Home By Design: The Suite Life

 

 

Home By Design: The Suite Life.

HomeGain Survey: Home Staging Top Priority for Sellers

Wanted to share this bit of good news with you..

HomeGain.com recently conducted its third nationwide home improvement and home staging Home Sale Maximizer™ survey (previously conducted in 2003 and 2007) to reveal the top 12 low cost*, do-it-yourself (DIY) home improvements for people getting their home ready to sell.  Nearly 1,000 REALTORS® responded to the survey.

Home Staging is also the 3rd highest price increase to a home’s resale value ($300 cost / $1,780 price increase to a home’s selling price, which is a 586% ROI).

Check out the article… http://blog.homegain.com/home-improvement/homegain-survey-home-staging-top-priority-for-sellers/#more-8287

 

 

Home By Design: Fast Fixes For A Healthy Diet

 

 

Home By Design: Fast Fixes For A Healthy Diet.

Home By Design: It’s All Greek To Me

Home By Design: It’s All Greek To Me.

The food of Greece tends to be very heart-healthy, focusing on fresh local ingredients such as olives, olive oil, lemons, parsley, almonds and spinach. Enjoy the recipes…

Home By Design: Modern Glamour

Please enjoy this week’s article. New Weekly Article – Modern Glamour

http://www.homebydesign.com/pages/article/HBD_OCT_09_03/54168/index.html

Home By Design: Five Luxurious Bedroom Suites

Home By Design: Five Luxurious Bedroom Suites

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Home Stagers Are Really Busy in the DMV Area

There seems to be an influx of quickly moving properties in such areas as Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland. These homes have been staged by professionals, and the longest any of them has taken to sell has been just three months. The average rate of sale on professionally staged homes in Virginia alone is approximately 20 days, and this gives rise to the growing popularity of the staging business, and a rising respect for the talented people who get the job done. All of this new action has been really vamping up over the past two years, and only shows signs of growing across the country.

The home stager is a consultant who is trained, not necessarily in the art of interior design, but in the realm of creating areas that are just pretty enough to pull the home’s features forward, yet quiet enough to allow a potential buyer to see themselves and their own belongings in the space. This can be a very tedious and often frustrating job, and often takes the full cooperation and understanding of the homeowner. There is an almost psychological quality to this job, as some people are easily offended by even the mildest and most well intentioned constructive criticism.

The most professional and seasoned home stagers are able to adopt an unbiased and neutral attitude, and with this professional and unthreatening stance can convince even the most prideful home seller to give home staging a go. It is usually much easier to work with an empty home and a set budget, where the emotional attachment to the home has already begun its closure process. We aren’t always that lucky, however, and the people skills that make it easier for everyone are usually acquired with time and experience.

We can help ourselves along by remembering that the true reward will come with the sale of the property, and when that happens, all is usually forgiven. In fact, even well before this day, most clients become inspired by the simplicity and soothing nature of their staged home and decide to take a few of the tips that they have learned along with them to their new homes. Once you have gotten over that initial hump, the consultation and color advice session, the rest of the process is usually a learning, cleansing, and growing experience for everyone involved.

For more information about home staging in the DC, Maryland and Virigina area, contact Nicci Parrish at http://www.ImpressMeHomeStaging.com or call (240) 232-3118.

Home Staging Course at PG Community College – Oct. 17, 2009

The Business of Home Staging Course (BUS-550) – Sat, Oct. 17, 2009 – 9:00 am – 4:00 pm

Love decorating? Ever said to yourself, “I can do that,” after watching a home staging show on HGTV or A&E? Home staging is one of the fastest growing home-based businesses in the US.  It is a proven marketing tool used to help sell homes quickly and for top dollar. This course will provide students with a high-level overview of the concepts and principles involved in starting a home staging business in today’s market.

To register:

• Go to: http://www.pgcc.edu/current/schedules
• Select the Fall 2009 Workforce Development catalog
• Locate BUS-550 “The Business of Home Staging”, page 17
• For more information on the course contact: Mary Jane Shear (301) 322-0797 or mshearer@pgcc.edu
• Cost: $50

Instructor: Nicci Parrish, Owner/Principal Stager, Impress Me! Home Staging (http://www.ImpressMeHomeStaging.com).

Is Home Staging Worth the Investment?

When a decision is made to sell a home, there are also many other decisions that must be made as well. At what price will the home be listed? Will the homeowner allow a lock box? Will the home be shown by appointment only? Will staging services be used to help make the home more attractive?

When home staging services first became available, homeowners and sellers alike were reluctant to invest in those services. As with anything new, it took a little bit for the idea of home staging to catch on. The first places where home staging became widely used were metropolitan cities and coastal areas. Today home staging is becoming more available in even smaller towns.

Home staging is widely known as being able to improve final sales prices while also reducing the amount of time a home remains on the market. Still, the question is sometimes asked whether home staging is worth the price.

In considering the value of home staging it must be understood that home staging goes far beyond cleaning the home or making necessary repairs before putting on the market. Cleaning and repairing can be consider a form of staging the home for sale, but when a professional is contracted to stage a home a host of other services are included. Professional home stagers go far beyond cleaning and repairing. In the process of staging the home, high-end neutral furniture and accessories are used to draw attention to the best features in the home and help it to look as appealing as possible to buyers. Home staging services frequently include not only arranging furniture but also adding tasteful furniture and artwork in order to set a scene that is meant to appeal to all of a buyer’s senses.

Hiring a professional provides the benefit of an objective and experienced eye who is not attached to the furniture or the special memories a home may hold. They will be able to come into the home and advise the homeowners about which items should be removed from the home, which items should be added and the best way to make the home stand out from the competition. As a result, homes that are staged tend to sell twice as fast and experience a final sales price that is higher than homes that have not been staged. Even considering the cost of the home staging investment, sellers who take advantage of a home staging service typically walk away with more money in their pocket than those who do not.

The $1,000 Sell-It-Fast Makover Article

Check out my and other local home stagers’ contribution to the above article published in the Washington Post.

Great tips for sellers who are looking to spend less than $1000 to prepare their home for a quick sell.