Speaking Up about Home Staging

Certified Staging Professionals (CSP) announces Friday, April 17th that well known Southern-based stager, Melissa Marro is to head Operations and Training for North America. This announcement comes just prior to the 2009 CSP Convention where it will officially launch several new training programs and continuing education classes. While some classes will be exclusive to the CSP designation, many will be available to Stagers and Real Estate, or Real Estate related Professionals of any designation or affiliation.

It is in the launching of these programs where Marro will show her strongest assets. Team building, management and marketing is what she has built her reputation on with industry insiders. As the 2009 RESA Professional Stager of the Year, Marro has shown a strong commitment to the sustained growth and development of the staging industry. One of her first tasks, in this new position, will be to assemble a qualified team of dedicated professionals with the purpose of educating other stagers, real estate and industry professionals of trends and emerging niche markets through these new CSP courses.

Last year the Green Build Science Program (otherwise known as Live Green, Live Smart) and Senior Move Management course began a slow but steady growth across North America. This year CSP hopes to expand these markets while adding an Elite Agent Program and Staging for Living Course. These new courses will help stagers connect to both agents and homeowners in their local markets.

Unlike other agent courses, CSP?s Elite Agent Program is unique in the industry, focusing on educating agents on WHY they should hire a stager, HOW to talk to their clients about staging, WHAT they need to know about the industry and WHERE to locate a competent, well trained staging professional. This course helps to demystify the process for Real Estate Professionals, increasing the likelihood that staging will become a common staple in the real estate market.

The new Staging for Living Course will provide another stream of income for current stagers by focusing on the needs of new buyers, existing homeowners and apartment dwellers. This course will equip professionals with the advanced knowledge, skills and abilities to add full service decorating to an already existing business model. Creating additional revenue streams solidifies the business base for all markets ? helping bridge the economic gap for many industry entrepreneurs.

While Marro will continue to help manage and operate her Charleston, South Carolina based company, First Impressions Home Staging & Interior ReDesign, she has already begun interviewing and seeking out new trainers from inside the industry, regardless of their prior training designations. By focusing on the growth of the individual stager, agent and consumer rather than designation affiliations, CSP leads by example, ushering in a new era and standard of professionalism and conduct. If you are interested in joining the CSP instructor team, please contact Melissa Marro (melissa@stagingtraining.com) or Christine Rae (Christine@stagingtraining.com) for more information.

I was going to try to be whitty, but I'm not terribly clever the way Elaine and some others are so I'll keep this to my usual style.... Today I staged a great home in a very large community that has probably 75 homes for sale at the moment, plus it is still building out.  These particular sellers have had their home listed for a while and have since had to move.  No one wants to continue paying for a home they no longer live in, so the listing agent, finally catching on to our statistics through our newsletters decided to give us a call...

Looking in the MLS, the photos for the home are a bit confusing.  There are photos of both vacant and occupied rooms - the same rooms mind you.  This is when the seller used to live there and how it was prior to today - empty.  For this blog, I'm only going to focus on the living room & the 'dining room'....

My issue with this room both occupied and vacant is that at the pricepoint of the home and the overall rooms and layout, this space didn't make much sense as a formal dining room.  There was a dining space off the kitchen that was perfectly large enough for a home this size.  To me, it didn't make sense or good use of square footage.

Instead I decided to stage this as a home office with a sizable desk.  Clearly you can see that if this were a dining room there is significant space.  Overall, however this is much more usable space in the home with this configuration and the rooms make more sense....

The first photo simply looks overly crowded and confusing while completely diminishing the wonderful fireplace.  This is the only family room in the home - it needs to be comfortable and functional!  The vacant photo make the room look tiny, which is backed up by the oversized, poorly layed out first photo....

Now there is actually significantly more furniture (or so it appears) in this space and there is still massive amounts of space left over.  We kept one wall open (& you can see the cable connection clearly when in the room) to show that there is still more than enough room for an entertainment center (of course adding it would have again likely started making the room feel smaller again & detracted from the fireplace - a key focal point.)

The best news is that the savvy agent called one of the buyers' agents who had shown the property this week, with clients who liked a lot about the home, but had some downchecks and let her know that the home was painted (well, the master suite was painted) and that it was being staged today.  The buyer and her husband are going to view the property again this weekend to see if the changes are enough to make a difference!

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First Impressions Home Staging & Interior ReDesign is a nationally award winning company owned and operated in Summerville, SC a suburb of Charleston, SC.  We provide high quality staging for both occupied and vacant homes in the greater surrounding areas and beyond!  For more information please visit, www.WeStageSC.com.  If you are interested in learning about making Home Staging your profession, please visit, www.StagingAndRedesign.com for more information.

I guess the answer to this really depends on a few factors, like...

1) The shade of blue

2) The intensity of blue

3) How big the surface is

Years ago I bought a home.  It was a charming little home.  My husband was in the Navy and we used to live around the corner in the same floorplan.  On the way to that home we used to give directions that went something like this.... "When you get to the ugly blue house on the corner, turn right."  Everyone used these directions - it was practically a landmark.

So years later sitting at the closing table, my husband never laying eyes on the home I was buying for us to live in (did I mention he was in the Navy?) he says over and over again... "I can't believe we are buying the ugly blue house on the corner.  She must be crazy."  Well, crazy I was not... we painted it yellow with white trim and black shutters - one of my favorite combinations.  Of course this caused some confusion with parties for the next few weeks - no one could find the ugly blue house on the corner anymore. 

Why did we buy the ugly blue house on the corner?  It sat empty for over a year (most home were sold within weeks) and was priced more than 15% below market value.  Paint was only a few hundred dollars - for the entire exterior.

What does all this have to do with the bathroom I mentioned in the beginning.... well, two things - the first is that I cringe at the sight of blue far too often, especially with certain shades.  I've been told that there are green people and there are blue people.  I'm definately a green person. 

The second thing it has to do with is that the home we purchased sat for over a year and sold for thousands upon thousands less than other comperable homes - oh, did I mention that when we sold our home 4 years later we sold it at list price to the 1st people to walk through the door? 

So... if you are selling a home and ANY ROOM looks like this....

PAINT IT!!!

If you do, then you might be able sell your home sooner and for significantly more money....

So, do you want to see what it would look like if you listened to me, as this smart seller did?

Now, really, which would most potential buyers prefer?  Of course, it also helps that we painted the master bedroom the same color as the bathroom (after) - it was purple.... the old sellers were NOT afraid of color to be sure!  That's another blog though....

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First Impressions Home Staging & Interior ReDesign is a nationally award winning company owned and operated in Summerville, SC a suburb of Charleston, SC.  We provide high quality staging for both occupied and vacant homes in the greater surrounding areas and beyond!  For more information please visit, www.WeStageSC.com.  If you are interested in learning about making Home Staging your profession, please visit, www.StagingAndRedesign.com for more information.