Atlanta Georgia Home Staging Company

Vacant Home Staging in Atlanta With After Pictures

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:42:36 -0500

Staging a Vacant Home in Atlanta

This morning, before I headed out to stage this newly constructed vacant home, I managed to post a teaser blog with before pictures. What I didn't tell anyone is that we were under a very tight deadline. I needed to have the home staged and ready for the agent by noon for her Tuesday Caravan.

We left at 8:30 and arrived at 9:30. We had 2 and a half hours to finish this home. Here's what we staged: Living room; kitchen, powder room, dining room, master bedroom and master bathroom.

So, did we manage to meet the deadline? You bet! We finished the staging by 11:00. I brought one assistant and together we made it happen. My company motto has always been that we make the process easy. Today, I proved it.

Here are the before and after pictures:

Our vacant home stagings take cold and vacant houses and turn them into warm and inviting homes. For further information on staging your vacant home, visit our blog at Atlanta Home Staging Info.com

Georgia Interior Solutions (GIS), LLC is Atlanta Georgia's Premier Home Staging Provider. Owner and Real Estate Staging Expert, Kathy Nielsen has appeared on the pages of Atlanta Magazine, Atlanta Home Improvement; Atlanta Business Chronicle and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. You can also see one of her staged homes on HGTV's hit show Sleep On It.

With their extensive home staging portfolio, you'll quickly learn that they have the experience and knowledge on what it takes to make your home and/or listing appeal to the prospective buyers. Contact them today for your free no-obligation appointment: 678 522 8392.

Staging a Vacant Home In Atlanta

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:31:30 -0500

Vacant Home Staging in Atlanta

Soon, I'll be on my way to home stage the following home in Atlanta. This newly constructed home is lovely on the outside. As for the inside, prospective buyers are having a difficult time understanding how best to use the space. Here are the before pictures:

Here's the view from the other angle:

I've gone ahead and added an after picture of this home on this blog as well. Here it is:

UPDATE: You can see the transformation this home went thru by visiting this post: http://activerain.com/blogsview/1117636/vacant-home-staging-in-atlanta-with-after-pictures

Home Stagers - Name Your Favorite Accessory

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:54:51 -0500

I was asked recently by an editor for the AJC if I had a favorite decorate item that I like to use in the homes I stage. My initial thought was apples; green ones to be more specific. However, I noticed recently that in addition to my "green apples" I love using orchids. For me, orchids add a level of sophistication and elegance yet.

Here are a few pictures of the orchids I've used in staging:

Home Staging Piedmont Ave, Atlanta, GA

Home Staging Atlanta

Notice the green apples right beyond the orchid? (smile)

Home Stagers - Do you have an accessory item that you find you use often? I would love to see it (or them) so be sure to post some pics.

Kathy

Why Beautiful Kitchens Help Sell Homes

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:09:06 -0500

Why Beautiful Kitchens Help Sell Homes

Kitchens are like magnets; they simply have this way of drawing everyone in and are viewed by many as the heart-of-the-home. Buyers know and understand that they'll be spending a great deal of time in the kitchen and therefore, pay close attention to this particular room. As a seller, it's important to further engage the buyer by creating a space that welcomes them.

Here's a before and after picture of a home we staged this week in Atlanta. Oh, and the comment from the homeowner: "I should have done this 10 months ago."

Before:

Here's the after picture: By design, we simplified the amount of accessories used. My objective is to compliment what the builder has created and not to overwhelm the space.

Here's a close-up picture of one of the florals and apples (my signature staging accessory):

Floral:

For more tips and information on having your home professionally staged, visit our Atlanta Home Staging Information blog at AtlantaHomeStagerInfo.com

Home Staging - Solutions for Decorating A Small Living Room

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:29:49 -0500

Home Staging - Solutions for Decorating A Small Living Room

One of the distinct advantages sellers have when staging their vacant home is that not only will the home be visually more appealing, it also provide solutions to the prospective buyers on how to decorate.

This is the living room of a home we staged this week:

Here's the after picture:

Solutions for decorating a small living room:

Start with the scale of the furniture - In this example, we chose a smaller size sofa so that we could accommodate an end table.
Choose the right colors - By design, we chose light colors for both the sofa and the throw pillows as bolder colors typically have a way visually consuming the space.
Light it Up - Ample lighting will help also help expand the space. Floor lamps are a great solution for small living rooms
Keep it Simple - Be selective in the accessories you bring in. For small rooms, you want to ensure the scale of the accessories are appropriate for the space.

These solutions were brought to you by HomeStagingAtlanta, Atlanta's Premier Home Staging Provider. For more examples of our work, visit our Home Staging Atlanta Portfolio.

For additional tips on selling your home, visit our blog at Atlanta Home Stager Info.

How to Transform a House into a Home

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:03:55 -0500

How to Transform a House into a Home

Back in January, I had an opportunity to partner with an investor. Little did I know at the time, I was one of 5 stagers being interviewed. This investor was looking for a partner; someone that he could seek additional insight into the changes he should make to each of his flips. Although he was a prospect, I willingly gave him advice as to what changes would provide the biggest return. In other words (and these are his words, not mine), I treated him as a customer before he even signed on the dotted line. The end result - I secured his business.

In March he called me in again on a new home he had just purchased in Kennesaw, Georgia. By the way, the first home we did together sold in 6 days. As for the home in Kennesaw - it was another investment property and the house needed some work. Here's what I had the pleasure of helping him with:

Color of the hardwood flooring
Color for the walls throughout the home
Selection of the countertop for the kitchen
Color of the exterior of the home (including shutters)

As you can see in the before & after pictures below, the changes made a big difference.

Here is the before & after picture of the kitchen.

Here is the living room (before & after):

Transforming a house into a home can be easily accomplished with a well thought out plan. Here are some suggestions:

Flooring - Consider using hardwood flooring when possible as it can add instant warmth.
Wall color - Don't go white as it can be too stark. Instead, choose a color that has a beige tint.
Countertops - Based on the wall color, you've got a perfect opportunity to add more warmth by selecting a pattern with some earth tones. In this case, we made the decision to keep the existing cupboards, matched up the hardwood and chose a countertop that would compliment both.

Why is Britney Spears Following Me On Twitter?

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Sun, 31 May 2009 14:30:39 -0500

Why is Britney Spears following me on Twitter?

Is it:

A) She saw my Active Rain profile on Google? Very likely since I'm all over Google with my profile, Localism, outside blog, and my blog posts.

B) She knows I'm the best darn home stager in Atlanta? Duh.

C) Twitter uses an auto follow? Okay; maybe.

When I tell people (family included) no one seems to believe me. However, if you were to go to her Twitter profile and look, you'd see me there. And while I've never sent her a direct message on Twitter, each morning I play out the following tweet in my head:

Yo Yo Brit - It's me, Kath. I'm staging a home today in HotLanta and will post pictures on my blog here in the Rain. Head over when you can.

Geez, I do hope that's not too many Twitter characters!

Updated With An After Picture: Out-Staging Your Competition

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Tue, 26 May 2009 22:28:41 -0500

Updated - See comment below for a sneak peek at what the rooms looks like AFTER being staged.

I have something to admit...

I keep an eye out on my competition and try and out-stage them (no pun intended) each and every single time. Amazingly enough, it's not for the reason you may be thinking. My objective isn't to simply add another home to my portfolio. I have hundreds of homes under my belt and have literally over 18,000 photos from which to pull from for both my blog and my website.

And... my competition isn't the other stagers.

Instead, my competition is really the other homes that reside in that same area. My objective mirrors the sellers. My goal, as a professional home stager, is to do what it takes to a) have the home I'm staging stand-out and b) to ensure it engages the buyer. It's part of the formula for success and I use it on every single staging.

For those that follow my blog at Atlanta Home Stager Info or my outside blog here in the rain called AtlantaHomeStager, you know I can't simply make a post without having some sort of picture.

So without further ado.

These are the "before" pictures of the home I'll be staging tomorrow. You're going to want to either bookmark this or subscribe to my blog (look to your right in the side bar) so that you can see how the home turns out as I'll be posting the "after" pictures either tomorrow or Thursday.

Ready? This is the living room.

Here's another angle:

After Picture:

Close up:

How to Arrange a Living Room When Selling Your Home

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:12:42 -0500

How to arrange a living room when selling your home.

A common challenge for most sellers is understanding what actions to take in each of the rooms. Given that we live amongst our things, we end up being familiar and perhaps even comfortable with the current arrangement. However, there are some extremely easy and very effective changes that will work in almost every living room out there.

Here's a collage I created of an occupied home we had staged:

Visit our Atlanta Home Staging Information blog for the step-by-step process. These changes were done in less than a day and made a significant impact on how the buyers viewed the home.

Getting it Right Matters!

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Tue, 12 May 2009 08:42:08 -0500

Capturing the right photo is critically important to me. As a home staging professional I use them in a number of different ways:

I pass them over to the agent and homeowner for their use in marketing the home
I use them on my web site (click here to see my portfolio)
I use them in my on-line marketing efforts (i.e., blog posts)

And the list goes on....

The truth of the matter is that I don't always get it right the first go-around. In the case of this home, which had been on the market for 18 months prior to being home staged and sold after staging in 2 months (yes, staging can help sell a home more quickly), I decided to re-take some photos before de-staging the home. When I initially staged the home, I had the ISO level way too high. Unfortunately, this caused a lot of noise in the pictures. Fortunately, they weren't too bad and the agent was able to use them.

So, here's one of the pictures I took yesterday. As you can see, I didn't get it right the 2nd time either. Here's what I mean:

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Yes, that's me in the mirror. Right after snapping this picture, I realized what I had done. So, with absolutely no time constraints, I took several more.

Here's the one that WILL be added to my portfolio:

Here are a couple more photos (same room, different angles):

The moral of the story? Takes lots and lots of pictures and be careful of mirrors (smile).

Atlanta Home Staging - Trifecta

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Thu, 07 May 2009 10:05:48 -0500

Three Staged Homes - Three Now Under Contract

I'm calling this my Atlanta Home Staging Trifecta. I was notified on Tuesday that three of the homes I had staged are now under contract. Happy Day! The sellers are thrilled, their agents are ecstatic and I couldn't be happier.

Here they are, along with a little history:

Home Staging East Point Georgia

This home is owned by an investor. We had the home staged and within days it went under contract. One day prior to the closing, we de-staged. Closing came and the financing for the buyer fell through. So, we re-staged. Two weeks later, we're scheduling another de-stage as the house is once again under contract.

This coming week, I'll be staging a 2nd property for this same investor. I'm calling this new property "the rainbow home." I'll be posting before pictures soon in another post so be on the look-out.

Home Staging Midtown Atlanta Georgia

This is a town home located that we staged 3 months ago. Prior to being staged, this home had been on the market for over 1 year.

The homeowner was thrilled with how the staging look and beyond thrilled with the results.

Home Staging Mableton Georgia

This home, priced higher than most in the neighborhood given its' finished basement, had lingered on the market for 8 months.

Staged and under contract 6 weeks later.

Take note - all of this inventory is coming back in and is ready for YOUR home. Contact us today for your free in-home evaluation. We'll preview your home, whether vacant or occupied, and provide you with a home staging proposal.

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Bedroom Transformation Before & After Pictures - Home Staging Marietta, Georgia

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Sat, 02 May 2009 09:47:27 -0500

A Before & After Bedroom Transformation - Home Staging Marietta, GA

Okay, I admit it, I love to make my home staging clients squeal.

In this particular home staging, the homeowner clapped; the agent squealed and the agents' mom wants to fly me to Connecticut to decorate her home. And while pleasing my clients is always nice, the real objective behind home staging is to ensure the home appeals to the prospective buyers.

The opportunity to enhance the visual aspect of the home is exactly what home staging is about. And at HomeStagingAtlanta.com, we aim to do just that.

Here's an example of home we just finished last week. Here's the "before" picture of the master bedroom:

Now here's the same bedroom after being staged by Atlanta's premier home staging company:

Georgia Interior Solutions (GIS), LLC is Atlanta Georgia's Premier Home Staging Provider. Owner and Real Estate Staging Expert, Kathy Nielsen has appeared on the pages of Atlanta Magazine, Atlanta Home Improvement; Atlanta Business Chronicle and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. You can also see one of her staged homes on HGTV's hit show Sleep On It.

With their extensive home staging portfolio, you'll quickly learn that they have the experience and knowledge on what it takes to make your home and/or listing appeal to the prospective buyers. Contact them today for your free no-obligation appointment: 678 522 8392.

How to Add Visual Energy (Interest) to Your Home When Selling

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:16:55 -0500

How to add visual energy to your home when selling:

One of the greatest opportunities a home seller can do is to ensure their home has "visual energy."

What is "visual energy" you ask? It's the energy a room generates visually to a prospective buyer.

Visual energy can be:

Features within the home. For example, crown molding can actually add visual energy to a room.

Furniture and accessories. Yes, the pieces that reside within the home can and do add visual energy. One without the other, however, may seem out of place. Here's an example:

As you can see in the above picture, we have a combination of some furniture pieces (coffee table and TV) and a few scattered accessories (floor plant, candles and mirror on the mantel and rug). While there's some degree of visual energy within the home, the missing pieces (i.e., sofa) are really throwing the energy off Not good for prospective buyers.

Now here's the same room with all of the right components (furniture and accessories).

Can you feel the difference? The energy comes from not only the pieces added but how they are laid out.

Now let's get to the "how":

If the home is vacant - consider bringing in furniture and accessories. Yes, I meant to underline the word "and". Furniture alone isn't going to get us the same level of visual energy needed when selling. As for how the room should be laid out - let's use the after picture as an example. I snapped this picture from the front entrance. With the TV being on the wall to the right, that left us with two options for the sofa 1) facing the fireplace or 2) on the wall on the left. Given that this house is on the market and we're selling the REAL ESTATE (said another way, square footage the home has to offer), the best solution is the wall on the left. In placing the sofa on that wall, we have a ton more "visual space."

If the home is occupied - considering paring down on the number of furniture items. Your objective is to add as much "visual space" as possible. Be careful with the accessories. A common mistake made by many (and you can see it in the "before" picture above) is to place a mirror on the mantel. While it may look appealing, the reflection may not. In this case, it was reflecting the balcony railings on the 2nd floor. The best rule of thumb when it comes to accessories is to find the right balance. Start by taking all of the items out of the room and adding in a few at a time.

And if in doubt.... always contact a professional home stager. Whether the home is vacant or occupied, they'll share sound advice and are pros at creating the right "visual energy" needed to help sell a home more quickly.

Here's a close-up of the orchids on the table. The home pictured, by the way, was professionally home staged by Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC.

Painting Tips for Sellers

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:14:47 -0500

Painting Tips for Sellers

The following article was recently added to The Housing Guru web site. For those who may be unfamiliar with this site, you'll definitely want to take a moment or two and pay a visit. John Mulkey, with his 40 years in the residential building business, knows what it takes to sell a home in this market. I've been extremely fortunate to have been asked to write two articles for his site. John - as always, it's an honor.

WHAT THE EXPERTS ARE SAYING

Painting Tips for Sellers:
Color Me Purple

by Kathy Nielsen

Not if you’re selling your home. Purple is one shade that will be liked by some and detested by others. Leaving a room purple or painting a room purple can actually lead to turning buyers away; hardly the objective when you have your home on the market. Your goal, when selling, is to have a color that appeals to a broad base of prospective buyers. The challenge most homeowners face is selecting the right color.

The following will provide you with a guideline from which to use in painting the interior of your home.

Choosing the Right Color:

There are some important considerations that need to be made when selecting the right color for the home:

Flooring – Whether you have hardwood, or carpet, you’ll want to keep in mind that the color for the walls needs to compliment what’s on the floor.
Go neutral but not too neutral – Neutral colors work extremely well as we increase our odds of appealing to a broad base of prospective buyers. However, going white (or some variation of white) can make the home appear too cold. The warmer shades of beige, for example, can add instant warmth.
Furniture and accessories – The color palette in the furniture and accessories is also an important factor to consider. For example, if the color of your sofa is gray and you have a glass coffee table, then a soft gray color choice would be better than a rich beige color.

How to Add Visual Space:

When selling, it’s important to add as much visual space as possible. One of the greatest opportunities is the use of a single color throughout the home. The advantage to the buyers’ eye is that the space isn’t broken up but rather remains consistent. Another area of opportunity is the use of a dark color for small rooms. The use of a dark color will actually provide more depth to the room and again allow for more visual space.

For further home staging solutions, contact Kathy Nielsen with Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC; Atlanta Georgia’s Premiere Home Staging Provider.

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Can You Imagine Hiring A Home Stager With Zero Creativity?

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:25:22 -0500

Can you imagine hiring a home stager with zero creativity?

I couldn't. Not if I were a homeowner, an agent, a Realtor, or an investor. A home stager should, in every sense of the word, be one of the most creative people you ever meet. Why? Because you're entrusting them with a valuable asset, your home. You'll need to trust that they have the capability to set your home apart; that they have the skill set AND the creativity necessary to do so.

I suppose I should take it as a compliment when I find web sites of other stagers that have the exact same layout (from the revolving pictures on each page to the side by side pictures of the before and afters nestled nicely by the testimonials). It's almost like they took my web address and passed it over to their web master and said; "Duplicate this, please. See, she's one heck of a successful stager and I want to be just like her." My take - this individual lacks the ability to be creative and left with no recourse, makes it easy by simply duplicating. Shameful!

Sure, I can and have been inspired by many other stagers here in Active Rain and elsewhere. However, I have enough confidence in my abilities that I don't need to duplicate what others have done.

So... finding myself a little blown away by the nerve of it all, I went over to Copyscape, which is a site you can use to see if anyone has duplicated the verbiage from your site and lo and behold, there are two other less-than-creative-and-think-it's-okay type individuals that have copied, verbatim the words off of my site. It's not the first time and I know it won't be the last.

But for the record, it's not okay to duplicate my work. Whether you're just starting out or have been at it for two years and are still struggling, it's NOT okay to copy.

So for the home stagers out there that need to rely on others for their creativity - time to find yourself another profession.

For the home owners, agents, Realtors, investors, etc.... the work you see on my web site is mine. The layout, the words, the pictures, they're all mine. I'm proud of what I do and put an incredible amount of effort into each of the staging projects I've had the good fortune of staging.

Kathy Nielsen - The Atlanta Georgia Home Stager who takes pride in her work!

P.S. And if you're truly interested in seeing who was nervy enough to duplicate, please feel free to email and I'll gladly provide you with the names.

Why Selling Naked Isn't a Good Idea

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:05:52 -0500

Why Selling Naked Isn't a Good Idea

Well... to begin, you'd have to worry about the following:

Drafts - Those unexpected breezes could pose challenging.

Seat Belts - Who knows where they'd come to rest (an unsettling thought, for sure)

And what about all those potential silly little comparisons. Can't you hear them now? You know; "her stomach is flatter than mine" or "he has more hair on his chest than I do."

The truth of the matter is that we'd never envision selling in the nude; nor should we. The same holds true for our homes. When left vacant, you can expect visitors to quickly pass through as there's nothing else to hold their attention beyond the four walls and the flooring.

Another challenge is that a vacant home also leaves a LOT to the imagination. And while some things may be better left to the imagination, your home, when on the market, isn't one of them. Furniture and accessories create solutions for how the potential buyer can place their items and at the same time, makes the home far more warm and inviting.

Here's an example of a naked room:

Now here's the same room dressed up:

And the flyer for the agent (provided at no charge for all of our staging clients):

To see more examples of the homes we've had the good fortune of dressing up, visit our home staging portfolio.

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Vacant Home Staging Before & After Pictures - My latest project

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:27:05 -0500

Vacant Home Staging Before & After Pictures

As previously mentioned, I've started to create flyers for the agents to use in their marketing. I started with this new offering two weeks ago for a home I had staged in Atlanta. I've made it part of my overall service package at no additional charge and thus far, it's been a hit.

Here's the latest flyer for a home I just completed:

Here's a set of before & after picture prior to staging and after staging:

Before Staging - Dining Room. As you can see, the room is a dark maroon red.

After Staging - Dining Room. The room with its' brand new color seems to have come to life.

Living Room - Before Staging: As you can see, the homeowner has beautiful drapes which will come with the home when sold.

My job as a professional home stager is to compliment the room by using the right accessories.

Living Room - After Staging:

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How To Add Warmth To A Room - Solutions for Selling Part IV

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:43:40 -0500

How to Add Warmth to a Room - Solutions for Selling Part IV

First and foremost, I hope you enjoy reading these series as much as I enjoy writing them. If the event you've missed the first three, here they are:

Now for how to add warmth to a room: To best describe the process, let's begin by looking at the following picture. As you can see, we're beginning with a clean slate.

This room is located off the kitchen and therefore would likely be an important room to the prospective buyers.

As you can see, the room is void of any color. In addition, the room appears to be rather small.

NOTE: This picture is of unit 2. The staged property is actually unit 4. The rooms are identical in shape and size.

One of the easiest solutions to add warmth to a room is to apply a rich color to the walls.

In the case of this room, I selected (with reason) a warm brown color. By using a darker color in a small room, you actually create more depth which helps to visually expand the space.

Now for the third step:

1) Select furniture pieces. Your objective is two-fold: a) have the pieces compliment your choice of wall color and b) use the right quantity of pieces. For example, in the case of this room, I used one end table so as not to overwhelm the space.

2) Choose your accessories and choose wisely. The goal is to have the items compliment the room and the furniture. In this example, I used a variety of browns, yellows and white.

Here's a different angle:

Now the easiest solution is to call in a professional home stager and let them work their magic!

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Solutions For Selling Part III - It's All About The Photos!

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 09:05:36 -0500

Solutions for Selling Part III - It's all about the photos!

If you've read it once, you've likely read it a thousand times; prospective buyers are using the Internet to begin their search for their next home. That statement alone speaks volumes to the importance of your photos. Prospective buyers, in the comfort of their home, will spend time reviewing home after home in order to create a list. If you're a seller, your objective is to make that list.

Knowing how important the photos are to the seller and to the agent, I make it a priority to take the best pictures I can for each of my staging projects and provide the photos to the agent and to the seller at no additional charge. Yes, it took an investment in a great camera and yes, it takes an investment of my time. However, to me personally, it's worth every dime and every minute.

In summary, beyond pricing the home correctly; using a strong agent to market the home; and ensuring the home looks incredible (thru staging, of course), having great photos is one of those must-have items.

Here's a recent home I staged in Atlanta Georgia:

Kitchen eat-in before staging:

Eat-in Kitchen After Staging:

Here are some close-ups that I did just for fun:

I'm calling this photo "the fern." Clever. Eh?

Apples (which has become part of my home staging signature):

I'm calling this one Mugs!

And here's a little something I created using Picnik. I'm going to forward this to the agent as I think it would make for an excellent photo to have on a flyer.

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How to Arrange a Living Room When Selling Your Home

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:46:02 -0500

How to arrange a living room.

We often see many posts (mine included) that speak to the importance of two very key rooms within the home; the kitchen and the master bedroom. And with reason - they are truly important areas of the home when you've placed your home on the market.

However, the living room is another "key" room that needs attention.

In this before and after example, you'll see that we leveraged the majority of the furniture items that the seller owned. The only furniture piece we added is the small stand next to the chair. In addition, the accessories played a key role in how the room appears after staging:

Here's what the living room looked like prior to staging:

Here's the after (slightly different angle):

Photo taken by Kathy Nielsen - HomeStagingAtlanta.com. NOTE: As part of our staging service, we provide the after pictures to the agent and homeowner for use in their marketing of the home.

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Solutions for Selling Part II - Keep it Simple!

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 08:56:54 -0500

Solutions for Selling Part II - Keep it Simple

Let's face it, if you've lived in your home for any number of years, it's likely that you've accumulated a lot of things. Some we inherit, some we purchase because it's an absolute "must-have" and others just seem to magically appear. Regardless of how these things came into existence, it's important to understand that when you place your home on the market, these things have a way of cluttering up our space.

The challenge most homeowners have when preparing their own home for the market is understanding what needs to go and what needs to stay. And for those items that should stay, the next challenge becomes how to display what's left. Homeowners also need to consider if there are pieces that need to be added that would further add warmth and help showcase the home.

Let's review this first "before" picture in detail. The obvious is that there seems to be a lot of "new" items sitting on the dining room table. And it's true. During my verbal consultation when I first previewed the home, it was apparent that there was a lack of art work. I also knew the homeowner could benefit by purchasing new bath towels. In this before picture, the homeowner had gathered these items and had them on display for me to see on the dining room table.

Now let's review the "after" picture and I'll further explain what we did. Yes, the items being removed from the table made a huge improvement. However, there's a big item that was removed. Can you spot it? It's the rug under the dining room table. If you find yourself wondering why - wonder no more. One of the features of this home is the hardwood flooring. Not only was the rug covering too much of this feature, it was also dating the room. The two topiaries used on the buffet came from her garage. As you can see, with the exception of one added piece of art work (on the opposite side of the mirror) we used what they homeowner already had and by design we kept it simple!

Photo taken by Kathy Nielsen

For ideas on how to bring purpose to a room, visit my blog titled Solutions for Selling Part I.

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Solutions for Selling Part I - Home Appeal

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 19:28:52 -0500

Solutions for Selling Part I - Home Appeal

As a professional home stager in Atlanta, Georgia, I'm often asked for solutions that will help grab the attention of the prospective buyers. And with reason; the more "appealing" we make a home, the more it will stand out from the others on the market.

In the case of this home, we had a spare room (located to the left of the entrance as you walked in) that lacked purpose. If left as-is, it surely would have left many a prospective buyers wondering how they could use this room.

Here's the "before" picture (see below). As you can see, the room already has a perfect neutral color for the wall; an incredible rug and a gorgeous built-in bookshelf. However, the room lacks appeal.

Here's the "after" picture. The solution for this room, given the built-in bookshelf, was to turn this into a home office. Perfect for the homeowners as the wife works from home.

(photo taken by: icatch360)

I'll be posting more "solutions for selling" ideas so be sure to subscribe to my blog.

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This Home is Ready! Is Yours?

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:19:51 -0500

As Atlanta's premier home staging company we understand that the tasks associated with preparing your home for sale can be overwhelming. With vacant homes sitting idle, to occupied homes needing de-cluttering and perhaps repairs, the list for homeowners seems to get longer and longer with each turn. Not knowing where to begin only adds to the frustration.

Our home staging solutions, from key room staging to whole home staging, eases the stress and worry associated with preparing a home for the market.

Here's an example of a vacant home (with a few scattered accessories) that we had the good fortune of staging today. The "before" pictures were actually taken this morning.

Before Picture:

After Picture:

Before Picture:

After Picture:

And here's a slightly different angle on picture #2 above:

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Stagers Do it With Style

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 08:02:45 -0500

Stagers Do it With Style

What style you ask? It's the number one question asked by many of the vacant property owners that I've had the good fortune of staging their home. And it's a question I never mind answering.

Let me begin by telling you what it is not:

It's NOT about my style; my preferences, likes and dislikes. It's not about me, the professional home stager

It's NOT about your style (the homeowner). While on the surface that may seem harsh, I mean no disrespect. There's a good reason, trust me.

So... the answer as to what style will be used for the vacant home?

It's about the potential buyers that will be visiting the home. Within the real estate industry, this is often referred to as the demographics. In other words, are the buyers going to be young, middle-aged or in retirement? Will the majority of the potential buyers have children or no children? Factoring in the demographics is an important step in the creation of the design plan that will be used in the home.

It's about the exterior style of the home. Here's an example: Let's say the home is ultra-contemporary. If I were to bring in traditional pieces, I would be missing the mark. Buyers who are searching for contemporary structures are expecting to see contemporary-like accessories that compliment the design.

The objective of every professional home stager is to have the home appeal to a broad base of prospective buyers.

Now for your viewing pleasure, here's a small example of some of the different styles used in some of the vacant properties:

Here's an example more contemporary-like style: More Traditional:

Traditional Transitional

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Successfully Selling Homes Thru Staging

Kathy Nielsen Atlanta Georgia Home Stager (Georgia Interior Solutions, LLC) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 08:00:31 -0500

Successfully Selling Homes Thru Staging

What a month! I was notified late last week that another one of the homes I had staged just went under contract. Days before that, another one of the homes that I had staged went under contract one week from staging and for full asking price. You can read more about the successful selling techniques in my outside blog titled "How this home went under contract in one week..."

Suffice it to say, the sellers couldn't be more thrilled as they were carrying two mortgages having moved out-of-state for a job transfer. The buyers found the home of their dreams. How do I know? They contacted me to decorate. The agent? Yup, she's happy too. Here's her testimonial:

"Working with Kathy has been an amazing experience. Her staging really set my listing apart from the competition and is what made the difference for the buyer's choosing my listing. She has the ability to take a blank canvas of a vacant home and turn it into a showcase property. The staging was so excellent that the buyer's are hoping to use Kathy for interior design on the home once they move in. I couldn't have been happier throughout the entire process of working with Kathy and the seller's share in my experience! Thanks for helping us stand above the competition Kathy! Regan Maeroff  www.RealEstateRegan.com Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.

So what's leading to this success?

The homes are priced correctly for this market
The sellers are picking strong agents who are aggressively marketing the homes
The homes, thru staging, stand out from the others on the market

And yes, my confidence is showing. I have three new stagings scheduled next week and look forward to being part of the equation to a successful sale!

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Solutions for Selling Part I - Home Appeal

This Home is Ready! Is Yours?

Stagers Do it With Style

Successfully Selling Homes Thru Staging

Painting Tips for Sellers:
Color Me Purple