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Today's Staging Tip: A Dining Room with Style

When selling a home a dining room that feels inviting and ready to throw a dinner party is a tremendous asset. Dress up your table with floral arrangement, candles, china and napkins - a simple, color coordinated style works best.

How Real Estate Staging effects your Home Selling Process

Do you want to sell your home fast? 

Do you want to sell your house at the top dollar? 

Are you ready to do what it takes for a successful quick house sale?

Click here to find out why some homes sell fast while others are sitting on the market for a long time. 

Click Here for the Video

 

10 Great Alternatives to Granite Counters

This is such a great blog post that I have to share it with you. Paul Anater has summarized beautifully these 10 counter top materials as granite alternatives: 

1.  Carrara marble
2. Soapstone
3. Wood
4. Quartz composites
5. Concrete
6. Recycled Glass / Concrete mix
7. Painted glass
8. recycled post-consumer paper mixed with resin
9. Stainless Steel
10. Corian

Check out the beautiful pictures and lots of information on by clicking here...

Color Trend 2011 - YOLO Colorhouse

I love the colors that YOLO Colorhouse has come out with for 2011. Gray tones play a big role in their color schemes and a darker shade of turquoise still makes it into the year to come. Turquoise is still to stay after a strong year in 2010. Good news for me - it's one of my favorite colors when decorating.

Want to know the average cost of 35 remodeling projects & their resale value?

Check out your next home remodeling project and what return on investment to expect when selling your home. It might help you prioritize your projects. The national data can be broken down to the state and then county level. Unfortunately they do not show Fairfield county. Then show Hartford and New Haven counties though.

http://www.remodeling.hw.net/2010/costvsvalue/national.aspx

Today's Staging Tip: Furniture size

The mix of the furniture that you have in your room when living in it suits YOU when living in your home. Often the mix of furniture for daily living is over sized  and make the room look cramped and cluttered. When preparing a home for sale, such oversized pieces such as oversized recliner, sofa, TV cabinets, coffee table focus on these pieces:

• Depending on the room and what else is left in the room, these oversized furniture need to either be completely removed or replaced with smaller pieces.  
• Buyers need to be able to also be able to move freely around in the room and be able to see through the room.  
• They want to see the positive features of the room. Therefore, furniture need to be strategically placed to emphasize those and downplay less desirable features.

Send us a photograph if you have any questions about your specific room - we are happy to consult you what to do. Check out our website www.redesignyourspace.com for our full pallet of services.

I am a FINALIST for the most prestigious award in the Home Staging Industry!

I am so thrilled and honored to be a FINALIST of the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA) Home Staging Industry Award in the Rookie Stager of the year for the Northeast category. Home Stagers from all over North America submitted their before and after photos for consideration for the industry's most prestigious awards. This is the first time a Home Stager from Connecticut makes made it to the finale.

Home Staging Professionals from all across North America compete for the RESA Professional Stager of the year and the RESA Rookie Stager of the year awards. RESA will recognize professional stagers in six different regions of North America and each of those winners will compete for the overall crowning of the RESA Professional Stager of the year and the RESA Rookie Stager of the year. 

The finalists will be judged by a panel of industry professionals and the winners will be announced at the RESA Home Staging International Conference on January 24th in Las Vegas.

Today's Staging Tip - coffee table decoration

As a Home Stager and Interior Stylist I love decorating coffee tables. If dressed right, a coffee table makes your living room cozy, warm and enjoyable. Buyers want to be in there and can see themselves enjoying this room for themselves.

• Remove all the clutter 
• Use a nice decorative bowl and fill it with fruit or nice decor balls 
• Alternatively get a nice vase and fill it with flowers
• Stack 3 or 4 inspiring coffee table books or interior design or other nice coffee table magazines
• Candles also make a very nice statement if presented with  candle holders or on plates
• All done!

 Here are some examples:

Proof that Home Staging Works - beat the average days on the market in Connecticut

I love to share this story with you - a few months ago I had a home seller here CT call me that she is selling her house. She had selected her real estate agent, but was surprised that the agent never brought up home staging to her. She felt that she needed to prepare her house for selling in order to sell it faster and at a higher price, so she took the initiative upon herself to call Redesign Your Space. We immediately connected and got right away to get the house ready quickly.

During this time she often came frustrated to me saying that her agent does not understand why she is staging it. She was pushed very hard by the agent to put the house on the market immediately in the present condition. My client stood her lines and insisted on the agent having to wait until she is ready. Yes, there are quite a few brokers out here who simply do not understand marketing and the benefits of staging.

But we turned this agent around. When we were done staging, the agent was so impressed that she said that she could not believe that this would have made such a difference. Now, the path was layed for the agent as well to succeed in selling this house that was listed at $1,795,000, above the median price in Darien. The average DOM in Darien is 133days. My client received multiple offers in this market and sold close to asking price after 59 days, which is 55% faster than the average. Yes, home staging works! It is critical for this that the house is being staged BEFORE it is being put on the market.

Here are some BEFORE & AFTER photos (for Before & After video, click here): 

Before:                                                               After:

 
 
  

2010 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers: Subregional Profiles

Check out this SlideShare Presentation by the National Association of Realtors:

2010 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers: Subregional Profiles

View more presentations from NAR Research.

Getting rid of these ugly picture hook holes

Today's Staging Tip: When removing picture hanging hooks there are always these ugly little wholes in the wall. I like to use Dry Dex pink to fill them. It applies pink and when dried the putty turns white. 

Just put a little bit of the putty on your finger and smear it into the hole. Then take a damp paper towel and wipe any access around the hole off. This avoids having white streaks on your wall paint once the putty dries. All done! It's that simple.

Apartment in Stamford SOLD the same day after home staging - was on market before for 1 year

This apartment in Fairfield county, CT was on the market for 1 year when the home owners called Redesign Your Space for Home Staging help. After some improvements in the kitchen and staging, the home owners received the so long awaited offer the same day they had put it back on the market.

This shows that HOME STAGING WORKS! Don't lose valuable time on the market, get your home staged BEFORE you put it on the market!

Here are some before and after pictures and take a look at our video (click here):

 

 

 

 

Is Your Home Selling Strategy Complete?

With the current Real Estate Market situation, what does this mean for you? The market is tough. With only few buyers out there you are competing with all other home sellers for those few buyers. HGTV has indicated that the number ONE Real Estate Mistake is to fail to showcase the home and make small cosmetic changes. Have you considered all aspects of marketing to ensure that buyers choose your house over your competition?

For a successful marketing strategy (yes, selling your house is like selling any other product) the following 4  aspects of marketing should be considered:  

Packaging/Product (Your House)  - You have probably already hired a Real Estate agent as your marketing specialist, but he/she cannot do this part without you.

The packaging of your home is the home seller's responsibility in the selling process. Your Realtor will tell you the same - if buyers go through your home and make a mental list of what work needs to be done and what they have to spend extra money on after just making a big expenditure, they will scratch your home from their list, or they start to negotiate on the price. By not preparing the house for sale, it makes the competition look better and will help them sell their house!

If your house is properly staged it will emotionally appeal to a wide range of buyers tastes, so that they can imagine living there. You want to create the WOW factor amongst buyers that makes them feel home. According to a study conducted by RESA (Real Estate Staging Association) occupied staged home are 89% less time on the market than unstaged homes. Staged vacant homes are 85% less time on the market than unstaged homes.

Promotion - Did you know that 94% of home buyers first look online before visiting a listing? This is the best marketing tool that you have to get traffic into your house. If buyers do not like the online pictures they will not even take a look at your property - your house will be off the list before even being on the list of the home buyer. Therefore, it is critical that these pictures look awesome! Your house should be staged before putting it on the market and your Realtor will have great looking pictures to place on the MLS listing - many Home Stagers offer to take "after staging" pictures for your Realtor. 

Pricing - Pricing the home right - If the listing price is set right, Home Staging will influence the price buyers are willing to pay. The expert on pricing is your Realtor. According to US Housing and Development a staged house sells on average 17% higher than unstaged homes.

Place - well, neither of us has an influence over this - your house's location is where it stands.

Which house would you buy?

                                           

Before

After

Welcome to Turning Places Into Loving Spaces !

I am so excited that I finally have this blog up and running!!!

Welcome to this blog - I will be covering mostly topics for preparing your home for sale, so you get the most most money for your most valuable asset as well as to sell it faster. I want to help you selling your home in this tough real estate market, regardless where you are - just follow me here and you will get much valuable information that will guide you through. 

I am looking forward to seeing you back frequently.