From Staged to Sold (almost) in about 2 Weeks - San Rafael
By Erin | July 20, 2009
Here’s another example to show that home staging helps get homes sold!
This home near Peacock Gap Country Club in San Rafael had been on the market - empty - for two months. We staged it in late July and in just over two weeks, it got a strong offer and is now in escrow!
From drab to fab in San Rafael… another Marin home staging success!
Picture it SOLD! Home Staging
Before: All buyers see in this formal living room is the olive green paneling and outdated fireplace. Everyone loves grandma’s house but it doesn’t scream Buy Me!
After: We added color and jazzed up the space with transitional furnishings. Now, buyers can see this room’s potential.
Before: In combination/”multi-purpose” rooms (like this one with family room/eating area), it can be tough for buyers to imagine where the furniture goes.
After: Now buyers clearly can see where everything goes - and can be assured that everything fits! Plus, adding furnishings with color and texture detracts from the room’s brown-and-white color scheme.
Before: The dining room is clean and has lots of light, but all buyers see is a project! There’s tired wallpaper, bland carpet and an old light fixture.
After: The furniture immediately updates the room and this dining room is transformed into a pleasing space to buyers.
We give free staging bids! Let’s give your house the best chance to sell. Your competition is staged - shouldn’t you be?
Topics: Home Staging & Real Estate Trends | No Comments »
Marin Home Stager’s Guide to Staging Fireplaces
By Erin | January 24, 2009
Fireplaces are a great selling point, so if your house has one or more, you’re off to a good start in terms of creating an inviting atmosphere for potential buyers. Fireplaces are usually the natural focal point in any room, so you’ll want to make sure you give them lots of attention when staging the room. However, you don’t want to overdo it! Dramatic yet simple is what you’re going for.
Design tip: Odd numbers are pleasing to the eye, so aim to have 1, 3 or 5 items above the mantle (this could mean one large picture or mirror by itself OR one large picture or mirror flanked by a pair of decorative objects OR three pictures of varying sizes leaning against the wall with 2 decorative objects on the mantle). Keep in mind, these are just examples and aren’t the only design choices you can make.
Common mistakes:
*Clutter! When there are too many items on the mantle. Less is more.
*The picture is out of scale with the size of the fireplace, either too big or too small.
*The picture is hung too high (if it’s a large picture, the bottom of the frame should only be a few inches above the mantle.)
Here are some fireplaces we staged in 2008:
Topics: Home Design/Staging Ideas, Home Staging Ideas | 1 Comment »
Marin Home Staging Tip: Play Up the Focal Point in Every Room
By Erin | January 4, 2009
When preparing your house for market, it’s important to make every room stand out in the most postive way. You want buyers to say “wow!” as they go from room to room. An excellent way to create beautiful, well-laid-out rooms is to make sure every room has a focal point - and if it doesn’t, you’ll need to create one.
What is a focal point? It’s a place in the room where your eye is drawn. It’s a place around which you’ll place your furniture (or at least be mindful of when placing furniture.) A focal point can give the room a purpose.
In the living room, the focal point is almost always the fireplace. Your seating arrangement should be oriented with this in mind. Here are two popular arrangements that work well: 1) The sofa faces the fireplace and two chairs flank the fireplace and face the sofa (see photo); 2) The sofa runs perpendicular to the fireplace and two chairs sit opposite and face the sofa.
I said the living room’s focal point is “usually” the fireplace (because if its architecture, your eye is naturally drawn there.) Here are the exceptions: If the living room has a wall of windows with breathtaking views, this would likely be the focal point. Or, if the living room has neither a fireplace nor a view, you can create a focal point by placing a sofa against the wall with a large piece of artwork above it.
In the dining room, you might think the focal point is the dining table, but usually it’s not (unless there is nothing else in the room. In this case, you should create a somewhat tall and substantial centerpiece.) Your focal point should be on the wall, closer to eye level. A good example is a large mirror or an arrangement of pictures hanging over a buffet table.
In the bedroom, the focal point is usually the bed. You can play up this area by flanking the bed with nightstands topped with lamps, and/or by placing artwork over the bed. If you do not have a headboard, be sure to add importance to the bed by hanging artwork over it and using tall pillows against the wall. Euro pillows, which are 26″ square, work as a great backdrop for your smaller throw pillows.
When you give every room a clear purpose and play up the focal point, buyers will have a positive reaction to your house, and that gives it the best chance of it selling quickly!
Topics: Home Design/Staging Ideas, Home Staging Ideas | No Comments »
Marin Home Staging Success: From Stark to Stunning in San Rafael
By Erin | December 21, 2008
If you still need convincing that home staging adds life, color and warmth to empty homes, these pictures may do the job!
This was a staging project I did this week in San Rafael. The home is vacant and I was charged with staging the living room and adjoining dining room. As you can see from the Before pictures, the rooms were very beige - beige carpet, beige walls, beige fireplace. These are the first rooms you see when you walk into the house, and they are central in the home’s floorplan. Left unfurnished, potential buyers would have very little to get excited about. Many people cannot envision a home’s potential, especially if the home is on the cosmetic ‘fixer upper’ side. When homes are left empty, buyers tend to focus on the flaws - because there’s just nothing else to look at.
Home staging aims to create a warm and inviting atmosphere in every home so that buyers can ‘emotionally connect’ to the house. Since home buying is a very emotional process, this step is key when marketing a property.
As you can see from the After photos, we added color, style and some drama to the space sobuyers have that “Oooh, wow!” reaction when they walk through the door.
We can do the same for your house or listing! Just contact Picture it SOLD! Home Staging for a free staging bid. It’s an investment you’re likely to get back many times over.
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Marin Home Stager’s Guide: Open Floorplans
By Erin | December 18, 2008
Many buyers today are looking for homes with open floorplans. That is, fewer walled off spaces in the primary living areas. For example, on its main level a house may have one large room that combines the living room, dining room, kitchen and breakfast area. This is often called a great room.
In homes with open floorplans like this, where there are no full walls between the kitchen, living room and dining room, staging plays an especially important role in getting the house sold. The pictures you see here are of I house I staged this week in the Marin County city of Novato. It’s a beautifully rebuilt country home with all new everything! But the quality finishes alone are not enough to sell this house. That’s because wide open spaces leave too much to the imagination! If the rooms are left empty, potential buyers have a difficult time figuring out the function of each space and envisioning where the furniture is supposed to go.
As a seller, you want your house to “make sense” to potential buters. If people start to question the layout, they are likely to rule out your house and move on to the next. Keep in mind, too, that empty rooms look a lot smaller than furnished rooms. Also, without furniture, buyers tend to focus on the home’s potential drawbacks instead of its positive features.
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How to Stage your Home During the Holidays
By Erin | December 7, 2008
To decorate or not to decorate? That is the question facing homeowners whose properties are on the market during the month of December. The simple answer is yes, you can deck the halls - but with certain guidelines to keep your house buyer-friendly.
In whatever month you list your house, the most important thing you can do is to make your home as appealing to the widest number of potential buyers as possible. You follow proven staging techniques to achieve this. When it’s time to decorate for the holidays, these techniques should continue to guide you.
Here are some things to keep in mind this holiday season:
Religious items
A typical staging guideline is to remove from sight all religious items, such as crosses, statues and pictures. You want your house to be as neutral as possible when potential buyers walk through. If the buyers aren’t religious or if they identify with a different faith, they may feel uncomfortable in the house - even of it’s on a subconscious level - and they will move on to another property.
By definition, Christmas and Hannukah are religious holidays, so any decorating associated with them poses an inherent challenge. The truth is, though, life is short and you and your kids may not want to give up decorations even for one year. If so, the best advice is to keep decorations simple and elegant. One menorah or one Christmas tree on display should be it. That’s not to say you can’t have many more “neutral” decorations, such as lights, candles, greenery, a wreath, snowflakes, pine cones or other pretty accessories associated with winter.
About the Christmas tree
Well-decorated trees are beautiful and can look stunning inside a home. Because an estimated 76% of the U.S. population report themselves as Christian, there’s a good chance a Cheristmas tree can strike a positive emotional connection with potential buyers. However, keep in mind that trees are big. Visually speaking, you can think of them as another piece of furniture. Since an important staging guideline is to keep rooms free of too much furniture, ask yourself: Will adding a tree make the room look smaller? Do you have to move lots of furniture around to fit it in your living room, thereby creating a less-than-ideal furniture arrangement? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you may want to reconsider getting a tree.
Keep clutter in check
When you are decorating, keep this staging principle in mind: cut the clutter! Lots of small decorative items can quickly clutter a room. It doesn’t matter how cute you think those snowmen are, or the family of porcelain deer, or the Department 56 village - save it all for next year in your new house! To keep it simple, stick to decorating only the fireplace mantle and the dining room table, for example. I can’t stress it enough: less is more! You don’t need garland adorning the archways or lights hanging from the window frame in the bedroom.
Other tips:
*When choosing what to display, think “elegent” versus “cutesy.” You want items to complement your decor, not clash with it.
*Stick to fresh greenery versus artificial. Fresh garland smells great and is easy to use. Most tree lots sell it.
Outside decorations
If you don’t want to bother with decorating the front of your house, don’t feel you need to. It’s fine to skip it this year. But if you do, follow the “less is more” principle here, too! You want potential buyers to notice your house, and not be distracted by your decorations.
*String lights, but don’t overdo it! A strand of lights along the roofline is good. Take care in stringing the lights so they are “pulled tight” and don’t look messy.
*Avoid inflatable decorations on the lawn (or anywhere).
*Hang a fresh wreath on the front door
*Place flowers, such as pointsettias, in attractive pots on the doorstep
*Add a new, festive doormat ($15-$30 at Target)
Dining table for a party
If your dining table is not set, now would be a good time to ’stage’ it for a party! By creating a festive table top, you invite potential buyers to imagine themselves entertaining in your home.
After the New Year
Be sure to take down all holiday decorations prompltly after the holidays are over. Decorations will look out of place and buyers may think you are “not on top of it.” Remember, you always want to put your best foot forward when marketing your house!
Topics: Home Design/Staging Ideas | No Comments »
Cosmetic Fixers Benefit from Staging, Too
By Erin | November 25, 2008
$2,000 investment returns $28,000 - see video below and read on…
There are very few houses that are “immune” to the benefits of staging. Unless it’s a total tear-down, a house is going to show better and therefore sell more quickly, on average, than a house left unstaged.
This applies to cosmetic fixers, too - a category of homes often overlooked when it comes to staging (except by savvy Realtors and sellers). I can understand it. Sellers figure, Why should I stage when I’m pricing it as a fixer? Why should I make any improvements since the next guy will do what he wants?
The reason? Most buyers cannot see a home’s potential. They can’t see beyond blue linoleum, orange walls or the coldness of an empty room. This is a fact that should not be taken lightly! It can make the difference between a home selling quickly/for more money OR sitting on the market.
At the very least, a home’s interior should get a new coat of paint. It’s relatively cheap and makes a huge, positive impact. If there are old carpets, find out if there is hardwood underneath. If so, have the carpet ripped out to reveal the wood floors, which are highly desired by buyers. Even if you don’t refinish the hardwood, this can be better than old, ratty carpet.
Lightly staging a cosmetic fixer is a great way to bring warmth, color and context to the rooms. A simple chair, rug and picture grouping can be enough, for example, to show the scale of a living room. Fluffy, white towels and a plant in the bathroom dress up the space. These simple staging techiniques can make a difference, even in homes priced well for the market. Would you rather have one offer or multiple offers? Staging can bring the latter.
Here is a video I put together based on before and after pictures of a house I staged recently. It was a cosmetic fixer. If we had left the house as-is, the asking price would have been $399,000. But, we put in just shy of $2,000 worth of improvements. As a result, the Realtor listed the home for $425,000 and the house sold for over the asking price. STAGING WORKS!
Topics: Home Staging Ideas | No Comments »
Marin Home Staging Tip: Furnish According to Original Function
By Erin | November 19, 2008
The way you live in your home and the way you sell your home are two different things. You’ll hear me say this again and again, but it’s so true! And it applies to many rules of staging. One rule is this: rooms should be furnished according to their original, intended function. This means when go put your house on the market, the dining room should clearly function as only a dining room, a living room a living room and so on.
If in your day to day life, you use your dining room as part office, part kids play room, part eating area, that’s fine. But when you are selling your house, this is confusing to buyers. You never want a buyer asking, “What is this room for?” Clearly defined, functional spaces are key. If the builder intended a certain room to be a dining room and not a play room, then when you sell, stage it as a dining room.
Here is a great example from a recent staging job I did in Sausalito. It’s a 3-level house, and you enter on the first level. The first room you see is a living room. However, when the house was first on the market, the room was left as the homeowners used it - a billiard/entertainment room. It had a pool table in the middle with a low-hanging chandelier and the walls were a bright color (the red is too “personal” for resale. Ideally, walls should be painted a warm, neutral color to appeal to the most people).
The house did not sell. So, when the homeowner decided to list it again, she had the pool table removed and painted the walls a neutral color (second photo). She then called me to stage the room as it was intended - as a living room. Now, when potential buyers walk in, they see a beautiful room with a practical function.
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Staging to Live: A Redesign Consultation
By Erin | September 29, 2008
You don’t have to hire an expensive decorator to get a room that is well-designed! One of the services we offer is redesign, or “staging to live.” Essentially, this means we work the furnishings you have to achieve a beautiful space in which to live. We can also recommend furnishings that you might want to buy over time (for example, if during the redesign we find there are missing pieces that could make the room look even better, we’ll let you know).
The two pictures you see here are the BEFORE shots from a recent redesign consultation we did in Marin. The homeowner had not been happy with her living room since moving to her new home three years ago. But, she couldn’t figure out what to change in the room or where to start. So, she asked me to come over and make some suggestions.
Here are four main problems I saw in the room: First, the white area rug didn’t look right. I thought the space need a darker colored rug to ground the seating area. Second, the super-tall ceilings left the room feeling a bit cold. Third, the room was lacking color. Fourth, the seating arrangement was a bit awkward and not conducive to conversation.
The solutions: I moved out the white area rug and replaced it with a more colorful rug from another room. The homeowner then decided to buy a new rug (the green one you see in this final photo). I suggested the homeowner needed some window coverings to add warmth, texture and color to the room. She bought green curtains to coordinate with the rug.
To add another large punch of color, I suggested the homeowner play up the nice architectutal detail in the room: the inset behind the couch. She painted it red, which balanced the opposing wall (not shown in the picture).
I moved the two arm chairs and placed them on either side of the fireplace, facing the sofa. This arrangement respects the room’s focal points, the fireplace and the view out the large windows.
Finally, to give some visual weight to the sofa wall, I flanked the sofa with two armoires or hutches that had been located in another room. I think we ended up with a pulled-together look, and we were able to keep all her own furnishings: sofa, 2 chairs and bookcases!
Topics: Redesign or Staging to Live | No Comments »
Luxury Property Seller Gets Creative with Home Staging
By Erin | September 23, 2008
As home stagers and Realtors can tell you, it’s not easy to sell an empty house. That’s because vacant houses with no furnishings tend to be cold an uninviting, and miss the opportunity to emotionally connect with buyers.
But as difficult as it is to successfully market an empty house, there is a type of property that is even more challenging: empty and unfinished. What’s a seller to do? Stage it, of course!
Case in point: A penthouse at San Francisco’s new Ritz-Carlton Residences came on the market in June. It was merely a shell - granted, a 3,595 square foot shell with stunning views - but still, an empty, unfinished space. The vast majority of buyers cannot envision a home’s potential, or what “could be.” And so, the property sat and sat with no buyers.
But now, the sellers have staged the space (full disclosure: we didn’t stage it. I assume it was a San Francisco stager). And what a difference it makes! The furnishings and fixtures add warmth and context. Buyers can now picture where their furniture would go, and how different areas could be used. I love how they brought in freestanding pedestal sinks to create the idea of a bathroom. Home stagers bring that kind of creativity to every project, and sellers benefit from it.
I think this is such a great example of how home staging is a useful, practical real estate marketing tool. What’s more, you don’t have to be selling a $6-million dollar penthouse to benefit from staging. In many cases, the investment in home staging is less than the cost of a home inspection AND the average return on investment is more than 300%! Click here for more home staging benefits.
Topics: Home Staging & Real Estate Trends | No Comments »
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