I know I've blogged about this before but I think it bears repeating! I was looking through MLS tonight and was frustrated with some of the photos I was seeing (when there were photos) so I thought I would do a random sampling. My search criteria - listings $1M & over... no area, no specific DOM - just homes over $1M. Each of these is from a different home - all of them are from the FIRST 10 in MLS!
Please tell me these aren't 'staged'... both look to be primarily vacant. This second one I really wanted to use the photos of the wallpaper in the next room, but I wanted to spotlight the cake & wine glass staging on the counter.... *sigh*
Remember, all of these are over $1M!
This was the only photo for this property. It does have a 1658 sqft home on it .... even as a tear down, there should be photos of the land itself... trees, ponds, etc...
I actually could have pulled more photos, but I wanted to keep them from varying homes & only out of the first 10 on the list.... apparently education will still be the key business plan for my company next year!
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Melissa Marro, a published artist, now turned staging advocet and national speaker speaks her mind about real estate and the home staging industry. In her 'no holds barred' approach, audience members find real answers to the industries pitfalls and learn how to overcome them with tried and true information and guidance. With marketing as her passion, she turned a small home based business into one of the nation's largest home staging and training facilities. She now operates as the CEO of First Impressions Home Staging & Interior ReDesign as well as the Executive Director of Certified Staging Professionals International Training Academy (CSPI) - the world's largest Staging Training Organization, and regularly speaks at the StagerList Expos and Real Estate Staging Association (RESA)'s trade events.
For more information on having Marro speak at one of your real estate functions, please contact her at 843.822.2622 or email at marro.melissa@gmail.com
If you would like Marro's team to provide information on staging a property in the state of South Carolina, or the Greater Charleston Area, please visit www.WeStageSC.com, email marro.melissa@gmail.com or call 843.822.2622.
For more information on Marro's CSP Staging Training, please visit www.StagingAndRedesign.com, visit the CSP Calendar for dates or email marro.melissa@gmail.com. Below is a list of Marro's current CSP Certification class dates:
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February 16-18 Austin, TX
March 6-8 Atlanta, GA
March 13-15 Raleigh, NC
March 20-22 St. Petersburg, FL
April 10-12 Knoxville, TN
May 4-6 Covington, KY
May 18-20 Charlotte, NC
July 5-7 Memphis, TN
July 10-12 Charleston, SC
Melissa, I see the same thing in the area I live in. It is a shame.
Last month I was so frustrated I actually emailed the REA's of 5 of the homes with rough estimates based on the listing price. Not one responded. Not even to tell me to buzz off!
One of the houses I just offered my designer discounts for new flooring...who is going to buy a million dollar home with a kitchen familyroom carpeted in fake grass?!
I agree with Brian. Not everyone is going to stage a home and I would like to see focus on the positive and homes in the area staged well put up for all to see.
Brian - not at all... it just still amazes me! I actually am really pleased with the education we've done in the Charleston market the last 2 years. We actually were just contacted by a high profile agent that has 20 current listings and wants to hire a stager as an affiliate. We were just called out on the first home today! He will be staging every new listing going forward.... every new agents is a step forward...baby steps!
We also just had 2 listings we staged go under contract this week... that always reminds us we are doing what we set out to do!
Julie - Education definately seems to be how to make agents understand! Perhaps when they read the comments such as these they'll begin to understand WHY they really need to rethink the standard of home presentation!
Fernando - what a great idea for Sharpen Your Sword. Agents & Stagers should post before photos, let us critique them, then come back to show us the after! Awesome news about the refilling of business cards - great feeling huh? My personal favorite - when you haven't had the home staged long enough to give any out!
Sometimes I am just amazed at what I see in the MLS. I was looking the other day and there was a home for $700K with only 4 pics, the front of the house, the back of the house and the 2 of the pathway to the back yard. No inside pics and this home has been on the market for at least 6 months. It makes you just want to call the realtor and be like hello - what is wrong with you?
Education is definitely key to raising the bar.
Mellisa, you said your goal in '08 will be to continue education of staging. May I ask what steps you plan to take to achieve this goal? I agree, education of the public in general needs to happen.
This week I attended an open house of a vacant I staged, and was blown away by the comments made regarding how great the house looked with staging. (These agents didn't know I was the stager until I introduced myself.) I understood then that I needed to attend every broker's tour of my staged home from now on as much as I can,( even though I loathe going to them! ) and that will be one step in my plan to educate this year.
Roberta - I have been trying to remember where I saw you ask this question so I could answer it (apparently I already deleted it from my inbox).... so finally.....
My company offers 3 day agent courses, but in January we will also be offering 3 hr agent training courses - this course will be about teaching them WHY they should stage & what they should look for in a stager. We will be offering this probably about every 6 weeks. We also send a montly newsletter educating agents on how we can make them better - what we do for them. I have noticed that a lot of other stagers have been sending newsletters - most on a sporadic basis, but the constant theme seems to be their awards, acknowledgements and all about the stagers themselves. Some of them add links to their work, but they don't edit down for the attention span of most agents reading a newsletter and virtually none of them offer information on how they help grow the business of the agent they are targeting. Basically it ends up looking like a 'look at me, look at me, look at me' newsletter. That is one thing, when we compliment ourselves in our newsletters, we let OTHER AGENTS do the talking! Without fail for 21 newsletters we have had a glowing agent testimonial in EVERY SINGLE newsletter... no other local staging company can say that.... I doubt that will change... even if it does, our record will still be nearly two years longer..... agents can and do recognize this...
Hmmm . . .good points on the educating newsletters to agents. You've got me thinking. . . .
Melissa, thanks for being so open and giving. I really appreciate all I learn from you!
Have a happy, blessed new year.