean you’ll automatically know how to price your services, build your business and get clients. These are important skills to acquire if you want to be financially successful. The main point is that you don’t have to undergo years or even months of training to get into this business.

Entrepreneur and Home Staging expert Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, knows how to make money as a Home Stager. Discover her secrets to business success in the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Free quiz to see if a home staging business is right for you at http://www.stagingdiva.com

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

Home Staging – Why It Works

ETN — Mon, 03 May 2010 01:50:26 +0000

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

What’s Next? After your onpage factors fixed.

ETN — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:06:59 +0000

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

ETN — Wed, 06 May 2009 10:40:18 +0000

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

So You Have A Splash Page and a Lot of Flash, Now What?

ETN — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:38:36 +0000

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

Once that’s done, you add the keyword you want to rank for— Hamptons Home Staging and a closing code which is

So the completed phrase in HTML is Hamptons Home Staging 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

Curb Appeal, Home Stager Says 1st 15 Seconds Crucial

ETN — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:36:54 +0000

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.

Did you know that a buyer has developed an opinion of your property within 15 seconds? I have pulled up to many homes with clients who did not want to consider a property simply because the exterior needed some attention. The following ideas will help your homes exterior make a great first impression:

* 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.

Katie Mudd, Realtor/CSP Visit http://www.katiemudd.com to find out your home’s value, obtain a free list of foreclosure or affordable luxury homes or conduct a property search
Katie Mudd is a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Elite located at 5444 Jefferson Davis Hwy in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Licensed in the commonwealth of Virginia. Each office is independently owned and operated Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Katie_Mudd

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

Home Staging Marketing: Winning Over the Null Set

ETN — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:54:24 +0000

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

Dangle Something Pretty Before Their Eyes

ETN — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 01:13:47 +0000

Dangle Something Pretty Before Their Eyes

Listen to the podcast

Dangle Something Pretty Before Their Eyes!

We all like things that are free and pretty and/or delicious.

And if it’s something that is also related to what our web visitors
are looking for and the product or service we wish to offer, it’s
very much all the better.

In recent articles we’ve been looking at what it takes to get
people to find your web site. There are a whole host of tricks
tweaks and tactics collectively called Search Engine Optimization
that can help build traffic to your web site.

But once they are there, what are you going to do to get them to
pay attention to you?

You are going to give them a sucker, a popsicle, an ice cream cone
just like you did your kids. Only in the adult world we are going
to give them something of value, related to our mutual interests.

Presumably they came to your web site because they were at least
somewhat interested in Home staging.

You want to be able to give them something they can use related to
home staging. Something for free. Something they can take with
them, right here and now. With no fuss or muss. With no obligation.

If you do and no one else does, you will be ahead of the game. What
you want to give them is a free report of some sort that they can
download. A Gift.

To get it they will need to give you their email address so you can
send it to them. That way you will know who they are, and how to
get a hold of them again.

That will allow you to send them another gift in a few days. And
another.

And if you keep it up, they will end up calling you when they are
finally ready to make up their mind and hire a home stager.

If you have a pretty thing to dangle on your web site, and no one
else does, you are going to get their attention and eventually
their business.

It might not be nice to bribe your kids to get their attention but
it works. It works with prospective customers as well.

Market Maker is coming and coming soon. Market Maker takes the
ideas of Search Engine Optimization and what we call ethical bribes
and much more and wraps it into a unique marketing plan
specifically designed for Home Stagers. It’s a marketing plan on
auto pilot that pays for itself. Membership in the plan is limited
and you should be sure to sign up for advance notice as not
everyone will be allowed to join.

PS: Market Maker is limited to just one home stager per telephone

area code during its initial run. You want that to be you, and not

your competitor. Register for advance notice now at Market Maker

Technorati Tags: ethical bribes, Internet marketing, Market Maker, marketing

Paint Colors That Sell – 7 Tips to Choosing Colors Buyers Will Love

ETN — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:51:19 +0000

Tasha Moody got me see colors with this useful article she has posted to the eZine Article Directory. I bet it gets a lot of use in real estate and other blogs. Each time it gets used it will send Google Bots back to her web site and even if no one takes her up on her offer for color swatches, or lives in the Atlanta area, she will benefit by way of a higher search engine placement in the Atlanta Market. Plus should someone in her market see it, they will recognize that she is knowledgeable, maybe even an expert, and that will help raise her status in their eyes.

Paint Colors That Sell – 7 Tips to Choosing Colors Buyers Will Love

There you are, touring a new listing in the perfect location, with the right number of bedrooms and the best school district. It’s the only one in your price range, and while it’s clean and new and generally de-cluttered, you just can’t get past the master bathroom seeming uninviting and the finished basement feeling a bit dark. As much as you’d like for it to be, it just isn’t “the one.” No offers today.

Unfortunately what that seller failed to realize is that a simple change in paint colors would have been the missing link to clenching an offer, all for the cost of a can of paint. Choosing the right paint colors is a critical step in preparing a home for sale and is one of the biggest players in the emotional connection (or lack thereof) that a buyer makes with a property. What are those perfect paint colors for helping sell houses? Well, that’s the million dollar question that can be very difficult to answer if you don’t know color. Read on for some basic tips that will get you on the path to choosing the right colors for staging a home:

1. Neutral is great, but all beige is boring
A common real estate misconception is that painting the walls white or beige throughout the entire home will give the buyers a “blank slate.” Problem is, it usually turns out to be a very boring, unmemorable blank slate that rarely results in increased profits or a faster sale. While beige is much safer than super bright or very bold colors, having a variety of color within the right palette is ideal. However, using a warm beige or tan such as Shaker Beige by Benjamin Moore in the common areas (hallways, stairwells, foyers, etc.) is recommended.

2. Stick with earth-toned varieties of tan, green, yellow, blue and grey
For example, when looking at greens stay in the sage, celery or rosemary ranges. Or when thinking of yellow go with the more buttery or golden tones as opposed to the brighter varieties. Look to the types of tones and shades you see in nature most often and mimic those in your color choices.

3. Either the walls or the décor should take the stage – but not both
If your living room has dark brown leather and walnut-toned furniture, you’ll need to go with a lighter tone on the walls to balance. Likewise, if you have a maple dining room set and white fabric upholstered chairs, you’ll need a warmer color on the wall and complimentary place settings/centerpiece to ensure the room doesn’t appear washed out. Consider your furniture, cabinetry, artwork, flooring and countertops when choosing the shade of paint.

4. If in doubt, go with the lighter option
If you’ve narrowed your options to two or three colors and all would make great choices, a rule of thumb is to pick the lighter option when going to sell. While deeper tones can make fabulously enticing rooms, they can be tricky. If you aren’t working with a home stager or color consultant it’s better to air on the side of safe, rather than chance overwhelming the seller.

5. Green, red and yellow are appetizing colors
Sage green, apple red and golden yellow are great colors for dining rooms and kitchens because they evoke appetite. Red is definitely the trickiest of the three to use effectively without overwhelming a room, but if combined with the right furniture and accents it makes for a very appealing color. Yellow is a cheery color that encourages conversation. Green is a combination of appetizing and soothing, making it popular with many different types of people and in several different rooms of the home.

6. Cool colors like blue and green have soothing, spa-like appeal
Use a gray-blue in a bathroom with an orchid by the sink and a stack of fluffy towels by the tub, or sage green in a bedroom with white bedding and dark wood furniture for a soothing, harmonious appeal. Some studies have shown that blue and green actually have healing properties such as lowering heart rate and blood pressure! Try “Iced Marble” or “Mosaic Tile” by Benjamin Moore.

7. Order a sample can
When you have decided on your colors and picked the shade you feel is best, always pick up a $5 sample can of paint and test it on a decent-sized area of several walls with different lighting in the room to ensure it works on the grander scale. This small investment will save you a lot of time and energy in the end, as tiny paint swatches can often be deceiving.

Good Luck!

Tasha Moody is a certified Home Staging Expert and President of Simply Staged, an Atlanta home staging company. Go to http://www.PaintColorsThatSell.com to learn about the 27 BEST staging colors that consistently help sell the listings Tasha stages. Order your own paint fan of the colors with oversized swatches and details of which room the color works best in for just $25 so you can start recommending paint colors with confidence! Choosing beautiful paint colors has never been so easy.

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

Technorati Tags: colors, Paint

Home Staging Tip: Chased By A Bear!

ETN — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:12:33 +0000

Listen to this podcast, Chased by a Bear:

Homestaging Business Tip: Chased By a Bear!

Chased by a Bear!

There is a story of two people in the woods, being charged by a hungry bear. One stops to tie his shoes, the other scoffs, “you can’t outrun a bear.” “I don’t need to outrun the bear, I just need to outrun you.” His companion replied.

So too, with marketing in a local market.

You don’t need to be the best in the nation at marketing, you just need to be better than your local competitors. That may be easier than you think.

With notable exceptions most home stagers spend very little time thinking about their marketing. Some may even feel it contrary to their nature. But if you are serious about your home staging business, you must give some serious thought to how you are going to attract your next customer and then the one after that.

That’s one reason you have a web page. But many of you make a mistake and think a web page is all about selling a potential customer on your staging skills. The purpose of a web page is to get prospects to call you.

I will discuss that more in a future article, but many of you have a bigger problem and don’t even know it.

Many people looking for a home stager in your town can’t find your web site.

In past articles, I’ve touched on two things you can do to remedy that problem. One is to change your page title tags to include relevant keywords. Another is to change the Meta Tag description on your web page to also include relevant keywords. There is one more major step to take in the meta tags area, that will greatly increase the chance that prospects looking online actually find you.

And that is the formal meta tag keywords.

There are over six million web sites that show up when someone searches for the term “Home Staging” in Google. That’s way too many, so most people when confronted with so many responses do a second search.

And in that second search they may try another keyword, like “home stager,” but more likely they will use the same keyword and add a geographical term.

When my son searches for pizza on the web, he adds his zip code. For a less common business like home staging, he might use his telephone area code, or the town name.

I’ve written about this before, but I am amazed at how few people actually take the time to make this simple change to the keywords they have in their meta tags.

If you do, and your competitors don’t, it’s like you putting on a pair of tennis shoes. Hey, they may even be a slightly better home stager than you. But if you are wearing geographically based keywords as your tennis shoes, you will get ranked above them in the computer search engines. You will get seen, they won’t. Or if they do, they will be listed under you in the rankings. You will get first chance to stage more houses. And they won’t know why.

Now I know some of you aren’t into competition, but this is business. If you want your phone to ring. If you want to be doing two to four more home stagings a month, you need to pay attention to your marketing.

You need to change the keywords in your web page’s meta tags. You need to include terms like “Home staging in Minneapolis”, “St. Paul Home Stager”, “House Staging in 612.”

In the first article of this series, I told you where and how to look up keywords. You need to find the top keywords people actually use, and then mix and match the appropriate geographical references for your market place.

It’s a chore, but not hard. It will make a real difference, and will allow you to outrun your competition.

Next week, the Market Maker program will be launched. All of these changes and much more will be handled by Market Maker for you. Market Maker is a unique program designed specifically for the Home Staging industry. It will put your web based marketing on auto pilot and will pay for itself.

Membership will be limited, particularly at first. So if you want to sprint to the front of your market place, make sure you sign up for advance notice of the release date.

To do so go to http://homestagingbusinesstips.com/MarketMaker/ComingSoon.html

Best Wishes,

Earl Netwal
MicroBusinessSpecialist
http://www.HomestagingBusinessTips.com/blog

Technorati Tags: homestaging, Keywords, marketing, Meta Tags

Paint Colors That Sell – 7 Tips to Choosing Colors Buyers Will Love

ETN — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:32:12 +0000

I’m color illiterate. Thus I found this article on choosing colors buyer will love to be worthwhile. It’s another in my series of articles prepared by home stagers. These tips and tricks spread out on the the internet are helpful to the posters and to the general public and to home staging in general. I may sound like a broken record, on the topic, but article writing is one of the best things you can do to build the industry and your own business. I hope you enjoy this article by Tasha Moody. I did. I like the idea of putting a little color in things.

Good Luck!

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

Technorati Tags: colors, Paint