Making Time for the Value of Paint

We’ve heard it said before…Time is valuable and time is money. These simple words speak volumes when it comes to selling a house and part of my job as a professional home stager is to help my clients understand that investing time and money in staging their homes to sell can potentially pay them back with a faster more profitable sale. For many of my staging clients I recommend they start the ball rolling by repainting any marked and scarred walls throughout their homes. A new coat of paint is one of the best investments a home seller can make in the marketing of their home. Freshly painted walls provide a clean cohesive back drop for staging and it’s a relatively inexpensive way to make the whole house look and smell like it’s brand new. As part of my service, Perfect Place Home Staging provides color consultations to help home sellers choose the best colors and sheen levels for “painting to sell”. Repainting (especially rooms that show noticeable wear and tear) will help your home show better than the others that are also listed in your price range. If a buyer has several homes in their price point to consider, the house that looks clean, fresh, and ready to move in is going to stand apart from all the others. Like many of us nowadays, home shoppers are busy people with all sorts of work and family obligations. The added task of finding and buying a house is stressful enough without having to worry about finding even more time in the future for things like painting. When you look at it from the buyers perspective it becomes clear that the "move in ready home" is certainly a very valuable find worth paying for. "Time is Valuable and Time is Money".

In closing I offer you this, if you plan to put your house on the real estate market, please consider taking some time to repaint. Make the project a family affair, call on friends to help, or hire a trusted painter. The bottom line is, don’t let the need for a few gallons of paint stand in the way of selling your home.

New Resources that Set the Stage for Confidence

Several years ago I came across a saying that has become a personal credo of mine. The saying is... "If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.” I carry these words with me everyday on an old tattered and torn slip of paper tucked inside my purse. When I feel I can’t make a change, or I’m scared to try things differently, the phrase on that tattered slip of paper gives me the confidence to move forward.

As owner of Perfect Place Home Staging I want my clients to feel confident in me and my service, yet it would be foolish on my part to forget that most people have never hired a home stager before. Here too, the thought of the unknown can be scary and trying something different isn’t always easy. That’s why I feel it’s so important to give my potential clients a variety of ways to get to know more about me, my business, and the art of home staging. It’s about building trust and making it easy for people to find timely relevant information about Perfect Place Home Staging. With all this in mind, I’m excited to share some wonderful new additions and updates to Perfect Place Home Staging’s portfolio.

For starters, Perfect Place Home Staging is newly certified as a Better Business Bureau (BBB) Accredited Business. As an accredited business Perfect Place Home Staging meets and maintains the high standards of the BBB for trust, honesty, integrity, ethics, dependability and responsiveness. Please feel free to check out my company’s BBB Online Reliability Report at www.wisconsin.bbb.org

Next, I added some great new content to my web page on the Staging Diva® Directory of Home Stagers. You can now see 3 new sets of Perfect Place Home Staging’s before and after project photos, new client testimonials, and even a new picture of me too. I’d love for you to see it all at http://www.perfectplacehomestaging.com/

And lastly, this new blog The Perfect Place Home Staging Review, where you can find helpful home staging information and interesting stories about my life as a home stager.

Please feel free to check out each of these Perfect Place Home Staging online resources. I’m confident (thanks to that little slip of paper I carry) that you will find them helpful.

When it comes to selling your house, how can less be more?

I can definitely feel it in the air today… Spring is finally coming! As I stood on my porch this morning I see the sun is shining, the snow is quickly melting, and the trees are swaying in the wind. It’s like they’re dancing in celebration of a long winter coming to a close. It’s amazing how days like this make me feel. As the sun warms my face, a sudden urge starts to come over me... "I feel the need to clean out a closet!” Yes, I know that’s probably not what most people feel like doing on a nice day, but the sense of renewal that comes with spring inspires me to clear, clean, and de-clutter my home. And even though I feel every homeowner should take some time each year to clear the excess stuff from their homes, it’s even more important for those who want to sell their house this spring real estate season.

As a professional home stager I always tell my clients that a home with less will show a buyer so much more. What I mean by this is potential buyers can best appreciate all your home has to offer when there is less of your stuff distracting their vision. If you want to sell your house this spring, now is the time to take a hard look at each area of your home. We all tend to accumulate extra stuff, whether we really need it or not, so this is the time to reduce. Every closet, every cabinet, every storage area… they all need to be addressed. Decide quickly what to keep, what to donate, and what to throw away. When it’s time to show your house, closet contents should be reduced by at least half and cabinets should be whittled down to neatly organized essentials. Think about it, how many old Cool Whip containers does a kitchen really need! Instead, re-purpose these kinds of containers. You can use them to organize your crafting supplies. Once everything is sorted into the containers, just close the lid and label it with permanent marker. Now you can easily stack them in a plastic bin or decorative storage box. Not only is this stuff contained while showing your house, it’s all packed up and ready for your future move! Imagine the amount of pre-packing you could have done if you did this throughout your whole home! So go ahead and get started tonight by organizing one junk drawer… Believe me; you just might feel the need to keep on going!

Why stage your home to sell? The answer is at the grocery store.

As a professional home stager, I hear this question from time to time…
"Why should I stage my home to sell?"
"Why would I put work into a house I plan to leave?"

To best answer this question, I want you to think about just how visual our world really is. Let’s face it; we all take notice of how things look. We can’t help it. It’s part of our nature. This makes presentation very powerful because it influences the choices we make everyday. Whether it’s our clothes, cars or even our significant others… looks were most likely part of what drew us to them in the first place. I’ve noticed this about myself even when I’m at the grocery store. As I walk down the aisles comparing one item to another, I find myself time and time again drawn to products in nice eye-pleasing packages. That’s exactly why those nice looking packages were created. To get me to notice them, desire them, and of course buy them. Companies invest millions of dollars in creating just the right look for their product packaging. Believe me, their money is well spent. One look at my stuffed shopping cart proves that their investment works! These companies understand that the right overall look and feel will not only get their products noticed, but also build desire for them too… “I like what I see, so I want what I see!”

Now imagine this whole presentation scenario in terms of selling a house. It becomes clear that home staging is basically product packaging for real estate. Your house is the “product” and staging is the valuable investment in proper “packaging”. A home that is staged properly has the look and feel of a great place to live. It’s all about building desire for your home, and just like the packaging in the grocery store, Staging Works!

The Curious Case of Home Staging

Recently I was approached by my local library about presenting a community program on the topic of home staging. As a professional in the staging industry, I feel very strongly about educating the public on the importance of staging, so of course I was more than happy to sign on for the job.

To best convey my staging message, I put together a visual presentation which contained key points on what home staging is, why it’s important, and some of my before and after project photos. On the evening of the presentation I arrived at my “classroom” early. I wanted to get the laptop and projector up and running and also spend some time with the librarian who coordinated the program. Needless to say we had little time to visit because according to my host, people started showing up for my presentation unusually early. By the time my program started the room was full and ready to go. Many people brought notebooks with them and intently jotted down the key points I shared. As my before and after photos started to appear on the screen, the whole tone of the room began to change right in front of me. All eyes were fixated on the screen and the smiles on their faces said it all. It’s true, “a picture says a thousand words” because before I knew it hands started going up all over the room! It seemed like everyone had a question and I was so happy to watch the energy of the room grow more and more exciting.

As the evening came to a close, I thought about all the different people that attended the program. Women and men, young and old, married couples and singles. It was a community potpourri… all curious about home staging and how it could help them and their unique situation. I have to admit, I gave myself a pat on the back. I knew I had succeeded in delivering my staging message. Everyone left with my clear positive message ringing inside them… Staging is a powerful marketing tool, staging is a worthwhile investment, and most importantly staging works!

New Beginnings

It's a new day for America! Today Barack Obama is sworn in as President of the United States. As I sit and type this blog entry, I watch the inauguration coverage on TV. I can't help but think about how far my country has come, all the new challenges we as a nation face, and the start of an exciting new chapter in American history.

Since today is about new beginnings, I decided that today would be the perfect day to start my new blog, The Perfect Place Home Staging Review. Here at the "PPHS Review" I will share my viewpoints, stories and stuff on Home Staging. Home Staging is a valuable marketing tool for today's real estate world, and as one of just a few professional Home Stagers in Southeast Wisconsin, I want not only to have a voice in the growing industry, but to also make an impact on it as well. Like many blogs, I want the PPHS Review to be about sharing.... Sharing helpful information, insightful stories, and of course a place to enjoy a laugh or two.

For all of us and in all sorts of ways, Today is a New Beginning. Here's to great things to come!