I received a referral from one of my real estate contacts to meet with a developer of Bay Homes.  I have not found much info on them on the internet as of yet.  My first meeting with them will be next week.  I know I need to learn as much as I can about their marketing strategy, their buyer profiles, etc.  The model I will be visiting and staging will be in the $235,000 price range.  Do builders usually purchase the bigger furnishings and rent the accessories and soft goods?  What are you finding out there?  Rental seems to be so high when the models sit for months on end.  Can anyone tell me how you are doing it with builder models? 

Hello fellow staging bloggers.  I need some support.  In my market the average or median home is 165,000.  I have consulted and staged in many homes in this range and up into the $350,000 range.  I am now going after the big ones in my market.  One of our top agents has asked me to view her listings, all 149 of them.  Many of which are in the $400,000 to 1.5 million range.  I am looking for anyone who is doing this price point and want to view your befores and afters.  I mainly wonder if they to need to be neutralized of funcky interior wall colors, wall papers and such.  I need to get a few of these luxury homes under my belt as I am right now feeling a bit intimidated.  What do I need to know about these buyers and what they are looking for in these magnificant homes? 

It's best, we say, to use universal color throughout the home when selling. 

 Many sellers balk at the idea.  After all their living space up until I walked in is a different color in every room.  Now here is something to try with your next wall color project. 

 I am using a few of the SW colors from their new mini-fan book.  They are not yet set up in families of color.  In other words they are not strips of 6 colors all in the same family.  I have been working with manual blends to arrive at the best formula to lighten and darken your favorite staging color for just a very slight variation.  Just have SW add 25% or remove 25% of the color to arrive at wonderful variations of your favorite staging color.  Your clients will love this too.  By adding 25% the color deepens and so on.  Happy staging.  Jeanne

Of course first and foremost, it to remove them completely from the window.  There are times however when they are not removable, due to sun damage risk, privacy or just plain old bad view.  I recently transformed a steel gray family room that was cold and dark to a warm light khaki color.  The blinds looked terrible with the new wall color.  My client thought she could live with them until budget would allow new window treatments.  She hated looking at them everyday.  I put my thinking cap on and we removed several of the panels and applied the wall color paint with a roller to both sides of the blinds.  WA la, were we amazed.  The blinds were re-fresh-ed and looked brand new with the new matching wall color painted onto them.  My client was so pleased and so was I.  At a recent home staging project my client has dark rose colored verticals and very outdated navy blue and white wall paper.  I recommended she remove the wp, prime and paint the walls with a SW Nomadic Desert and apply the same paint over the vertical panels and valance.  I can't wait to see the results.

Anyone looking for some great warm yet neutral paint colors for recommending to your selling clients?  I have just done my third house in Sherwin Williams Hopsack and Latte.  WOW these colors are beautiful and work well with so many accent colors.  Being from Minnesota the warmer colors do well in our climate.  Another new color that I just painted a whole house in is SW Roasted Pine Nut.  I used this color throughout the main level and had it lightened by 25% for the walk out lower level.  Soft, rich, warm and beautiful... Very nice covering paint, can usually cover in one coat application is the Super Paint brand. 

Many years ago I read about how you can change energy and moods in your life by changing the arrangement of "things" in your physical space.  I found much of the reference materials on the ancient subject of wind and water to be very detailed and difficult to apply.  When I invented my self as a real estate stager three years ago I searched for a book on the subject matter that I could easily understand and apply in my staging techniques.  A furniture "ker plunker" I am not.  Your clients will love you and your work when you begin to apply the principles of Feng Shui to your staging and styling work.  The book is available at any of the big book stores as well as Amazon.  Feng Shui Your Life is the title.  You will love reading it and the photography is wonderful.  The day I practiced in my own home office was the first day of a whole new adventure.  I love going into my home office now and can actually get work done in there.  Money goes where energy flows....

Two weeks ago I was hired by an RA to conduct a staging consultation for her client.  I had been referred to this RA by another in the firm for whom I had done several consults.  Our first meeting was at the seller's home for the introduction.  After the introduction and a bit of conversation she left and I continued my walk through and note taking with the sellers.  I provide some verbal instruction while I am there on the first visit.  Then I return to my office and produce a detailed report of things to do to get ready to place the home on the market.  My consultation fee includes a return visit to deliver the report and walk through with the sellers and work on the main rooms.  The sellers and I spent an hour together and they were well on their way to getting packed up and decluttering.  Several evenings ago I received an email from this agent commenting that she was not impressed at all with my manner, the way I conducted my self, my dress and my hair.  She told me,"girl you better clean up your act is you want to make it in this business".  To say the least I was stunned.  I replied by thanking her for her feedback and left it at that. I hardly slept a wink that night.  My coaches encouraged me to let it go.  I just couldn't for a day or so.  I did pray about it and one morning it occurred to me that " when the student is ready, the teacher will come".  There was something indeed for me to learn from this teacher.  So I emailed her and asked if we could meet for coffee and that I was open for coaching since she had taken time to make the comments by email.  She said no thanks but took the time to write a story about how it was for her when she started in her real estate profession some 40 years ago.  She did care especially for my style of dress, my pointed toe boots and my hair style.  I am very straight shooting about the facts of home prep with my sellers and this she did not appreciate.  Again I thanked her for her feedback.  What I take away from this experience is that there is always something to learn.  Some of the best lessons come in ways that seem to really hurt.  But I realized that the "hurt" was just a nudge that told me to "look and see".  So maybe I'll leave those boots in the closet and dress a bit more conservative from time to time and the rest, "oh well".  We'll see.  I am loving life.