Home Staging TNT

Have you ever fallen in love at first site? When you’re selling your home, that’s the emotion you’re trying to produce among potential buyers. Okay, they won’t want to marry it, but they certainly are considering spending a long time with it. You may think that putting all that effort into making that first initial impression isn’t worth it — but it is.

What is Home Staging?

Staging involves making a house look as appealing as possible, giving it that “wow” factor to help it sell more quickly for higher prices. Many staging experts are quick to point out the difference between staging and preparation. Preparation involves the actual process of cleaning, repairing and doing the work to get the house in best condition possible. Staging involves putting it on show, giving it the best look. This process focuses on making that first crucial impression — causing the homebuyer to immediately think, “Now, I could definitely live here!” Techniques include removing items that remind of the current owner’s presence while making the decor inviting and attractive to a wide number of potential buyers.

Home staging is truly an art, many would contend. Knowing how to accentuate the features of a house while deemphasizing “problem” areas takes a carefully trained eye. This need for a trained eye has given to the rise of professional staging. Whether they are providing New York or Kansas City home staging, professional stagers tout their ability to bring great returns by helping you sell your house quickly and more profitably.

Getting Started – from Outside to Inside

Potential homebuyers’ first experience with your house will be when they pull up in their car. Your landscaping and exterior will be a major part in forming that first impression. The Home Staging Channel notes that creating a great exterior involves everything from the mailbox to plants to walkways to the front door. Getting your yard in shape, sprucing up your entryway, your use of flowers, shrubs, and plant life can all greatly affect the first moments as they experience your house.

Potential homebuyers will be envisioning how their family will be putting your house to use. Probably one of the first rooms they will see is the living room. According to the Home Staging Institute, “[W]hen buyers walk through the living room or family room area, they will want to envision these two activities – spending time as a family and entertaining guests.” The same goes with each room, showing them the possibilities for them if they decide to make your house their house.

When I first started by Home Staging Business Training Program, I had no idea that it would take off so quickly. You know the saying, “Time Flies When You’re Having Fun”? Am I having fun? You bet! My hard work and dedication to helping clients become successful in their own home staging business is what makes my job and career so rewarding. Today, almost 700 men and women have successfully completed my training on how to become a successful Home Stager no matter where they live.

My graduates learn how to use any decorating talent they already have to successfully stage their clients’ homes, as well as how to develop and control the business aspect of preparing homes to sell quickly and for top dollar. I get such enjoyment out of watching my graduates pursue their goals. What is especially gratifying is watching former stay-at-home Mom’s or divorced women gain financial stability and security with their home-based businesses. Many have also recovered from health scares that convinced them it was time to follow their dreams and do something they would love.

My lessons teach and empower women, and men, from all walks of life and situations to gain the training and insight to build a home staging business from the ground up. I started my own house staging business, Six Elements Inc., so that I could have a more flexible schedule while pursuing my passions for decorating and real estate. While other home staging entrepreneurs have gotten into Home Staging as a side-line to interior decorating or real estate careers, I started my business from my home office, determined to be successful in a field that was typically “off-limits” to those outside the real estate or interior design field.

Within two years, I staged hundreds of homes and gained international recognition with articles in CNNMoney, The Wall Street Journal, Woman’s Day and appearances on HGTV and others. That’s what inspired me to create the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program, to teach and inspire others to successfully follow their dreams.

Has it been easy? No! It takes a lot of hard work and determination to succeed in any business, and my Home Staging business and Staging Diva Training Program are no different. I’m not going to tell you any secrets to instantly get rich, I’m going to tell you the truth: it takes perseverance, dedication and information to grow a home staging business from the ground up, but I can offer you the tools and tips necessary to do just that.

Those who know me know that I’m a firm believer that life is the adventure we make of it and that too many people ‘die with the music still inside of them’. I not only want to teach men and women how to start and run a Home Staging Business, I want to show them that they can do anything that they aspire to do. I want them to leave my classes and seminars knowing that their imagination is the only limit to their success.

Now, I toast my graduates, almost 700 of them, and grin with pride that they now have the opportunity to move beyond their current financial situation or conditions and have the education and know-how to break through boundaries and walls that they never thought possible. That, more than my own success in this field, is what gives me the most pleasure. So, to all my former students and graduates, and all those who will soon follow, I say, “Thank you, and Good Luck to your future success!”

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 Training Program. Free quiz to see if the home staging business is right for you at http://www.stagingdiva.com

The objective of home staging services company would be to make preparing their clients home for sale as stress-free an experience as possible. Whether an occupied home or a empty home staging project, stagers perform as much as they possibly can in order to streamline the process so that all that is required of the client is actually access to the home and a phone call to inform them the task has been completed. Everything in between is actually handled effectively and effectively by the staging organization. One of the results is high-impact home staging project photos for MLS and marketing material. Below is a brief introduction to the actions involved in staging a house:

Step 1: The actual Consultation
This is actually the most important part of the process. The home stager will walk through the property, room through room, as well as critically evaluate what must be addressed for each room as well as space inside the home. The majority of home staging companies will then provide the seller with a comprehensive list of motion items through room. These range from such things as de-cluttering, de-personalizing, getting rid of pieces of furniture (which may be put into temporary storage space), addressing small repairs, landscape designs issues, etc.

Step 2: Prep Work
For clients that don’t possess the time or even inclination to complete the packaging, storing, painting, repairing along with other preparatory actions, the home staging company can take proper care of these items on their behalf. Many stagers work with reputable trades people that can deal with minor to more substantial projects and are accustomed to work within tight timelines. This is really a key bit of value that’s often undervalued by sellers, for two reasons. First, identifying reputable deals people can often be a challenge. Secondly, finding ones which are willing to work on a tight timeline for a fairly modest job can signify a challenge when it comes to getting the deals persons attention. The advantage that the stager brings is getting rid of these two challenges, as the stager works with them on a regular basis, and therefore is able to give a steady stream of recommendations to the trades person.

Step 3:Staging
Artwork, bedding, accessories and furniture – It is these things that actually bring the project collectively. The home staging company adds heat and a lifestyle that the potential buyers will adore. This process typically takes a day to accomplish.

Step 4: De-Staging
After the property offers, the home staging organization returns, load up all of the inventory items, and removes them. This part of the process is included within the home staging project fee.

These 4 simple steps can be accomplished very quickly and both add substantial value to a homes selling price as well as increase the time for you to closing the actual sale.

An empty house on the real estate market is a difficult property to sell. Empty rooms and lifeless houses put off buyers. Nothing says less about a potential house than a place so empty your footsteps echo throughout. Virtually Stage Listings is a way of presenting vacant spaces with furnishings and objects of every day life and inspiring viewer imaginations. If a property captures someone’s imagination, they will see the potential of a property and take it seriously. Virtually Stage Listings recreate vacant properties that are hard to move and renders them warm and friendly, increasing their saleability.

You could fill a property with heavy furnishings and accessories and make an empty property looked lived in, but it would be cost-prohibitive. You could reduce the price of the property and lose out on potential profits. Or you could consider Virtual Stage Listings — a computer re-creation of interior spaces. In virtual staging, photos of a property are filled with furnishings, wall hangings, artwork, curtains and linen. The process is a perfect fit for today’s market because real estate, like a lot of shopping, is done online. Realtors offer on-line tours of properties for sale, and it is a natural step to enhance the on-line shopping experience. Prospective buyers can see the potential of a space that they may have struggled with before staging brought it to life.

Virtual staging takes photos of the actual spaces of a property for sale and gracefully adds furnishings and window linen to give a prospective customer what they expect to see when they look at a home: a valuable appearance. When prospects tour a staged online home, the odds that they will grow interested are increased. If they see the potential of a property for sale, they will book an actual tour. As a visual aid, it is an indispensable tool.

It is fast, convenient, simple to render and affordable when compared to actual staging. Actual staging is labor intensive, expensive, and requires a professional photographer to get the lighting right. Reducing the price of a property should only be a last ditch tactic to sell a property. Virtual staging will accomplish the desired result — to make a property look ideal to a buyer — for less money. The possibility of a space in the mind of the prospective buyer is greatly enhanced. It represents the best way to present a property today and will continue to be in the future.

Lots of folks decide to get an agent when they are in the market to buy a house. Having an agent is a more efficient way to work the system, get in touch with sellers, and give them recommendation on the various things that they can do in order to make the home purchasing process simpler. However, a few people also wish to be pro-active about finding a house, which results to them asking the question “should I call my agent?” A very relevant question since your agent is not always with you 24/7, and some people don’t want to call their agent often, thinking that it may inconvenience them somehow.

Let’s say that you’re proactively looking for Miami houses for sale with you agent, and one afternoon while you are driving thru a neighborhood you find one Miami property for sale. It was not a planned thing, you simply saw a “For Sale” sign or an open house sign outside of a home that you suspect may be inside your resources. You like the curb appeal of the house a lot and you want to go in and check out whether you like the place or not.

The general rule for real estate agents is that whoever sells the house gets the commission. Agents make a living out of commissions, unless they get clients who arrange to pay them aside from the commission they will get. If you have been working with a property agent throughout your home search and you finish up buying a property because you were aided by a different agent, this suggests that the agent you have been working with will end up without a commission and won’t be compensated for his / her efforts. Your agent may have to go thru the hassle of disputing the claim for commission.

It’s comprehensible that often taking a look at a house might be a heat of the moment thing. When you chance to find yourself in this kind of situation, try calling your agent first and more frequently than not, he or she will be very keen to rendezvous with you and accompany you in viewing the house. If you want to go to an “open house” event and your agent can’t come with you, you can still go, of course, provided that you make it obvious from the start that you are already being represented by an agent. You will most probably be approached by the host of the open house. Give your agent’s business card to him / her, sign your name in the guestbook and sign your agent’s name beside yours. When agents come up to you to strike up a conversation, don’t let the conversation carry on without making it clear you’re already represented by another agent and that you’re just there to take a look at the house.

Agents are in the business of service, which implies that they need to be able to address your requirements in the most effective way achievable. It’s also in their own interest if they’ll be able to do this. A happy client will refer them to other friends, and agents thrive on positive referrals. If you have hired an agent, let him/her do their job. You’ll find that looking for a home will be a lot faster and less complicated this way. Not to mention that you’d wish to correctly compensate the person who helped you search for a place. Unless you are dissatisfied with his/her service, this is thought of as the ethical action to take.