It's funny how things cross paths. It's been said before that there are no coincidents. HHHMMMM.... My husband, Tim, does home improvement and handy-man services around northern Atlanta, which has been great because he is my 'handy-man' referral on my written consultations for home staging clients. He is also a recommended vendor for ourMetro-Atlanta ASHSR chapter. We've created that opportunity for things to cross paths for us, but this situation was really cool.
Recently he was hired, by referral from one of his other clients, to replace doors for a man in Roswell. Through conversation, and mentioning my home staging business, my husband found out that this man was an inventor and had, in fact, created a tool he'd tried to market to home stagers! Actually, he claims to have sold some to a group of Canadian home stagers although I never found out what group.
Pretty ironic, right?
He gave my husband a sample of the tool to bring home to me to try out. It's called the Picture Placer. It is a tool to be used when hanging art work that uses wires. You simply hang the print on the Picture Placer, then decide where you want the print to hang on the wall and then gently push the art against the wall to create a small mark to indicate where to hang the picture-hanging hook. Voila, hang your art on the hook and you have the print where you want it. No need to rehang because it was up too high or too low, or too far to the left or right.
Check out their website for more information, including a video tutorial, and to order yours today.
And no, I don't get a commision for any sales. Just sharing a cool tool that might be of interest and worth an investment to your home staging tool kit.
ALR Home Staging and Showcasing LLC serves the Metro Atlanta area: primarily, but not limited to, Woodstock, Acworth, Roswell, Kennesaw, and Marietta. We believe in working with both homeowners AND the real estate professionals to get your property in great shape prior to listing. We specialize in occupied homes and consultations prior to listing are our specialty. Visit our website for our portfolio. Abby Reilly is an active member of the Metro Atlanta ASHSR chapter, and former founding chapter president, as well as current National VP of Membership for RESA, the Real Estate Staging Association.
Tim Reilly is owner of ATR Home Improvement, providing home improvement and handy-man services throughout northern Atlanta, primarily, but not limited to,Woodstock, Acworth, Marietta, Roswell, Sandy Springs and Dunwoody.Visit the website for porfolio and examples of completed work. Tim has done extensive work for Precision Painting and Home Improvements, as well.
In December, we announced the change in leadership for our Metro Atlanta ASHSR chapter from myself to Annette Burnett of Sellers Advantage Home Staging from Johns Creek. Our first meeting of the new year was also Annette's first official meeting as our new leader---and she rocks! Special thanks to Brook Furniture Rental for hosting our meeting, AGAIN. =) They've been very supportive of our chapter from the beginning.
Our agenda for the meeting included ideas for projects for the chapter to do together, in an effort to EDUCATE the consumer about what we do as home stagers but to also market our businesses and our chapter. We are working on two projects for the Spring:one is a community-service project for our 'friends' at the Georgia Cancer Foundation and the other is Before and After event to physically show the difference between a plain old vacant home and a staged home.
The Georgia Cancer Foundation holds an annual Fashion Show event. The models for the show are friends of GCF and are Breast cancer patients and/or survivors. The clothing, the hair, the makeup...it's all donated. We're donating our time and talent to help create the centerpieces for the show on March 28 at the Intercontintental in Buckhead. Tickets are still available!
The 'Big Reveal': our Before and After event, is a two day event. We are scheduling the walk through of the Vacant home in St Ives Country Club and an introduction to what we going to do on March 3 as the 'Before' event. Then we're inviting our guests to come back, and hopefully bring a friend, or two, for the Staged walk through on March 10 as the 'After' event and join us for lunch, staging education and networking opportunities at the site. All Atlanta-area real estate professionals are invited to join us...contact us if you want more information about the event.
All in all, Spring 2009 is going to be a busy season for our ASHSR chapter. We expect it to be a sign of more to come for the balance of the year for all of our businesses.
Due to certain circumstances, the Big Reveal event has been put on hold indefinitely. It was decided at the last minute (and unfortunately about 3 hours after I posted this) that things are not 100% aligned as needed to make this a successful event for all involved. So, at this point the executive decision was made and we're going to continue planning and announce the new location and date sometime in the near future.
Part of being a professional anything is staying active within your industry. Not only do you get to meet new people that do what you do, but you get to learn and share. You also get opportunities to network that you otherwise would not get if you didn't get your butt out and get involved.
Any professional home stager can become a member of RESA, regardless of training/certification. Consider becoming a member today! Don't let it stop there! Local chapters are forming everyday with the goal of educating the public about the benefits of what we do as well as educating it's members. {It is NOT about sharing business/trade secrets.} No local chapters in your area? Consider starting one up!
Why RESA?
RESA is a member governed, non-profit, trade organization. It is broken up regionally to provide leadership from the regional level to the state level to the chapter level to the member. This is beneficial to members because business in one market may not be the same in another market...it gives the benefit of a network on a more localized level but still being part of the larger trade organization.
RESA is looking ahead. It is looking to what professional home stagers need to be established as a trade, as an industry. Be apart of what is to come!
What next?
Visit the RESA website to join and learn more about RESA. Want to know more about your local network? Contact the local chapter in your area. No chapters in your area? Contact your state president and/or the Regional Vice President for your state via the RESA website.
Leadership positions are available across North America for:
Regional Vice Presidents
State Presidents
Local Chapter Presidents
Consider stepping up and being a leader in your local area.
RESA is not only looking for members, but for ACTIVE members and ACTIVE leaders, who are going to help define the direction where our industry goes.
It's hard to think that far ahead, while at the end of January and after an arctic blast that covered most of our nation. But yes, Spring will be here before you know it and this is the perfect time for a proactive seller to start preparing their house for sale, especially if they are going to take advantage of the Spring market. The buds are already forming on the trees around Atlanta while some of the early spring blooms are beginning to peak out of the ground! Don't wait until the last minute.
An agent friend of mine recently shared with me that existing homes for sale are in fact moving and predominantly in the lower price points. A lower priced home will benefit from home staging services as much as, if not more than, homes in higher price points. How?
By strategically placing furniture, smaller rooms may appear more roomy.
By defining focal points and traffic flow within rooms, which is especially important in smaller spaces.
By obtaining guidance to update according to the most current ROI.
By neutralizing the interior and decor to make the living space more appealing.
Staging an occupied home can be done for as little as the cost of a professional home staging consultation and then the cost of any additional items that are suggested to be done, if needed. Looking for someone to come and take care of it for you? Hire a home stager! Some home stagers charge hourly and others charge daily, while others may provide a flat rate for service. How ever they charge, it's still a minimal investment in comparison to allowing the home sit on the market longer.
To find a home stager in your area, visit the list of home stagers here on Active Rain, or visit RESA's directory of home stagers. A professional home stager awaits your call to do business with you!
My daughter had been bugging me for months about joining Brownies and finally when we inquired it was only to find that there wasn't an available troop. Actually, they had a waiting list of girls and needed parents to volunteer as leaders.
Yep...I must have had SUCKER written all over my forehead!
I tried to weasle my way out of it, hoping that some other "Sucker-Mom" would step forward...but no, I've earned that title along with another Sucker-Mom...my new friend Mary. The two of us felt bad for our girls and figured if we didn't do it, our girls would never get the experience.
So, here we are...Brownie Leaders.
Sooo, we're a little over a month now into our meetings and we finally got our new Brownie Troop number, just in time to sell those Girl Scout Cookies! OK, I admit I knew almost nothing about this. I sold them way back when as a Brownie, myself, but it was mostly to family. After attending Cookie Training, I felt like I'd just attended a corporate board meeting or something! jeez! This is serious stuff!
Now try translating product information, goals, rewards, procedures, dates, etc to a bunch of 8 and 9 years olds who only want to giggle, laugh and be silly! Not an easy task! {Thank goodness for email...}
Being the good Brownie Leaders we are striving to be, we decided to hook up with our girls and take them around our neighborhood to sell cookies door to door.
Now, at our previous meeting, I tried to do some cookie sale role playing with them...we accomplished pretty much nothing other than a whole lotta giggling and laughter, but I guess that was OK too. I knew whole heartedly that in the actual situation they wouldn't be doing or saying what they were so I let them have their silly fun. (truth be told, I hate role playing anyway...it is effective when done correctly, but who really likes doing that stuff?)
Well, my daughter, Kate, and Mary's daughter, Allison, were all equipped with their Girl Scout cookie order forms and were sporting their new Brownie sashes! With Mary and I following them, they went from one house to another knocking on doors, ringing doorbells and assessing homes for whether people were really home or not. Some people were really good and bought one box from each of them and others apologized stating they'd already purchased their cookies from someone else. BTW, we were out on Day 9 of cookie sales as they began on Jan 1, so it's easy to see that we're late meanwhile the sale practically just began!
Each and everytime, the girls introduced themselves, stating what troop they were from and what their purpose was. They both often mentioned their sales goal!
Each and everytime, no matter what the outcome, they both said 'Thank you for supporting Girl Scouts!'. They both walked away with smile and carried on to the next prospect.
At one house, the lady said 'We're on a diet!' and then Allison came back with 'But we have sugar-free chocolate chip cookies!'...don't you know it, the lady went for it and bought a box of the sugar-free cookies from each of them! She wasn't taking NO for an answer that easily.
So, what I learned from these two little girls was:
No matter the outcome, keep your head up and keep pressing on for the next opportunity!
Persistance pays off...my daughter bugged my neighbor so many times that she bought 18 boxes from her! =)
Always thank your customers and prospective customers!
Know your product!
Know your goal!
Smile and have fun!
We were very proud of the girls...they only sold 14 boxes collectively but that's OK as it was an additional 7 boxes each that they wouldn't have sold had they just stayed home. It was a good experience and they both want to go out and do it again!
In December of 2007, after joining the newly established American Society of Home Stagers and Redesigners, I volunteered to start up the first ASHSR chapter in Georgia: The Metro Atlanta Chapter.
My goal was to bring together as many home stagers in the Atlanta area as I could for the purpose of networking, support and education. Our members stretched as far north as John's Creek, as far east as Lake Oconee, as far south as Newnan and as far west as Smyrna. Our chapter membership more than doubled over the year with some thanks to the increase in new HSR members as well as some much appreciated networking done by our dear friend Carolyn Higgins at Brook Furniture Rental.
Over the past year, we had meetings via teleconference as well as informal coffee chats to vendor-sponsored lunches. Our chapter gave back to our community by donating redesign services as well as obtaining donations of furnishings and accessories to the new Sandy Springs office for the Georgia Cancer Foundationand their new Angel Boutique. We spent time discussing business strategies, ways to market our businesses, ways to educate about home staging as well as mentoring new stagers. All in all, it was a very productive year and I'm so grateful to have been able to be a part of it and to those that contributed to it.
This past December, I was offered an opportunity to work with RESA as the National VP of Membership. After the awesome SIF RT held here in Atlanta in November, thanks to Kathy Nielsen of Georgia Interior Solutions and Southeast RVP for RESA and Karen Dembsky of Peachtree Home Stagingand GA state president for RESA, I knew that it was important that I not just become a RESA member but be a part of the organization. I truly believe that you get more out of something when you participate and contribute and I look forward to spending time this year working under this fabulous organization which is making daily strides to the growth, development and integrity of the home staging industry.
I have chosen to step down as Chapter President for ASHSR for 2009, to give the opportunity for another stager to take over the reigns of the group and to bring some new direction and vision for the new year! I'm so happy to announce that Annette Burnett of Sellers Advantage Home Staging stepped forward to take over the position.
Annette is a fabulously talented home stager with many creative, out of the box ideas for marketing and networking home staging/redesign businesses. She trained under IRIS for redesign and as well as trained under HSRas a home stager. Annette was also a consistently active ASHSR chapter member this past year as well as current RESA member. She is a big believer in education: not only educating the public about what we do but for stagers to continue to be educated!
I'm looking forward to the things she's got lined up for the Metro Atlanta ASHSR chapter this year. BTW, this chapter remains the only active ASHSR chapter in the Atlanta area...all professional home stagers in the Atlanta area are welcomed to join! Check out the Metro Atlanta chapter page for updates on dates, times and locations.
December 2008 Holiday chapter luncheon; Cheesecake Factory in Buckhead.
The start of the new year always makes us feel that it is a time to start something over. The reality that Jan 1 is just another day however the fact that it starts a new year is very significant and motivating to many many people. Hey, whatever it takes, right?
OK, so I'm about a week late with this but better late than never. Happy New Year, by the way! With our economy being in the position it's in and with things being so unstable everywhere, I know I'm not alone when I say things are scarey on our homefront. I wish I could boast about starting the new year with abundance but I can't. So, my new year's resolution is learn how to manage my household differently than I ever have before. You know the old idiom about if you want something to change you have to do differently, right? Well, I've made the decision that maybe what I've been doing hasn't been all wrong but since I want things to change, I need to learn to do differently.
I'm so excited to share about the new program I'm starting:
I know someone who started the program about 9 months ago and already has a significant savings established, cars paid off and some credit cards paid off. She said it did take some getting used to but she sleeps well now knowing they are on track to living in PEACE. The most important thing she got from the program was that the accountability aspect of the program. You learn to be accountable for what you spend! And, with things being the way they are right now, with so many people out there without jobs or with jobs on the cutting block, this program can help everyone, especially those comfortably employed and just looking to reduce their debt.
What the program does, from what I've gathered:
Helps establish budgets
Teaches how to live within means without credit
Shows how to disperse income accordingly and prioritize spending
Shows how to spend, save and give, even on limited income
Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, prosperous and blessed 2009.
And, if you have a new years resolution you'd like to share, feel free to do so!
OK, it took me awhile to achieve this...a year and 9 months to be exact. But, I am a 'slow and steady wins the race' kind of girl, so it's OK.
I like to do things right...stop and double check what works and what doesn't and then reevaluate my strategies/goals/etc. I do that not only with blogging but with everything I do in my life.
I like to learn from what others have to share and that takes time. I'll admit that I no longer spend hours and hours like I used to because it became all too consuming of my time.
I like to share things of value to others, both within the industry and to prospective clients, so I try to be selective about my content and posts.
I do take time to balance my life out and quickly got over the AR addiction that is common to many newbies.
So to all you Active Rain newbie-bloggers, keep on posting and commenting because you'll get the hang of it.
To all of you super successful Active Rain bloggers, thanks for being so inspirational!
Thanks, Active Rain, for being such a powerful platform for all of us within the real estate industry.
My husband, Tim, currently does home improvement/handyman work around Atlanta. He's done various jobs for some of my home staging clients. He also been referred by a real estate agent friend of ours who has given his name out to her clients who need quick repairs done from inspection reports. He's also done quite a bit of work for our friend who is a contractor.
One day, while working at one house, he was called upon to stop by a neighbor's house on that same cul-de-sac to see if he could fix a few loose tiles in the shower of the master bathroom. He said "no problem" and ran over later in the day to check it out.
Well, there was a reason those tiles were loose.
The shower was built out of sheetrock not concrete board---bad move. The leak must have existed for sometime because the sheetrock was saturated and crumbled when touched and the tiles fell off like dominoes...the woodframe started to mold and there was a colony of teeny-tiny ants, as well. {eww, I don't do bugs!}
So, the homeowner asked him to give him an estimate to fix it all and thankfully he was hired for the job! Having assisted on this job, from the tile design, to demolition, to cutting, laying and grouting the tiles, I had the pleasure of meeting the homeowner and she said she was confident that he'd do it right! The job took a few days longer than projected but he fixed all the unexpecteds so the job was done right. =)
Ain't no lipstick on this pig!
The homeowner selected stone-looking porcelain tiles along with a few decorative, accent tiles. She opted for a darker 1"x1" mosaic tile for the floor and to be used as an additional accent. Part of her updating included replacing the old brass shower head with an affordable bronze fixture.
He custom built the shelves and the bench in the shower. The rest of the shower will be enclosed with a frameless glass enclosure, with installation scheduled for later this week, by another vendor.
The problem?
It was going to cost over $600 to purchase bronze Jacuzzi brand fixtures for their Jacuzzi tub! The existing fixtures were brass and in rough shape.
The Solution?
He told her he'd paint them and for less than $10.00, so she was able to get updated fixtures for her tub for a deal! She was thrilled with the end result!
What he did: after sanding them down (the waterfall and the faucets), he used Krylon Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint on them and finished it with 3 clear top coats.
He also taped off the trim on the bottom of the mirror and painted that the same color because it was previously brass as well.
If you caught my other blog post, Take 90's Brass into the New Millenium, we used this technique on a brass dining room light fixture and it came out great! If you have a homeowner that can't afford, or isn't willing to spend, the money on new fixtures, spray paint can be your friend.
Please also note that we have had trouble finding the Rust Oleum brand Oil Rubbed Bronze color but used the Krylon brand in that color this time around and it looked just as good.
*****I don't have any Before pictures of this project. But, it was all plain white builder-grade tiles with brass fixtures.
ALR Home Staging and Showcasing provides interior Re-design consultations for Atlanta area homeowners looking to make a few changes without breaking the bank.
Affordable home improvement and handy man services available by Tim Reilly of ATR Home Improvement.
Special discounts are available for home improvement/handy man services by ATR Home Improvement for clients of ALR Home Staging and Showcasing. Contact us for more information.
It's something I've heard many times over the last 6 months or so from prospective home staging clients from around the Atlanta area:
"We've decided to just to wait it out to see if the market gets any better."
I suppose if you aren't in a dire need to sell your home then this would make sense...the market has to recover to some degree and at some point, right?
I remember reading an Active Rain post months ago by someone who referred to people using their equity as an ATM machine. It was a brilliant analogy. If you know who wrote it, let me know so I can link it...it's worth a read by everyone.
As a home stager, when I conduct consultations for occupied homes, I always make suggestions to improve or update certain aspects of the house that will make it more desirable to prospective buyers. While most clients are willing to make the changes/updates there are always some that will be resistant to wanting to put any money into the house because they are selling it. The common response is often why should they be spending money to upgrade when they are not doing it for themselves or they are not going to enjoy it. And, they are not wrong...I totally sympathize.
Why are people still waiting to make these changes? They wait until they list the house to find out that the average buyer doesn't like the countertops or the flooring or the paint selections, etc.Time=money, so money was just wasted learning what a home stager could have prevented, or tried to prevent. Why not be proactive about it, especially if they are going to hunker down and ride out this market for awhile?
A proactive seller will take the time NOW to work on making those upgrades and changes before they are ready to list the house. It'll be easier on the pocketbook because they can spread the projects out over time rather than getting them all done ASAP. It'll also give the homeowner time to actually ENJOY those upgrades and changes before they move out and not feel like they are doing all that work for someone else.
So, while waiting it out, consult with a professional home stager and invest in a home staging consultation. Take time to get those upgrades and changes done so when the market finally bounces back, the house will be prepared to pop that For Sale sign in the front yard.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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