When Bill Cliton saw Monica Lewinsky, he thought “hmm, I can cross that line, because I am the President!” Obviously, an impeachment trial later and many months of public humiliation, he finally admitted: “Yes, I did have sexual relationship with Monica.”

Well, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

Through my life, I have learned that I can’t be all things to all people. If I can be all those things to all people, I will be a very unhappy and tired person. It’s difficult to please everyone! If I followed my parents’ wishes, I would become a doctor and a lawyer and a financial banker, married to some guy, have 2 kids, 1 dog and live at their house. Scary thought, isn’t it??

Similarly, as professionals, we can’t be all things to our clients. As much as I would love to make more money, I can’t paint my clients’ walls, landscape their yards, or power-clean their houses, etc. Why? Sure I can, I can hire couple guys to do it. BUT, are the end results are going to be as good as the jobs done by professionals? By doing everything for clients to “save” them money, is this the best for MY client? No, I think not. My clients hire me to stage their houses well so the listings will sell, not to do all these other things. Ultimately it will be much cheaper and cost effective to have the job done well by professionals who are pros in their fields. That’s why I leave the painting to the painters. They know how to deal with different textures of the wall, and how different types of paint affect the overall effects. Well, I don’t. I just know what color looks good. Application of the color is a total different story. Similarly with landscaping or cleaning, I will never landscape or clean as well as professionals who do this EVERYDAY. I have a black thumb, I have even killed cactus.

As a professional, I intend on doing what’s best for my clients, not what I can do “okay” for my clients. That’s why I am skeptical when I see ads of cleaning companies or furniture companies start offering staging as part of their services.
I also hear this a lot from sellers & agents “I can totally stage the house myself, I watch HGTV.” I also get a lot of calls from agents: “Um, my clients staged their house and it looks terrible. What can you do?” Just because I watch food channel, it doesn’t mean I can do whip out a 8-course meal like Bobby Flay. The professionals who work on these TV shows have a lot of trainings and professional experiences, and that’s why they are good at what they do. True, staging is not rocket science, but there are still some finesse to it.

A fellow real estate blogger and a realtor Jessica Wynn Horton shared similar sentiments on her post at Bloodhound: (Read more …)

Related Articles:

• How Listing Agents Unintentionally Sabotage Their Own Staged Listings
• Agent Reader Question: I have heard of an empty house doesn't sell as well as staged?
• How to Earn an Extra Income by Becoming a Home Stager (Cindy's Guest Blog @ FreeMoneyFinance)
• Make the Blink Count
• Dear Cindy: Can I Stage My Own Home?

(this is a slightly "vintage" post, but I totally forgot I wrote it!)

I’m wondering what your day is like?
My day to day is very different. It’s like snowflakes, no 2 days are alike. On days when I am doing installations, my call time starts at 7am to pull inventory, or the night before to pack everything up. With bigger jobs I tend to rent a box truck, which means it’s extra hours to pick up and return vehicle. Typically I spend 5-8 hours on job site with 1-2 assistants. That does NOT include prep time and clean up time after we return to warehouse.

On days when I don’t have installations, I have things range from appointments to visit home owners for consultations, meeting with potential vendors, meeting realtors, networking events, to admin work like invoicing, billing, writing, researching, working on expanding my business, marketing, continue education, cleaning inventory, cataloging inventory, moving furniture, shopping for new inventory, working on current trends, reading, LOTS of things to do.

I typically work 6-7 days a week, ranging from 6-12 hours per day.

And how you feel the market is doing?
Market is market, there will be hot times and cold times, busy times and slow times. It’s cyclical, just like any business. Like ice cream truck does better in summer than winter, or coats are more popular in winter. We have ups and downs as well in real estate. The market timing depends on where you are in the country. In San Francisco bay area, the market (Read more …)

Related Articles:

• re: Business of Staging Homes
• Cindy Answers: What Staging Course Should I Take?
• A Real Life Inspiration for Any Entrepreneur
• Those are some fighting words!
• Staging Profession Inquiries

(photo by ShutterSparks)

I recent took on a client who wants me to redesign her existing home right now but at the same time preparing it for sale 2-3 years down the line. When I suggested green finishes, she was very open to it.

This is why:

a) Green finishes are healthier to live in the home, especially if you have young children and pets. They roll around in those finishes every day on the floor, touching the wall, you want to make sure the finishes are quality green materials that is safe to live in. It’s also better for your installer, they don’t need to breathe in those terrible chemical smells. Moreover, you are not exposed to off-gasing from non-green materials or chemical glue. In typical carpet installation, the chemical glue emits toxic off-gasing for 8 years after it is installed. 8 years!!! Do you want your children or grandchildren to breathe that toxic in for 8 years?!

b) Quality green finishes and materials perform just as well as non-green finishes, if not better. Take the new green fabrics for example, they breath well therefore reduce the chance for skin allergy. They are not processed in chemicals so they are healthier to wear or to sleep in. You are not rubbing those chemicals off your skin that can cause irritations and rashes, you sleep better. You sleep better, you perform better during the day. Not a bad bargain at all.

c) Green finishes increase RESALE value. It’s true. By being more environmentally conscious and by installing green finishes and green appliances, you are reducing the costs to maintain your home, utilities and helping the planet out. With an rapid increase awareness of being green and eco-friendly, using green finishes and materials make the (Read more …)

Hello ladies & gents

I recently transitioned into a commercial warehouse space that is about 3600 square feet and 14 feet tall. My problem this week has been figuring out what's the best shelving and storage options for all my inventory. Anyone has any suggestions??

I can't seem to figure out what's the best way to store things that is the best use of space, easy to retrieve items and inventory them, and accomadating for inventory growth. Any ideas would be appreciated!

Cheers,

Cindy

One of the groups that I am involved in is pow.wow: networking the power of fabulous women. Next Tuesday, we are having an event on this new and increasingly popular concept of doing business: GREEN.

(photo by Tomatoskin)

But what does it mean to be Green? Do you actually save money? Or it just makes you look good? Another way of marketing?

Related Articles:

• Even Stagers Can Green the Earth
• 2008 Home Decor Color Trends
• Staging for the GREEN!!!
• Collapsible, Lightweight & Eco-Friendly Flower Pots
• A Greener Real Estate Industry!

This was a very interesting project. The owner’s daughter was an artist and they traveled around the world a lot so they had very interesting artwork and collections throughout the home. They were very interesting stuff, but just not suitable for staging and the purpose of selling. If the home was not staged, the buyers will be focusing on the sellers’ collection and art and not see the house itself.

The seller was also very resisting to change, which I fully understand. After all, she lived in the home for about 40 years. It’s understandable that this is a very drastic change for her. Martiza, the listing agent, was a total super star. She helped the seller packed up 30 boxes worth of books along and carried 8 life size seals sculptures to the truck for the seller (you will see one of the life size seals in the Living Room Before photo, it’s right underneath the piano). At minimal budget and a little of paint (seller was not willing to repaint anything, especially the dark red in the dining room), we staged the house.

Let us know what you think!

Here are some before & after, and you can watch the slide show via flickr here. To see the virtual tour, go to this link here: Virtual Tour of 150 Casitas Way, San Francisco.

Brief info on the home:

Melissa & Maritza Casciato
415 490 7998 -
415 595 9910
Keller Williams San Francisco
melissa@buysellSFhomes.com

(Read more …)

I am very excited to say the Shell is coming to bay area to teach San Francisco bay area stagers a few tricks up her sleeves! Shell has had extensive experiences in the real estate and home staging industry. I believe this will be a great beneficial session for both new and seasoned stagers.

To sign up, please visit RESA online at www.realestatestagingassociation.com!
RESA, stands for Real Estate Staging Association, was formed in order to:

“support all professional real estate stagers in North America regardless of their designations, backgrounds or training. RESA is a portal to the staging industry and is a source of education and business tools focusing on the needs of stagers. Members have access to up to date information relative to the staging industry, marketing support services and access to continuing education providers.

Why have trade associations?

Most established professions or trades have a professional association. Associations are formed in order to represent those in the target industry and to bring legitimacy to the profession. People working in their specific trades choose to belong to the trade associations for many reasons. Some offer discounts, group benefits, political agendas, regulations, etc.

When new industries are created they are either unregulated or government regulated. Unregulated industries often experience a lack of consistency and standards, a lack of ethics, and renegade practices. Government regulated industries typically arise from the need to protect the public or when un-regulated industries become so unmanageable the government needs to step in to correct it.” (From RESA Website)

It will be a great event and I hope you will be able to make it!

My lovely and talented new Graphics Coordinator Jenny had designed some really cool designs for our new business cards. And we need your vote!

Please either comment or vote on the polldaddy poll here.

Here are the choices:

1

2

3

4 None of these

Post your thoughts, additional comments below at the nifty white box.

Thanks for voting! The voting will close on 5/20/2008. I would really appreciate any of your feedbacks or suggestions! I am not going to tell you which one I like yet ;)

Cheers,

Cindy

It’s only been 7 days since my Certified Staging Professionals (CSP) training, and frankly my brain still hurts from so much information. All and all it was an excellent training and continue education. Christine Rae, the creator of CSP staging training really packed in a lot of materials and I literally felt like I went on a Jedi Training in a galaxy far far away (Walnut Creek can do that to ya).

I also got my tests in the mail last Friday. That’s right, I had a midterm and a final and overall I scored a B. (Gosh darn it I really wanted an A!) But she wrote “very good ” on the test so I feel slightly better

What I love about the training is that there were a lot of information on both design & business sides of the staging business and all the classmates are in the business at least 2 years, so we can fast forward all that newbie stuff and learned from each other’s experiences and dealing more advanced issues in our businesses. It was a really solid continue education.

I was the youngest of the bunch (in actual age and business age).

(photo by grebo guru)
Before the training I was feeling a bit frustrated with my business. I felt that it had plateaued. It was great to be in the presence of other more experienced stagers to know that it is perfectly normal to feel so and that breakthrough is possible.

(read the rest here)