Stage To Sell

Staging a Vacant Los Angeles Home Adds Warmth to a Cold Space

Posted on 15 March 2010 | Comments Off

Today Stage to Sell completed the partial Staging of a beautiful townhome in West Los Angeles. When we initially previewed the home, we were happy to see that the homeowners had painted the walls a neutral taupe and had done a faux concrete finish on the fireplace. They had upgraded many of the fixtures and had basically done everything right. But still, there was something missing. Without furniture, the space felt cold.

Today it’s a whole different story. Now no buyer could say this space doesn’t exude warmth.

If you are selling a vacant home in Los Angeles, and buyers aren’t biting, call Stage to Sell, your Los Angeles Home Staging Professionals, to add warmth and bring in those offers!

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Los Angeles Home Stager Leads Crusade Against White Walls!

Posted on 9 March 2010 | No responses

It’s happened 3 or 4 times in the last month. I’ve walked into a Home Staging consultation for a Los Angeles home and the seller says, “Oh, you’ll be happy because we just painted all the walls white!”

Cue jaw dropping in shock and utter disappointment!

I just want to know who has been out there spreading rumors that home buyers want to see white walls?

Is it the TV shows about Staging?

I don’t think so – I watch enough of those and they NEVER paint a wall white. In fact, I think some of the TV Stagers go  a bit too far with color for Staging purposes. Remember, Staging is not interior design – we are trying to sell houses here!

So what makes sellers think it’s a good idea to paint all the walls in their home stark white?

“What’s wrong with white?” you ask…

1) White is very stark and cold. It tends to feel like you’re living in a hospital.

2) Generally all doors, ceilings and trim are painted white. If the walls are white too, there is no contrast whatsoever and it doesn’t allow the detail in the trim to show.

Here’s a great example of how adding color to white walls can instantly warm up a space:

In the first photo, you hardly even notice the plantation shutters because they’re the same white as the walls. In the second shot, the room feels so much warmer and more inviting. And those shutters really pop!

“Is there ever a time that white can work?” you ask…

Yes, there is always an exception to the rule. There are some more contemporary spaces that have a gallery-like feel. Using the correct art, you can make white walls work in that case.

But I implore you…before you paint your home in preparation to sell, please consult a professional Home Stager to help you select the appropriate neutral but warm color scheme that will have buyers beating down the door to make an offer!

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“Price gets you interest. Staging it gets you offers!”

Posted on 2 March 2010 | Comments Off

Gary Keller, author of “Shift: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times” and Chairman of Keller Williams Realty appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America last week to discuss how to sell a home in a buyer’s market.

His most publicized quote from this interview (which has set Stager Blogs around the nation afire) is as follows:

“Price gets you interest.

Staging it gets you offers!”

Keller hit on a point that I often emphasize with my Los Angeles Home Staging clients. Right now we’re in a buyer’s market, and you’re kidding yourself if you think your buyers aren’t well aware of that fact!

Unless you create a sense of urgency for buyers to make an offer, they are likely to sit back and wait for your first (or second, or third) price reduction!

So how do you create a sense of urgency? That’s simple! Gary Keller has already told us:

1) PRICE

and

2) PRESENTATION (or STAGING)

Let’s look at both of these factors:

Price

If buyers perceive that the home is listed for an already competitive price (versus at or above market value), they are much more likely to move quickly to make an offer. Why? Because despite the market slump, everyone knows that eventually real estate will rebound. And if your buyer is looking for a long-term investment, s/he will have time to wait that out. If a home is perceived as a good value for the money, savvy buyers know they will not be the only ones interested and will be quicker to write an offer.

Presentation/Staging

The second way to create a sense of urgency with buyers is to make your home stand out from the competition. And the best way to do that is with Home Staging.

If your want your home to stand out from other similar homes on the market, you have to make your buyer fall in love with your home. Without that emotional connection, your house will just be one of many a buyer might consider based on price, condition and location. BUT if a buyer walks into your Staged home and falls in love with it, she will begin to “mentally move in” and to envision herself and her family living in – and loving – your home. Once the buyer starts picking out which room little Johnny will sleep in and which room she’ll use for her home office, you can be sure an offer will follow!

As a professional Home Stager in Los Angeles, I can attest to the fact that the well-priced single family homes and condos that we Stage are selling QUICKLY and in MULTIPLE OFFERS for OVER ASKING.

Want proof? Here are just a few of our recent results:

So remember when you’re preparing your home for sale that there are two important factors to consider if you want results like these. As Gary Keller so nicely put it, “Price gets you interest. Staging it gets you offers!”

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Home Staging = Real Estate Therapy

Posted on 1 February 2010 | Comments Off

Today I had an experience that reminded me why I LOVE my job as the owner of a Los Angeles Home Staging company. It reminded me that I do so much more than help people prepare their homes for sale. Some days I am also a Real Estate therapist. Today was one of those days!

With all the craziness in the Los Angeles real estate market, I have been very busy in the past few weeks. So much so that, in order to fit in a client who needed some help selling her home, I arranged a consultation for a Sunday afternoon. When my client came to the door, she seemed quite surprised to see me. “Did we schedule a consultation for TODAY?” she asked. “Isn’t today Sunday? Why would I do something like that?” I reminded her that we had picked a Sunday because of my busy schedule and, though very flustered, she invited me in to wait while she finished up a class with a student (she teaches music to children). When she came back she began to explain why she was so discombobulated. Here was her situation…

She had, just the day before, held a garage sale to both get rid of some of her excess clutter and to help with her dire financial situation (she’s likely headed toward a short sale). She had gotten up at 5am and didn’t finish until 11pm. In total, she had made $80. She was exhausted, stressed, and – within minutes of sitting down to tell me all this – she was crying. First I asked her to take a breath. I told her that in my profession, I meet people in every type of financial situation. I told her that selling is never easy. It is always stressful and emotional, but doubly so when you are being forced to sell. She seemed to feel better just from hearing that I understood. I asked her to trust me. I told her that I had only her best interest at heart and that I could help her out this bad situation. I told her the homes I’ve Staged in the past month have been selling in multiple offers, many in their first week on the market. She seemed to relax a bit, so we began.

As she walked me through her house, I immediately realized that her biggest problem was room-usage. She had a 4-bedroom house which had 2 offices, a recording studio and an enormous music room, but only 1 actual bedroom. She also had no dining space. With all these offices and music equipment, the house felt cramped when it was actually pretty big.

I immediately got down to work…First we had to take the computer out of the living room, move the table (which was being used as a desk) over and set it up as a dining table. We had to remove the oversized coffee table in favor of a smaller one (she had something usable in one of the bedrooms). We had to remove one chair, and we had to move the large TV cabinet out of this small room.

On to the bedrooms – we simply didn’t have enough of them! But there was an office that she barely used anymore. I asked her to remove all the office furniture in the room, including the desk, chair and some temporary shelving that had been screwed into the walls. I told her to set up the futon from the garage as a bed, and to use one of her extra tables as a nightstand. Then she only needed to open up the curtains to let the light in, remove the old dirty rug, and suddenly she would have another bedroom. She loved this idea and seemed to get excited as we moved on to the next room.

This room was technically a bedroom (and a large one at that), but it was currently being used as a recording studio. It was an unfortunate situation, but it could not be helped as this woman was not in a financial position to shut down her business while her home was on the market. By removing some more shelving, storing a portable keyboard in the garage when it wasn’t in use and moving a small sofa out of the room, buyers would be able to visualize where their bed could go and could easily envision the space as a functional bedroom. She was really getting excited now!

We moved on to the next room. She had all the pieces in place. The furniture just had to be rearranged slightly to fit the space better, and then we were on to the biggest issue – the master bedroom. The master had been turned into a music room for her students, with a huge grand piano taking up the back half of it. The closet doors had been removed and she had any number of beautiful and exotic musical instruments filling the space meant for clothes. There were about 5 or 6 odd chairs sitting around, making it look sort of like a waiting room. There was also an awkward door that lead directly into another bedroom, which made it not feel as private as a master bedroom should. But this room was BIG! It could fit a grand piano – mind you – without feeling cramped!

Now would be a good time to mention that this woman had an interior designer friend who had already come over to help her figure out how to best showcase her property for sale. Though I love and admire interior designers, they are in the design business, not in the Real Estate business like I am. They know what looks good, but they don’t get into the heads of home buyers to figure out what a property needs in order to make it SELL.

This woman’s well-meaning interior designer friend had suggested that she move her grand piano into the room she was now using as her bedroom and move her bed into what was supposed to be the master bedroom. Now without having seen this house, you might think that would be a good solution. BUT…there were a couple of problems with this idea:

1) Due to back problems, this woman slept in a twin sized bed with special mattresses that helped her condition. Putting a twin bed (or even a full-size futon which she had in another room) into a bedroom that was large enough for a grand piano would have looked ridiculous and never would’ve sold buyers on the space…and

2) The room she was using for her bedroom was IN NO WAY large enough to fit a grand piano! Though it was a very nice-sized space for a bedroom, with that monstrous piano in it, it would’ve felt too small for even a twin bed. It would have been literally wall-to-wall piano.

But I had an idea… Since her formal living/dining room was small, since she didn’t have a bed large enough to fit the master bedroom, since she needed her piano to remain in the house while it was on the market, AND since – with our adjustments – buyers would see they already had 3 other bedrooms in the house, we were going to transform that master bedroom into a spacious and buyer-friendly family room!

Remember that small sofa that had to come out of the recording studio? And remember all those extra chairs that were in the piano room? We had everything we needed to make this space work. Suddenly the closet without its missing doors became the perfect spot for the oversized TV cabinet that was currently taking up space in the tiny living room. The loveseat and two of her extra chairs would go in front of the new TV closet, with an extra ottoman as a coffee table and a small rug she had lying around to tie the seating area together. The piano would remain in the back half of the room, showing buyers that in addition to there being plenty of room to hang out and watch TV in this room, there was also a really large space in back for a game or homework table, a kids’ play area, or even (gasp) a grand piano!

As our consultation came to an end, I noticed that the seller had a big smile on her face. I asked her if she felt a little better now that she had a plan. She said that she did and that she was so relieved. Whereas she had started our session in tears, by the end she felt confident that she knew what it would take to get her house sold and had the tools she needed to do it.

So here are some things I was reminded of today:

1) Staging is not just about design. I’m in the Real Estate business, not the design business.

2) Sometimes Home Staging = Real Estate Therapy. Some sellers need more than just a “to-do list” in order to prepare their home for sale. Some need reassurance, some even need a hug. All of them need a solid plan to relieve the pressure and stress.

3) Just because things don’t start off the way you planned, they may end up better than you could’ve imagined. Even if you show up to a job with a client in crisis, you just may leave with a confident and motivated seller who has the tools s/he needs to get the job done.

And THAT is why I love my job!

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Just Staged – Celebrity View Home in Manhattan Beach!

Posted on 10 December 2009 | Comments Off

This beautiful home, listed by  Kofi N. Nartey of SOTALOT Realty Group, will impress even the most discerning buyer. And not only that, you get a FREE Porsche if you buy it!

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228 34th St, Manhattan Beach

$3,600,000

HOUSE, VIEW, AND CAR! Buy this amazing house and get a new 2010 Porsche 911 Convertible!

Celebrity beach home. 2 blocks to beach. 1 of the largest rooftop decks around. 1700sqft Rooftop features: 3 separate sections, lounge chairs, built in grill, sound system, and a bed! White water ocean views. Oversize 4 car garage. 4th bedroom space was added to master to create huge master suite with a patio. Upgraded kitchen. Din. room. 2 living rooms, full bar, chef’s range, & more.

Open House Info:

Friday, December 11, 2009 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

Sunday, December 13, 2009 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Listing Agent:

Kofi Nartey

kofi@sotalot.com

310-849-5634

Photos by Adrian Tiemens for Photos4RealEstate.com.

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10 Reasons to List Your Home Over the Holidays

Posted on 19 November 2009 | Comments Off

I just received this list from Susan Rose, the productivity coach at the Keller Williams Westside office. With her permission I will share it with you.

It’s a great tool for Realtors to use with sellers who may be on the fence about listing a home during the holiday season.

10 Reasons to List Your Home Over the Holidays

1. People who look for a home over the holidays tend to be more serious about buying.

2. Serious buyers have fewer houses to choose from during the holidays which, in turn, means less competition and more money for you.

3. Starting in January, the amount of listings will dramatically increase. With more properties on the market, there will be less demand for your particular home.

4. Houses show better when decorated for the holidays! Buyers are more emotional during the holidays, so they are more likely to pay your price.

5. Often, buyers have more time to look for a home during the holidays than during a regular work week, especially during winter vacations.

6. Many people want to buy before the end of the year due to tax reasons.

7. Traditionally, January is the month for corporate transferees to begin new jobs. Since these transferees cannot wait until spring to buy, you must be on the market now to capture that market.

8. You can be on the market and still have the option to restrict showings during the holidays for your special family occasions.

9. You can sell now for more money and set up a delayed closing or extended occupancy until early next year.

10. By selling now, you may have the opportunity to be a non-contingent buyer during the spring, when many more houses are on the market for less money. This will allow you to sell high and buy low!

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Yes, we do Partial Stagings!

Posted on 3 November 2009 | Comments Off

I often get calls from Los Angeles Realtors and sellers asking if we would be willing to just Stage a couple of rooms in a home. Well, the short answer* is yes!

Recently a client called me about Staging his designer decorated 2-bedroom condo in West Hollywood. The catch was that he only needed one bedroom and a patio Staged. The rest of the home had beautiful furniture and looked great. The 2nd bedroom, however, had become a sort of catch-all storage room and lacked the appeal of the rest of the home.

So we brought in a daybed and desk setup, as well as art and accessories, to show buyers how this room could be used as either a guest bedroom and/or a home office. We were even able to use a couple of the seller’s own pieces as accents in the room so he didn’t have to put them in storage.

Here are the before & after photos of this guest room and the small patio we Staged as well.

*Did you notice how I said that the “short answer” was yes in the first paragraph above? Well, here’s the fine print… The rental companies I use have a minimum monthly rental amount. So, for instance, if you just needed a sofa and nothing else, we probably wouldn’t be able to Stage it for you (well we could, but you’d still have to pay the monthly minimum even if you only needed 1 piece). However if you need at least two rooms worth of furniture, we can make it work! Incidentally if it’s just a bed that you need, we do carry camping beds that we stack on a frame and dress to make them look like real beds. These are in our own Staging inventory, so we don’t have to go to an outside rental company…hence no minimums!

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Another Staging Success Story!

Posted on 30 October 2009 | Comments Off

We recently Staged an adorable vacant townhome in Santa Monica. It had been listed for awhile with no offers, so we were brought in to help buyers see the potential.

The townhome had been painted and remodeled, so we had a great canvas to work with! Unfortunately the awkward layout of the living room, a not-so-neutral paint color, and a seemingly unusable loft space above the second bedroom were making it difficult for buyers to fall in love with the home.

Without furniture, the living room felt tiny. The awkwardly placed fireplace didn’t help. Our first order of business was to make this space feel large enough for a regular living room set so buyers could see themselves entertaining in the space.

Properly scaled furniture made the space feel open and inviting and didn’t shut off views to the dining room. Relocating some installed surround sound speakers in the niche above the fireplace allowed us to put in a 46″ faux plasma TV so buyers could imagine themselves snuggling up in front of the TV for a relaxing evening at home. And with furniture in the space, the built-in wine cabinet didn’t feel like an afterthought.

This bedroom was fairly large and had beautiful built-in cabinets (not shown), but the purple color on the walls felt a bit too taste-specific for most buyers.

Since there was no budget to paint, we brought in a black, white and silver color scheme to neutralize the space.

The guest room was small, mainly because of the spiral staircase that took up a good chunk of the usable space.

By using a daybed with a smaller footprint, this guest room now feels spacious and functional.

What buyer wouldn’t love to have a bonus room in a 2-bedroom townhome? Unfortunately the sloping ceiling made this room feel like its only possible function could be storage.

Luckily Stage to Sell came to the rescue with some properly scaled office furniture that gave this space a whole new lease on life!

Well our hard work has paid off. This townhome is now in escrow with a backup offer!

Congratulations to the owner and Realtors on a quick sale.

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Stage to Sell Announces Our New Referral Program

Posted on 20 October 2009 | Comments Off

Los Angeles Home Staging company Stage to Sell has a new referral incentive program that we’re excited to share with you! For every new client* that you refer to us before the end of this year, we would like to thank you with a gift card from one of the following stores: If the client hires us to do a Consultation, you get a $25 gift card. If the client hires us for a Full Staging (for a vacant or occupied home), you get a $50 gift card. Thanks and we look forward to sharing our success with you! *Client must tell us s/he was referred by you when making the first appointment. Gift card will only be awarded if referral hires Stage to Sell for either a paid Consultation or a Staging Job. Gift card will be sent once job is complete and payment has been received. Only one gift card per referral. Promotion valid through 12/31/09.

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Give Your Home a Fresh Look for Fall

Posted on 16 October 2009 | Comments Off

A few weeks ago I celebrated my 10 year wedding anniversary with a trip to New England to see the fall foliage.

That part of the country is breathtaking this time of year, but even in Southern California we can enjoy fall’s bounty.

There’s no better way to get in the fall spirit than by updating your living space with the warm earthy tones of the season.

1. Switch out the throw pillows on your sofa

Consider changing your summery look to the reds, golds, rusty oranges, browns and greens that encourage you to curl up with a blanket and a cup of tea. Try to layer your pillows in different shapes and sizes. Plan on at least four or five pillows for a standard sized sofa to achieve maximum effect. Go for a mix of patterns and solids so the look doesn’t become overwhelming. And remember, the pillows don’t have to match! In fact it creates a richer “designer” look if they are all different. Just make sure the color palette is consistent.

The pillows shown above are from Pier 1, but if you’re looking for a less expensive option and you can sew (or know someone who can), just go to the fabric store and pick out some washable fabrics you love. Get a mixture of solids with small, medium and large prints. Then make simple slipcovers for your existing sofa pillows. This way you can wash them and put them away when fall is over and bring them out again next year!

2. Update your bed

Here’s another way to quickly and inexpensively update your home for fall. Buy a large piece of beautifully patterned fall fabric (or a single flat sheet) and fold it in thirds over the bottom half of your existing bedspread. Then layer the top part of the bed with throw pillows in coordinating colors. Once again, go for a mixture of shapes, colors and sizes. Since your new throw has a pattern, don’t go too crazy with patterned pillows (one or two simple ones will be sufficient). The rest should be solids with a mix of textures to create the optimum effect.

NOTE: This technique will only work if you already have a solid, neutral colored bedspread. If you don’t, you can buy one inexpensively at any of the discount stores like Ross, Home Goods, Anna’s Linens or Marshalls.

As you can see, it’s easy and inexpensive to give your home a new look for the fall season. A little creativity can go a long way!

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