Category: Home Staging

In today’s news headlines we are hearing everyday about a collapse in the housing market. There are getting to be more and more houses that are being foreclosed on because they were financed with loans that they now can’t afford. In some cities, the builders didn’t stop building until there were too many houses on the market, which has caused too many homes to be on the market. That in turn has forced other home values down. In short, the housing market is not the boom market it was a few years ago.

If you are in the position now that you are trying to sell your house, you may be a little worried as to whether you will be able to get it sold quickly and for as much money as you hoped it would sell for. When it comes to selling houses these days the buzz word is “Home Staging”. Is home staging right for you?

Recent stats show that homes that have been staged for sale receive 3-6% increase on their equity than unstaged homes. Also, on average, a staged home sells 2-3 times faster than unstaged homes. This can mean a lot to you financially if you are trying to sell your home. No one, wants to end up selling their house for thousands less than they had hoped to sell it for, and for sure no one wants to end up paying two mortgages because the house sits on the market for a lot longer than you planned on.

So what is home staging? Home staging is basically taking stock of what your house has to offer and doing the things that highlight the best features of the house. Home stagers make your house appeal to the broadest possible range of buyers. Their goal is to make it look the best that it can look, hopefully without spending a lot of money that you won’t get back when you sell the house.

Home stagers generally charge, depending on your geographical area, $200 for their initial report of what they think should be done, and then $75 or more per hour to actually stage the area. This does not include the cost of materials or labor that may be needed.

Depending on your situation, you may not be able to afford to hire a professional home stager, but there is no reason why you can’t learn to do some of the things that a home stager would do. There are a lot of things that you can do yourself that will help your house sell for more money and much quicker.

The first thing you need to do is to take stock of what your house has to offer. If you have been living in the house for a long time, you need to look at it with fresh eyes. Start with the outside. Does the pain on the trim need to be freshened up? Do the bushes need to be trimmed back so you can actually see the house?

Your house needs to be inviting on the outside or your potential buyers will never stop to come and see what you have to offer them inside. Cut the grass. Make sure the garbage bins are out of site. Touch up your trim paint if it needs it. Hose off the siding and knock down the cobwebs.

Once you have improved the looks of the outside of your home, you need to take stock of what you have on the inside. Have you ever taken a picture of your kids and when you looked at the picture realized that there is clutter behind them? We get so used to our surrounding that we get used to the clutter and the excess stuff we have around us. That stuff is fine if you and your family are living there, but if your house is on the market to sell, you need to reassess things. You need to clear off the counters, get rid of excess furniture and toys that are lying around.

You also need to do some deep cleaning. First off, if you smoke in your home, take it outside. You will also need to do whatever it takes to get rid of the smell. The smell of cigarette smoke will turn off a lot of people. Pets are also a problem. Remember, you are trying to appeal to the largest number of buyers. It may still be your home, but if you want to get it sold quickly and for a good price, you need to court the potential buyer.

In today’s unsteady economy most of us try to save a penny here and there. And when the time comes to put the home on the market, some homeowners opt for not hiring a professional home stager. No judgment here, we all decide ourselves what is best for us. But for do-it-yourself homeowners, let me share some advice on how to prepare your home for sale if you are on a budget.

1. Start with a curb appeal. Your house should look well maintained and neat: mow the lawn, remove all dry or dead flowers and plants, power spray the entire house to get rid of cobwebs and dirt, it will give the house a freshly painted look.

2. Inside, remove all personal items: photos, collections, achievement awards, antique. It will distract potential buyers’ attention from the house and will not let them mentally move in.

3. Remove all clutter and extra furniture. Additional sitting furniture, side tables, statues, books, magazines – it all creates clutter and you want rooms to appear as open and large as possible. For example, most dining sets can go with four chairs instead of six.

4. In the kitchen remove everything from the countertops. All small appliances, paper-towel holders, cutting boards, etc. – hide it all in the cabinets. You will increase the appearance of your countertop space – exactly what the buyers’ are looking for. A nice vase with fruits or couple of knick-knacks will give your kitchen a more welcoming look.

5. In the bathroom put all your personal items into the basket and hide it under the sink. Freshen up the look of your bathroom with fresh flowers, clean white towels, and, preferably, new shower curtain.

6. If you want to give your house a totally new fresh look, painting is one of the cheapest way to do it. You don’t have to break the bank to buy a gallon or two of paint. The return on this kind of investment will be huge. The trick here is that you need to choose the right color of paint, that will appeal to most buyers. If you need help choosing the right color scheme for your home makeover – please, contact Studio 74.

7. And remember: the cleaner the house – the newer it looks. So, while staging homes for sale, scrub everything top to bottom, it all pays off at the end.

For more tips and ideas on staging homes for sale, call Studio 74.

With the current plummeting home values, you might think that now is not the best time to fork out extra money on home staging to sell your house thats going on the market. There are two ways that you can go about this, depending on how much you can afford to spend; you can either stage your home yourself or you can hire an expert.

If you stage your home yourself, you can find a lot of information in books on the subject and on the internet. Or, for a nominal fee, you might be able to get some suggestions from a professional home stager to guide you along.

A professional stager will guide you in home clean up, repainting, renting furniture that shows off your rooms to their best advantage, and accessorising your home to make it look like a show home. If the home youre trying to sell has furniture that doesnt suit the space very well, your home stager can even rent furniture to set up in your home to better show your homes assets. This service can be relatively inexpensive or very expensive, depending on the level of help that your home needs and what you can afford to invest in.

If you are arranging your own staging, remember that it should encompass both the outside and inside of your home; no matter what your staging budget is, your home should be immaculately cleaned inside and out. Ideally, every room should be repainted either in the same color or something more neutral, particularly if they havent been painted in a few years. A fresh coat of paint will brighten a home up delightfully. Another good staging tip that you can do yourself is box up about half of your belongings and put them in storage; this not only removes a lot of the clutter from your home, but also makes your storage areas look more than ample since they wont be full to capacity.

No matter if you decide to hire a professional or stage your home yourself, home staging is a step that is well worth the time and money to complete.Staged homes sell faster and get the homeowner more money when they sell and preparing to stage a home entails a lot of clean up and packing away things that you would just have to pack later on so you can save yourself time later on when you have to move as well.

Big Ticket To Wealth! Glowing Product Review & Largest Compensation Plan!

Any new internet marketing business has a hype surrounding it, especially when it is just launching. The Big Ticket to Wealth program launched in 2007 and has been termed as the new cutting edge ticketing program that will help internet marketers become very successful. So what is all the hype about? For one thing the compensation plan is one of the largest.Big Ticket to Wealth was started by Gerald Yerxa, who was a top notch producer in a leading MLM provider and has had a lot of success with online marketing as well. A company founded by someone with so much knowledge and information cannot be termed as a scam.

So what is Big Ticket to Wealth really selling? The company’s USP is internet marketing training, which they offer to members through flash videos, internet software and other kinds of training materials to help you jump start your internet marketing business. The reason these products work is because they have been developed by someone who has been really successful with internet marketing. The flash videos can easily help you capture customer attention, it is a technology erstwhile seen only on TV but Big Ticket to Wealth has brought it online. The cutting edge internet software’s such as wealth building tools are those that you can use for being truly successful. They also offer one on one mentoring programs as well as marketing seminars where you have the opportunity to hear straight from the horse’s mouth or from other successful internet marketers.

This is a great opportunity for those wanting to capitalize on the internet business market opportunity and create a steady flow of income through it. Big Ticket to Wealth is an expensive program, compared to industry standards, requiring a minimum membership fee of $800 approximately and a monthly recurring charge of $75 to maintain and develop the flash videos on the website. No refunds are available on the program because all the material can be instantly downloaded. You can make money with the compensation plan through a direct sales commission that is dependent on the membership plan you choose while joining the program.

The good part about the program is that matching override bonuses are the same as the commissions you earn via your website sales. So, what you are really doing here is becoming an affiliate for Big Ticket to Wealth. The other benefit is that newbie’s and seasoned marketers can take advantage of this unique and huge compensation plan. But the fact is that your success depends largely on how successful you want to get and this is tied in with the amount of hard work you want to put in.

While the Big Ticket to Wealth is itself a training program that teaches internet marketing principles, it is very important to know that it has a top notch mentoring program who is willing to teach you the other finer nuances too. While the program can tell you what all you should do, the right mentor will teach you how to apply these principles when it actually comes down to business.

Despite the proven fact that each person has his or her own needs together with tastes, most people still possesses a virtually identical understanding of comfort and luxury. This is why, staging a home for sale, it may be not so difficult to follow some general aspects, used to create an attractive atmosphere within the exterior and interior of a house, that may be appreciated by many.
So, firstly it’s of great importance to make your home looking nice and trim. The existence of garbage or clutter will unquestionably spoil the impression produced by your home, while you will demonstrate it to your prospective buyers. Secondly, the rooms at your house need to be well-lit, to allow your possible buyers to see the furnishing of your home. And thirdly, the furnishing of your home and its particular style must provide the atmosphere of harmony and luxury, where your prospective buyers should be able to relax and enjoy their time, while staying at home.
You can attempt to make this sort of appealing atmosphere, employing your own comprehension of style and comfort with some general principles we have mentioned above above. Even so, if you wish to obtain the best results, while making your home looking extremely expensive and also obtaining the highest price for its sale, then it might be of great importance to take into account the advices of an professional concerning how to stage a house to sell.
Currently the real estate real estate home staging seems to be quite intricate issue that will require a distinctive approach and consideration of the amount of significant points, which could be missed by non-professionals. Just to start staging a home we offer you to discover the decorating ideas offered by Lise Desormeaux, that’s called a successful Home Staging and Decorating Educator. Her home staging tips present an ideal guide as for realtors as for homeowners, who will be able to transform their houses into the million dollar homes, that could be quickly sold. These hints might be also great for those, that are intending to decorate their abodes into the clutter-free and beautiful homes by not using a decorator.
Observe the tips and hints of Lisa Desormeaux, available on www.lisedesormeaux.com, and you will be prepared to save plenty of cash, discovering the powerful steps to home staging.