home staging: I is Gonna Splash Actively in this Big Rain Puddle Again
- 12/15/10 04:17 AM
Well, I guess you can say I am back. After a SHORTER break from staging and a LONGER break from blogging I have decided to come back in and splash around in this MUCH larger puddle called ActiveRain. Why did I dry up and leave? Well, it is partially because of ActiveRain I left in the first place! You see I was noticed here by a consumer product technology company in California. After many discussions about social media in general, they asked me to come aboard and help create a splash for them in their industry using social media. So about a year and 1/2 ago (33 comments)
home staging: Are You Trying to Sell the "Dreaded" Vanilla Box?
- 07/22/08 10:12 AM
There is no denying that real estate marketplace is in a major depression. Nothing seems to drive home that grim point more then a quick drive through any neighborhood, for placed in the front yards of so many homes is a vast array of For Sale signs. But while a sign in a front yard drives home the point for what is happening with single family home sales, what is taking place in the condominium market is sometimes harder to see. Why? Well, often there are no for sale signs "up" for condos, so it is easy to overlook the fact that there are many (19 comments)
home staging: Not All Bananas in the Bunch are Ripe and Ready
- 05/01/08 12:07 AM
So my home selling pets, would you like to pick a home stager to regularly work with, but are not sure which in the bunch to hire? Plus does it seem as if daily there are more and more staging bananas out there to pick from? Well, you are right; it can be a tough to know which stager you should bring to your seller, especially since staging is still a relatively new service offered in most parts of the USA. You are also right if you noticed that there are many new bananas rapidly joining the staging bunch.To make a wise and informed choice, (36 comments)
home staging: First Impression-ist Masterpieces Now Hang in the Active Rain Gallery
- 04/14/08 04:05 AM
Last week something new began to be seen in the great hallowed halls of Active Rain. Beautiful blog masterpieces started to appear. Active Rain gave to us all another great new improvement to help us all better differentiate and further brand ourselves through our blogs. We now all have the access to a FREE tool, the ActiveRain Customizer, that allows us to easily create a visual masterpiece of our own blogs. I have scoured Active Rain's walls to find 15 fine examples of blogs that have a new and improved branded" look. I encourage you to click and open the examples below, to see in detail what others have already done. You (58 comments)
home staging: I FINALLY Gots Me a Purdy Puddle... in the Rain
- 04/11/08 08:09 AM
The ONLY problem I have EVER had about Active Rain was it is UGLY. YUP UGLY and I have not been afraid to let the Rain Gods (Matt Heaton and Johnathon Washburn) know how I felt. But there is a saying, "you only get to complain if you are willing to provide a solution." So not only did I register a complaint, I also tried my best to get them over to the "pretty side". I sent them mock-up ideas JUST to get this site LOOKING better. But the AR guys could only move so fast on all the improvements they were providing us. I could no (32 comments)
home staging: Wall Steet Journal Blogger is Clueless about Home Staging
- 04/09/08 12:32 PM
Boy this is timely... considering all I have been flapping about here in the Rain. I just came across this article on the Wall Street Journal's website. "The Allure of the Fruit Bowl: Home Staging ‘Twiddles' With a Buyer's Mind" It reinforces the fact that Realtors don't understand what we do. They don't get that it is the "The PREP before the PRETTY." And the PREP is what PAYS OFF! I encourage you to read this so you understand more clearly how Realtors and Home Sellers are misinformed and then misconstrue the message they share about home staging. As an industry we have a long way to go... (19 comments)
home staging: Ruffled Feathers makes for some Good Flapping in the Rain
- 04/09/08 02:20 AM
When Active Rain "works" it does something quite wonderful. It grows, and expands, and teaches, and challenges. It creates dialogue in places and spaces where there was none. I think sometimes we forget that we all here are a community. An ever growing community, but a community non the less. In the "good old days," when there were only a few thousand members, there was a daily banter of ideas bouncing back and forth. Those of you who were lucky to be here then know what I am talking about. Some of what was shared was of great "industry" value; some was just plain "trivial (20 comments)
home staging: Is Your Ignorance Bliss or a Missed Opportunity?
- 04/08/08 02:39 AM
I have been writing here on Active Rain for nearly 2 years now and have seen the presence of home stagers explode here. Even though we share much of ourselves to this great community, in general it AMAZES me how ignored, snubbed and misunderstood our message has been by the overall Realtor community here on AR... and, to be honest, out there in markets we serve. So many Realtors seem to have shut down ANY possibility to understand ANY opportunity staging offers. There has to be a message that will finally alter the perception the general Realtor community has of who we are and what (47 comments)
home staging: Best Blog EVER Finally Hits Its Target... of ONE
- 04/01/08 11:39 PM
Daily hundreds and hundreds of bloggers post here on Active Rain... all with the hopes that what we write connects to an audience. What makes blogging on AR uniquely different from other blog platforms is the fact that because it is a social network, posting here first reachs a tighter member audience made up of professional from all areas of the Real Estate industry. Comments from our peers can give us the immediate "gratification" of knowing if what we said, what we wrote, worked or not. Sometimes when we write something particularly well, the All Mighty & Mysterious Rain Gods will feature our posts and send it into the (15 comments)
home staging: Chipping Away at the "PRICE IS KING" Myth Too Many Realtors Rely On
- 03/31/08 09:22 AM
I hate to break some Realtor's chips... but for many of you the belief you have, regarding the role pricing plays in real estate sales, is not cracked up to what it could be. Believe it or not there is a simple yet profound parallel lesson that can be learned from how Lay's potato chips are packaged, priced, marketed and sold and how real estate is packaged, priced, marketed and sold. Let me be clear... when it comes to selling anything, be it real estate or potatoe chips, Price IS King. It is a fact that the seller (market) will only get the price the buyer (market) is willing to (27 comments)
home staging: Successful Selling in an Ugly Market Ain’t Always Pretty!
- 03/27/08 04:34 AM
Even though we live in a consumer society, it's an odd fact that home sellers typically do not view their property as a product for sale in a marketplace. Because this is so, a home's sale often languishes. But this need not be the case. Basic marketing teaches us that how a product is perceived and received within the market can be altered and impacted. More then just being decorators or designers, good home stagers are more focused in applying a full array of strategic marketing principles and practices which positively influence the consumer about a product in a market. So even (30 comments)
home staging: "OOPS" goes the Staging!
- 03/03/08 03:13 AM
From the time we were small kids we were taught that there is a difference between what is good & bad and what is right & wrong. While those FIRST lessons of life had to do with basic relationship skills and behaviors, as we got older we gained awareness of other good & bad, right & wrong rules that applied to other areas in our lives. Rules, we grew to realize, help to guide us in subjects we study, the sports we play, the hobbies we undertake, and the work we do. In short, we gained knowledge that there are proper ways things are to be done if you are going to do them well. So while (43 comments)
For home sellers it is the best of times, it is the worst of times, it is the age of wise choices, it is the age of foolish decisions, it is the age of sales success and the age of missed opportunities.In short, now is an age where sellers are finally realizing that how their own "sales tale" plays out is more within their control then ever before. More and more know that to sell their home they need to take responsibility and a proactive role in its sale. How? Well, besides hiring a Realtor, today's sellers are starting to finally (43 comments)
home staging: Where is that Staging Waldo?
- 01/16/08 02:03 AM
Many of you have emailed wondering just where the heck I have been for the last month. Well, I really have no better explanation than to say that I have been busy "working" on many things I needed to do to succeed in a market that has thrust upon us all new challenges. While there have been quite a few changes around here... I thought I would share some of the bigger things that have been keeping me busy. Soon after my trip in December to Sacramento and the Stage It Forward Round Table discussion held there... the holidays were upon us. And typical, for that (77 comments)
home staging: Staging that STARTS on a BANG... But ENDS with an OINK
- 12/04/07 10:08 PM
Without a doubt, home staging can help sell a property. Even in this slower market, with so many home sellers having postive results using the services of an expirienced home stager, it is no surprise to find that time and again the blogging stagers here on Active Rain write posts to share their stories of the many wonderful success they have created. So as much as I don't want to or like to report this, I have to admit that not every home that is staged benefits from the staging. Sometimes staging just can't do enough to make the home sell. Why doesn't staging sometimes help a property sell? Well, there can be any number of reason (17 comments)
home staging: The Stage It Forward Banner Unfolds and Rises...
- 12/01/07 02:51 AM
Jackie Peraza recently wrote a good post entitled Banner's, Bloggers and Staging that I encourage you to read. In is she asks an important question about Stage It Forward and what is happeing under its "banner". I've learned that if one person is thinking thoughts like this... others are too. Question like this need to be asked and should be asked.... so thank you Jackie. I am so pleasee you asked this question. I know you and I share a similar hopes for this industry. Sometimes the reply is better heard, just because the question HAS been asked. So, in her recent post, Jackie questions what SIF is, in a legitmate statement (14 comments)
home staging: Jennie Connected the Dot... Now I am Gonna Paint the Picture!
- 11/29/07 03:10 AM
While I have learned much from fellow members here on Active Rain and in Stage It Forward... I have to admit there are some member's posts I follow more regularly. What they have to say about Home Staging and the Home Staging Industry time and again captures my attention. So recently when Jennie Norris, a Vice President at stagedhomes.com, connected one of the critical and troublesome industry "dots" that other home stagers in others markets have experienced... I was intrigued. Jennie wrote a bit of an expose' on home staging and what she felt were wrongful pricing strategies in her post entitled Get off your back and on (24 comments)
home staging: Is ROCK & ROLL "Where Its At" for Home Staging?
- 11/25/07 11:50 PM
A winter's drive over the holiday weekend gave me a chance to reflect on all that I see going on in our industry. As I stand back and look WHO we are and WHERE we are... the more I am sure this industry is not quite YET ready to handle the BIG vision so many of us want. I see our collectivey industry action speaking louder then our words. This is not a BAD thing, this is just an "IS" thing. Early last week I made a comment in a post regarding how home stagers could learn from the Realtor community who annually benifit from coming together and learning together as our own unified (25 comments)
Oddly, of all weeks, I stumbled on a old song... we all have heard before. But sometimes an "old" song can sound new. In light of recent Home Staging Industry issues and dialogue... this song holds a hope-filled message that seems to fit our needs, wishes and dreams. The song simply reminds us to think bigger, see more, be open and be respectful. Its message is one all in our colorful industry can benefit from... in a new context and way. "For if you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you will learn things you never knew (22 comments)
home staging: It's CLEAR... 21 SIF RoundTables Across North America Are Going to REFRESH Our Industry!
- 11/17/07 08:16 AM
Yesterday both Chicago and Manhattan successfully held their respective Stage It Forward (SIF) ROUNDTABLE discussions. Earlier today I spoke with Val Allocco who was the facilitator for in Manhattan. Val said that their group had about 15 attendees at the luncheon sponsored by American Furniture Rental. (THANK YOU AFR) Val will share her own sparkling account of the 3 hour Round Tabletable discussion they had here: TRI-STATE ROUND TABLE MEETUP - NOV. 16TH, 2007 I guess the fact that Manhattan is read for their NEXT round table... tells us that SIF is on to something here. On to the Chicago RoundTable... IT ROCKED! In Chicago the event was graciously hosted by Brook Furniture with (26 comments)
These are the creative writings of Craig Schiller, a home staging professional, passionate real estate marketing professional and founder of the Real Estaging, one of the nation's leading home staging companies.