I'm exhausted! As of tonight we officially have 40 vacant homes staged & 1 owner occupied with props. We have 38 vacants and the 1 owner occupied w/ props listed on our Actively Staged Properties page. Bevin recently completed #39 and today's completion makes #40. Unfortunately with this kind of volume, the checkbook is about empty and almost everything in this home was purchased over the last week...
This is our second Simonini Homes project. Mr. Simonini himself is supposed to walk through tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed that he is pleased. So far everyone on site and in the office that has seen photos has been very comlimentary.
(Ok, because this is making me crazy... yes, I see the way the skirt is in the photo above. The home is nearly an hour away and I just saw this when I downloaded the photos. I will fix it, but not for a day or so & I wanted to share.)
Below is the RES we are using on our website. (As soon as the webmaster uploads it for us!) Enjoy!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Melissa Marro, a published artist, now turned staging advocate 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. Selling her successful home staging company in January 2012, Marro is now a full time speaker and instructor for Staging And Resign 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 843.619.1593 or email at marro.melissa@gmail.com
Just beautiful, Melissa. he'd be mad not to love it. I really like the profusion of plants in the kitchen. It feels fresh, summery and vibrant. Nice use of interesting details in the book shelf/built-ins, too.
Great job!
good luck, I hope they sell fast.
WOW - that's a heck of a LOT of inventory, and I thought we had a ton with only 7 houses of inventory out there at once! GREAT for you ~ You Go, Girl!
Juliet - Thanks! Our goal was to create an 'organic' feeling....
Angelia - Thankfully they have been. We've had (I think) 5 properties in the last 6 weeks that have sold in about 30 days. We are so grateful to get the inventory back!
Connie - Yes, I know! It is a bit overwhelming when I really think about it. Our warehouse looks completely empty. I actually have another home to stage tomorrow.... I'll be shopping again. I still have a few things in boxes that my assistant will have to put together. Fortunately I had time to order and have things delivered on this one!
Melissa,
Wow, 40 homes? When do you and your team sleep.? (Or do you?) You guys are amazing, I'm SURE the builder will love it. What's not to love.
Melissa- You've done a fabulous job of showcasing the architectural detail in this home. I can't even imagine forty vacants - I've got three coming up and am going crazy.
I think the house looks great! I always enjoy seeing photos of your work. You do such a wonderful job. :)
good grief!! you are crazy busy! thats awesome!!!
Heather
Aloha Melissa,
Congrats and great job as always! Wow, your volume is amazing and gives me something to aspire too. Is that faux Iced-tea or is it the real thing staged only for the photos?
Best wishes & peaceful nights rest!
Hi Melissa,
That is impressive. I always love looking at your staging photos. You are one of the best! Just a quick question...when you have that many vacant homes staged, how do you handle billing? I currently have 7 vacant homes staged with monthly rental agreements for the inventory. I have been billing monthly but it is becoming more of a challenge to keep up with invoicing and collecting payments. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
HOW much inventory must you own? Are all 40 of those completely Staged or mostly the main levels? Do you ever rent? I am a big fan of renting. Congrats!
Donna - Sleep has not been very abundant for me lately.... Bevin on the other hand just got back from a week's vacation in the Bahamas.... lucky girl!
Lynn - Yes, sometimes I feel like I'm pulling my hair out. If I hadn't just cut it all off I'm sure it would be!
Laura - thank you so much!
Heather - busy? good gravy yes! good thing? absolutely!
Kimo - faux iced tea... sweet tea is a big thing here in the south. It is one of my favorite props actually...
Wanda - We require they pay 3/4 months in advance. Typically we don't have to stage beyond that, but when it does happen we try to have a credit card on file that we can auto bill.
Tori Lynn - There isn't a good rental company here, so we don't do that anymore. Two of the properties have some rental furniture from before Bevin & I merged inventory. As soon as they sell we won't be using rental companies any longer.
Wow Melissa, How do you do it all !!! great work, very inspiring for a newcomer like me, great pictures too, Love that ice tea prop, looks so real, especially summer coming that is a good one.!!
Shobha
Ha that is a lot of inventory you've got. I can't imagine having and keeping track of that much. As it is I've got enough for about 7 houses. Nice photos by the way.
Honestly Melissa I was exhausted just thinking about those 40 vacant houses! It always amazes me how you make each one look fantastic and different from the one before. I hope they all turn over quickly so you can keep reusing your inventory. Betty
Shoba - Thanks! Love the iced tea myself.... I have a couple of sets of them actually!
Cindy - It is getting harder and harder to keep track of, especially with so many hands in the cookie jar, if you will. Right now all the vacant homes we have staged were personally staged by either myself or Bevin.... so that makes it a little easier.
Betty - We just got word today that another home went under contract, so we are ready to unstage at least 3 of them by the end of the month... yeah!
Wow.. you go girls! Isn't it amazing how much more inventory we have to buy the busier we get? 40 homes.. holy moly. I was exhausted last July when I had 25.. I can't amagine 40.. that is one heck of an amount of inventory!
Don't you just hate it when you get home and look at the photos and there is the cord showing, the kleenex on the floor, etc??? GEEZ, we get such tunnel vision we missed it. Well we are human...nice work on this one (and all the others).
Congratulations Melissa, you guys deserve it! It looks great, as usual. I love that kitchen and the Master bedroom.
Melissa,
Simply Stunning! Wow. How amazing that you have 40 currently staged. We have 10 and I certainly understand what you mean when you say the checkbook is low on funds.
Melissa, Great job as usual. Refreshing style and colors to compliment the baeutiful features in this home. Wishing you the best on this project! You go Girls!!
Have a Colorful Day!
Fab! just love how busy you are. Keep it up. There is so much opportunity out there and the good professional Stagers are making it happen. You are an inspiration! Kym
Thanks again everyone!! This week we had 3 properties go under contract so thankfully we are getting some furniture back soon! It is funny because while I was gone to TN on vacation we got a few more contracts and all the furniture is already on its way back - it may never even see the inside of the warehouse.... lol! Just the way I like it!
Melissa,
You are the master !! Bless you !! Simply amazing !!
OK one word...How?
What advice would you give, is it marketing? Is it your targeting certain demographics? Is it God open the windows of heaven and poured out a blessing? What?
Did I say, your hair cut is sooo cute!
Amber - Thanks for the compliments... lol!
I do think it is a blessing, but I certainly don't think that is the key element (not to discount God here at all.... lots of good stagers are blessed & they still don't get here.) It is a lot of work. We market ourselves very well. We also do an outstanding job (forgive me complimenting myself here) but it is true. Agents & clients are always pleased with our work & to my knowledge after we have worked for an agent they have never used another staging company.
We price ourselves competitively, not at the highest mark, but not at the lowest either. When we compete - if price is their key component, we lose a lot of the time. On the other hand, by more than one agent we've been told that we can get the staging less expensively, but they want GOOD! (This is even by a few agents whose company has an in house stager... lol)
If you read through my blogs, you'll understand most of our marketing... the biggest things - e-newsletters, handwritten cards & delivering what we promise. (Actually our goal is always to underpromise and overdeliver!)
Nice house, I like the video... Keep up the good work!
Melissa,
I like how you delivered that! I am just learning (after being a Stager for 5 yrs) that marketing is the key!! The market before was such that, I never really had to mkt. myself, it was all word of mouth.
I will definitely read your past blogs. You're an inspiration of what can be achieved - with lots of hard work! :)
Congratulations Melissa! Another beautifully staged home. Your hard work is apparent and you are being rewarded for it. Continued success!
Congrats Melissa!
I thought we had a lot of inventory but I don't think we have anywhere near enough for 40 homes at the same time!! My partner and I joke that 10 homes at the same time is about what we could handle - however we'll see! Kudos to you for making it through the 40 stages and still sounding sane at the end.
Go Girls....
I want to move in, it's lovely!
40 homes - I pull my hair out at 15, I don't know how you do it but great job. I need to go to bed now....I'm tired just thinking about it.
Wow, I guess that warehouse is looking empty now? Lordy, Lordy, First Impressions has housed 40!
Hey Melissa,
Don't lose sleep over that skirt; yes, do fix it when you can, however the RES is so amazing that no one will notice!
What a wonderful staging!
Val