Sellers - Are you READY for your Close-Up? by Jennie Norris, ASPM, IAHSP

“All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up" - Gloria Swanson, Sunset Boulevard, circa 1940.

Those famous words helped immortalize the great Cecil B. DeMille. And it got me thinking. How many times have you had photos taken of yourself where you really were not prepared for that “close-up?” Or worse, been on television with a camera inches from your face showing every pore? It reminds me that there is nothing like preparation – lighting, makeup, positioning – that allows us to take that great photo or be on television without fear of looking “bad.”

When applied to Home Staging we have to ask . . .

How many Sellers are ready for their Close Up?

My experience as a professional Home Stager tells me – not many. Even with the glut of television shows on Home Staging that should help educate the public to do SOMETHING to their houses before putting them up for sale, the fact remains, most Sellers are NOT prepared for their close-up.

However, when Buyers come in to a house, they notice EVERYTHING – and they do get Close-up. They notice not only the floor-plan, but how well cared for the house is. They notice smells. They look at grout, window tracks, windows, sinks, toilets, carpet stains, caulking in the tubs or showers – and if there is mildew, dirt, or debris, the assumption is that the house is not well-maintained. This causes a Buyer to be hesitant about purchasing a house – because they assume that they may have deeper issues to deal with should they purchase a house that is not “Show Ready.”

Why aren’t Sellers ready for their Close-up?

In most cases, it’s because Sellers believe that their house is “fine the way they have lived in it” – and don’t fully understand the WHY behind prepping it for the Buyer.

In other cases, the Seller allows emotions to cloud the need for prepping their house – feeling slighted or insulted when suggestions regarding cleanliness or de-cluttering are made.

And in some cases, it’s because the people involved in helping sell the house lacked the courage to tell the Seller the truth about their house.

Telling the Truth can be Tough

It can be tough to tell someone the truth – but are we truly helping a Seller when we refrain from letting them know about key issues or concerns we KNOW will impact the Sale?

NO. We have an obligation to help Sellers – and the key is to use proper timing and couch it in kindness. This is where someone that is trained to handle Sellers – stands out from those that use criticism and sarcasm (like on television) to tell the “truth.”

How do we get a Seller ready for their Close-Up?

Sellers need an HONEST assessment of their house – and independent third party that is able to be subjective in the house and come up with a plan of action for the Seller.

Sellers need to be willing to implement the independent suggestions – in order to make their house appealing to ALL Buyers.

Where do Sellers get an Honest Assessment?

Sellers can hire a professional Home Stager who will come in and prepare a detailed Home Staging Plan – that addresses how to prep the house room by room, inside and outside. The Home Stager can also help implement the Staging Plan based on how much time and effort the Seller has.

The best place to locate an individual who can provide accurate recommendations is through the www.Stagedhomes.com directory of professionally trained Home Stagers.

Clean is a Relative Term

We need to help Sellers put aside their feelings and realize that Clean is a relative term. But when it comes to Selling, there must be a high standard of CLEAN applied to the house, and a Seller that truly wants to sell will be willing to put added effort into the preparation of their house so that the house stands up to the highest level of Cleanliness.

How much does it Cost?

Typically, a Home Staging Plan ranges from $150-$450 nationwide for an average size house (2,000-2,500 square feet), and is based on the size of the house and the time it takes to prepare the Plan.

Hands-on Staging could be an additional $200-$2,000 or more – again, depending on what is needed. What you want to stay away from is the “Stager” that tells you to remove everything from your house and replace it with trendy, costly decorations and furnishings – a tactic employed by those intent on Selling their “stuff” and not your house. Around the country, these “Stagers” charge in the tens-of-thousands of dollars to Stage a house – which is a disservice to Sellers.

Vacant houses do require a higher investment than when a Seller has things to work with in the house – furniture and décor. However, the statistics show that even having to rent furnishings and décor to Sell a house in most markets costs less than a price reduction.

Ask for Credentials and Insurance Policy

As a Seller – you can ask to see a Home Stager’s credentials – and ask them what they mean. An Accreditation is the highest form of training for the Home Staging industry. Only one reputable company offers this form of training, and is linked to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) to provide education on Home Staging. The Accredited Staging Professional® (ASP®) Course has been around for over 10 years and has nearly 40 years of experience behind it.

Also - be wary of Stagers on blog sites that have a lot of “points” – this does not make them an expert Stager – just someone that blogs a lot online. Think about it - if they are online blogging all the time they could not be “out there” actually Staging. Ask for references and referrals. A quality and qualified Stager will be able to produce both.

Lastly, make sure the Home Stager is INSURED. Without a valid insurance policy, YOU are at risk when you invite this person in to you house. If something is damaged or broken, and the Stager has no insurance policy, the repair costs will be on you.

Home Staging - Why LESS Means MORE by Jennie Norris, ASPM, IAHSP

De-cluttering. Editing. Room refreshing. Purging. No matter how you slice it (or say it) it still amounts to “Home Staging.”

Home Staging is all about LESS is MORE.

LESS is MORE for Buyers - as it allows them to see MORE of the house when there is LESS to distract them.

LESS is MORE for Sellers. When Sellers listen to the sage advice of a professional ASP Home Stager, and put away things as directed by the Staging Plan, the Seller will get MORE for their house than their un-Staged competition.
The reverse is true too.

MORE means LESS for Sellers - when their houses are too cluttered and selling features are obscured or hidden behind objects or drowing in decor and clutter, a Buyer cannot appreciate all the selling features of the house and an overwhelmed mind says, “no.”

This can be confusing to a public that is watching television shows where the house is remodeled, decorated and called “Staged” for sale. It is truly misleading. There are many ways to Stage a house where the Seller is unable to make improvements or upgrades based on budget and timeframe. The house would be marketed appropriately, but it can still be showcased to show its best when it is ASP Staged.

When you have LESS can you afford MORE? The answer is YES. The truth is - many Sellers simply do not have the amount of money being touted on television as necessary to Stage a house. Shows tell us to spend $2,000 and remodel our houses. The truth is the average investment to Stage your house using the ideas of a professional Home Stager who provides a detailed plan to the Seller is about $300 - that seems much more reasonable and something most homeowners can afford. Depending on the Seller’s timeframe and budget, the ASP Stager can come and help finish off the Staging for an additioanl fee, and even bring in “WOW” Factor to help add visual appeal.

Is MORE Better than LESS? No. Some Stagers are being taught to “Decorate to sell” a house. This is a cardinal sin in the world of Home Staging. Staging is a real estate tool to help market a property. Although we do consider things like placement, color, and items used in the Staging process, ASP Home Staging is NOT about the stuff. It’s always about the SPACE.

With many other entities jumping on the Home Staging bandwagon and “training” people to “be Stagers” it’s important to ask about the qualifications and credentials of anyone you consider working with to Stage your house or listing. Make sure your Stager is insured, up to date in their designation, and a member of the first and highly respected International Association of Home Staging Professionals (IAHSP).

In the world of Home Staging, only the Accredited Staging Professional (ASP) Designation has been around for over 10 years, and has nearly 40 years of history and experience behind it based on the success and career of Barb Schwarz, the Inventor and Creator of the Home Staging Concept.

Is MORE ever too MUCH? Yes. In the world of training and designations, beware of the “education junkie” - who has taken oodles of classes and has many initials after their name. To me, that is a confused Home Stager that really does not understand his or her role with the Seller and his or her role within the real estate industry. Getting too many viewpoints begins to dilute the purity and message of Home Staging. What I have seen is that those that are into taking many classes inevitably end up in the “Staging is Decorating” category and lose the pure essence of what Home Staging is. Home Staging is a marketing and presentation tool to help a piece of real estate sell. Pure and simple.

LESS is MORE is our motto for Staging and Selling a house. If you wonder how much you need to remove or what to do - it’s a wise investment to pay for a detailed Staging Report - that tells you what to do in each room of your house. Or you can hire a team of professionals to just get it done for you - where you leave for the day and your house is transformed while you are gone - and you come back to a whole new house - that is STAGED and ready for sale!

Get MORE instead of LESS for your house or listing. Realtors earn MORE commission not LESS when a house is Staged and sells rather than dropping in price.
________________________________________________________________________________

If you have a house or listing in the Sacramento area - and want it professioanlly Staged, we invite you to contact the ASP Home Staging experts at We Stage Sacramento. We are Accredited, Insured and adhere to a professional code of ethics. Call us at 888-WE-STAGE to let us help you achieve your goal of Staging and Selling. We work with Sellers, Realtors, Builders and Investors throughout Placer, El Dorado and Sacramento counties.

Why Standing Out in the Crowd with Home Staging is a GOOD thing!

Why Standing Out in the Crowd is a GOOD Thing!
By: Jennie Norris, ASPM®, IAHSP®
Owner, We Stage Sacramento
www.WeStageSacramento.com

Blend in. Fit in. Don’t bring attention to your self.
Sure, with relationships or life – some people use that philosophy, but when it comes to selling a house, turns out Standing out in the crowd and being different from the rest is a GOOD thing.

Home Staging. Those two words have become more well known in the last five years. The actual service has been around for 37 years, and sellers have been given tips about prepping their house for the market for decades.

Home Staging is being featured on television, magazines, newspapers, and news media features. There are statistics that prove a Staged house will sell faster than one that is not Staged in any market. (the best resource for statisticsand articles featuring Home Staging is www.Stagedhomes.com). One would think with all the exposure it would be a no-brainer to have every house Staged. And yet the majority of houses for sale are in sore need of Home Staging help. In fact, in some markets less than 1% of the houses are being professionally Staged, and in others it’s approaching 40-50%.

To some Home Staging is a Fad or Trend. To others it’s a well known Marketing Tool that gets a house sold. Now is NOT the time to “Blend In.”


So what is the big deal about Home Staging anyway?

Can’t buyers just look past all the “stuff” in a person’s house? Don’t they know that they are going to live in the house in a different way?

Believe it or not – the answer to that question is a resounding, “NO!” Home Staging is about three things: Talent and Time and Money.

TALENT: Less than 10% of the population has a “gift” or eye for seeing things in a different way, and we don’t just mean a different color pillow or a few minor changes. We mean that most people cannot picture a room or a house in a different way once they have an image of it in their heads. When a Buyer looks at a room full of “stuff” they have a very hard time picturing the room any other way, and they certainly cannot envision it cleared out, refreshed, repainted, recarpeted and rearranged. That is beyond 90% of the Buyers out there. Staging truly is a talent or gift.

TIME and MONEY: Does Home Staging really matter in today’s market where house values are continuing to go down? Of course! Even in a slow market or a declining market, a house can still SELL at its BEST VALUE. What is that best value? It is the price a Buyer is willing to pay for the property – and so first and best impressions matter. Staging in today’s market will save time on the market – and this means the house is less likely to drop in price. That is an estimated 5-20% of the list price!

Some recent Success stories and statistics from

We Stage Sacramento:

• An occupied house in Roseville that was put on the market in the low $600’s – SOLD in 3 days at FULL PRICE after it was Staged.
• A house in Folsom priced in the $500K range languished vacant on the market for nearly 5 months - was Staged and SOLD right away – and closed escrow within 35 days!
  
  That is in TODAY’s market – where “nothing is selling.”
  
  So Being Different IS Better in Selling a House:
  1. It gets the Buyer to make an offer on a well-priced and well presented house.
  2. Home Staging sells the House and sells the Buyer on the purchase because it looks and feels different than other houses.
  3. Home Staging is all about positioning a product on the market in a way that makes it appealing to all buyers.
  4. Home Staging is a key marketing tool for Realtors to differentiate a house from other products on the market and differentiate themselves as a Realtor.
  5. Buyers like to view the house online first – so photos and/or virtual tours of the property should be of “Staged” rooms and a Staged house.
  
  The question you need to ask yourself is: Do YOU want your house or listing to get the positive attention – where buyers make a BIG DEAL made about your house and bring a good deal to the table? Or do you want your house or listing to sit and languish on the market with all the other poorly presented properties?

In this case, it’s GOOD to stand out in the crowd!

What is Happening in We Stage Sacramento and the World of Home Staging?

My last post was a while ago - and I have to be honest, I sort of lost my spark of wanting to write posts based on what our family was dealing with in December. The loss of a family member is always hard, and especially tough when it is someone that is taken long before they should - in their prime.

My brother in law passed away in February due to complications from an "accident" he suffered while joggin August 30th, 2008. It was not really an accident but I don't know what else to call it. . . he became severely dehydrated, his heart stopped as a result, he died on the trail, and then was revived. But his brain that went without oxygen for too long never did recover, and he was basically disabled to the point that he was a vegatable mentally. This was a severe blow to my sister and their son, and our whole family. He had just turned 50 and had so much to live for - but that was not to be his path. We miss him.

So I really have not felt the spark to write since then. But I felt it was time to share some good news and success . . .

I am happy to share that Staging is picking up momentum here in the Sacramento region, to the point that we have consistent calls coming in for occupied and vacant houses.

We are also hearing good results from our efforts. The last house we Staged was an occupied house, and it SOLD in only 3 days at FULL PRICE! We brought in basic decor and mostly helped the Seller with a Staging Plan that he implemented. It is always gratifying to hear such great news, especially when the doom and gloom of the market continues all over the US.

We have several vacant houses Staged and are awaiting the success on those properties. Of course, price is still a key factor - and must be partnered with Home Staging as a presentation and key marketing tool. We are also getting calls for Staging to Live, and New Homeowner Move In. Our specialty of Green or Eco-Friendly Home Staging is also a draw for those interested in that market niche.

We are looking forward to a successful second quarter - and hope that business continues to be steady throughout the year.

Reflecting on 2008 and hopes for 2009

We only have 2 days left of 2008. When I look back on the year I evaluate the growth and success of business by certain standards - profitability, volume of projects, and monetary revenue. But this past year, I think a new standard needs to be applied for businesses that were/are tied to the real estate market: Still Standing.

Those business owners that have managed to weather the storm and are still standing after the turmoil and terrible financial mess - should be very proud. The market took a toll - we lost a lot of very creative and talented Home Stagers who were not able to sustain enough income to remain viable. Other industries suffered the loss of talented people as well - many are still reeling from the impact of losing so much in such a short period of time.

Home Stagers sold off their inventory, shut their doors, and went back to what? A JOB - a way to earn money that they may sort of enjoy but does not really fuel their passion. My hope is that when the market rebounds - and it will - those people will find their passion again, and get back to the roots of what makes them truly happy - creating something out of nothing, and helping all parties realize their goals of selling a house in a shorter time and at the best price.

It has been a learning experience as well - for those that have never run a business - weathering storms economically is a normal process - maybe not to the degree we all experienced collectively, but no business is on a growth upswing its entire time. Learning to plan carefully and tuck funds away for the hard times - is a good idea - and one that with 20-20 vision looking back- we would have done more.

For me - I hope that 2009 brings prosperity back to the homeowner, the seller, the realtor - the investor, and the builder - as those are our clients. Without them out there moving, selling, buying and building, we have no business.

Posers - All Talk but Little Walk

I was watching this media segment on some celebrity nonsense, and they kept referring to people as "Posers." In fact, one urban dictionary definition of "Poser" is:

A poser is someone who tries to fit into a profile they aren't. People who try to give off the impression that they are one thing when they are really another.

Also, a poser can be one who says they can do something that they can't.

I know we all have Staging Posers in our markets. I ran across one that was hired to do a Staging project, and turns out he was a Realtor "Posing" as a Stager - who picked out rental furniture that was a total mish-mash, but was cheaper than a real Stager. End result - the house did not sell when it should - and the client ended up spending way more money to have it done right the second time around!

These Posers are people that claim they know how to Stage but really don't. This person could be anyone from the homeowner who thinks because they watch HGTV they can successfully Stage their house, to a person that reads a book or a "how-to" pamphlet created and all of a sudden is an "expert" on what to do, to someone that actually starts up a Staging business, but really has no idea what Staging is all about. Although some of the media shows and publications help, the GIFT of Staging is not something you can just wake up one day and claim to have. To me it is a God-given gift was have from birth - the abiltiy to see things in a new way, to picture and envision rooms, yards, houses transformed. Not everyone has it - so not everyone can be a Stager.

According to one website: Calling someone a poser is the same thing as accusing them of being fake or inauthentic. They may talk the talk, but they don't walk the walk

How do we overcome the Posers in our own industry?

First, I hate to say it here on a blog site, but just because someone is writing about it - does not mean they are actually doing it. The public has to be savvy about not just picking someone because they have a bunch of points. Sadly, some are impressed by that, but as I blogged in the past, http://activerain.com/blogsview/371376/If-You-Are-In-Here-You-Are-Not-Out-There if a person is always in "here" blogging, and on numerous other sites posting things, they could not possibly be out "there" as much as a they claim, unless they literally never sleep. That, to me, is a Poser.

Writing about it and DOING it are two totally different things! Now I know Blogging can be like a full-time job - and it IS for some that actually get paid to comment on life, websites, etc., or for those that want to parlay their blog sites into publiciations. . . However, when our full time job we "blog about" is Staging - how can we be wearing both hats and be legit in our business? I know there are some that make it work, but a non-Poser will have a balance - not spending all their time on a blog site, and have real examples of productive work - which brings me to the next point.

Hopefully the public is savvy enough to actually look at the portfolios of the potential Stager - and makes sure that the photos included are of their work. And a Stager that is really out there running a business will have RECENT examples of successful Staging work, and statistics they track. Or at least they should. If they are promoting the same old photo from a year ago, chances are they have not really been "out there" Staging and are "posing" with those that have been out there working.

I know the tough market has meant business slow down for many markets - mine included - and yet because we are in this long term, we have recent examples and success stories we could share. A Poser will not have those.

Next - ASK for Credentials. A Poser won't have any. That is a pretty simple solution there. A Home Staging Poser will most likely talk about how much they love decorating, or perhaps they even came from a different parallel field, but they really won't be able to talk too much about how they have self-educated themselves in this field, or reference classes they may have taken.

How about ASKING for Insurance: A Poser probably will not have made the investment to insure a business that does not really exist. They want to be considered a Home Stager, but they don't really want to make the investment in a business. Not only does it leave their clients at risk, but they are putting their own family at risk by not insuring their business.

How about this important distinction: A Poser will not have success. Because they really don't know what they are doing, their houses don't sell and they cannot toot their horn over fabulous Staging transformations that result in record sales, or other stats that help sustain the Staging market.

Finally I think this question really weeds out the Posers from the Home Stagers that really plan on doing this as long as their minds will allow . . . Ask the Poser "How long do you see yourself doing this and why?" The Poser usually looks at Staging as a quick buck, and gets out as fast as they got in when the going gets tough. Or the Poser does not understand truly how Staging can work to sell a house - and will just dump in basic decor or a ton of greenery and call the house "Staged."

Posers are all talk and very little walk. They want to be like those that are successful in this fun, exciting, roller coaster ride of a business we call Staging - but it's time to identify the Posers so that the public does not get led down a primrose path of false expectations.

Jennie

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com