Make a Smilebox greeting

Thanks to Connie T. for the great smilebox.com website. Thanks to everyone who emailed and sent me great advice. If you guys don't know about smilebox.com you should go there. I had a lot of fun making postcards and you can send these as emails, or print them, or send them to a blog. I feel much better after getting everyone's feedback. I will try the suggestions everyone gave. The smilebox.com is a lot easier to use than making a newsletter. It only took 5 minutes to make my postcard compared with my newsletter which takes a week or more to put together.

     I was listening to a radio program this morning on the topic of moving and how it affects men and women differently. The guest was saying that people move on the average 11 times during their lifetime. I have moved half of that and most of it was moving to and from college. The guest speaker went on to say that moving affects women and men differently. She said that men have new co-workers there to meet him and he is looking forward to the change, while a woman may feel uprooted or she may feel like her identity is lost. The speaker said that women "feel" the move.

      I got to thinking about it and it sounded like they go through the same emotions as grieving from the death of a loved on. First there is the element of surprise and disbelief. The news was sprung on her and she still can not believe that they are to move out of state. She thinks that this is the house they will stay in until they die, but surprise! Her husband announces they are to move.

      The next emotion is anger. She is angry at her husband for having to leave maybe the only home they have known and the friends she has made. Women take a long time to develop deep and lasting friendships but once these friendships are made, they are very deep. Having to move makes the woman feel like part of her is being ripped away.

      She may go through anxiety and depression. She is thinking about all what must be done in preparation for the move itself like canceling the newspaper and transferring her children's school records. The man is looking forward to this new adventure and he does look at it that way. Women by nature are nurturerers and caregivers. The bond they have with their female relatives and coworkers is very strong. We are the glue that holds the family together. I don't know about other women but I for one hate change. I like the routine and the mundane. I like to know where I will be and how long I will be there. Uprooting a tree that has been in one place for many years may cause damage to the tree but unlike the tree, we can recover.

     Women may go through a period of acceptance and adjustment for the upcoming move. She may finally realize it is beyond her control and she starts getting the kids readjusted to a new school and having them meet new friends. It is not unusual for a woman to grieve for a year or more after the move. Men have a hard time understanding this. Women are more in touch with their feelings so other women know this feeling of grief and why the woman is upset. Men need to be shown by example of how she is feeling and even then there is no assurance that they completely understand. Men have those feeling of sadness but I don't think they are in tune with those. They don't express their feelings like women do. A woman's outlet is crying whereas a man very rarely cries and especially not in the company of other men. Our makeup is dfferent and we were wired differently.

      A woman may not have co workers who are there to greet them at a new job. Especially if she is a stay at home mom, this is extremely stressful. I know when I moved to a new state for 1 1/2 years after I got married, I felt like I didn't belong there and I was extremly home sick. I never did really fit in. Only when my husband and I moved back to Indiana did I feel much much better. I got reconnected to my family and friends and the roots started to grow once again.

     Being a stager, I found this topic to be insightful. It helped me to be more sensitive to the plight of the sellers and better able to empathize with them. I understand the feelings I had and why I had them. I think I learned a great deal from this half hour radio show and I hope that you the readers have learned something also. Understanding where the sellers are coming from emotionally will hopefully make my staging job easier and make me a better person.

There was an article in our local paper today about a realtor who got attacked as she was showing a house. It was a one time incident and nothing like this has happened in our city before. Luckily she was able to get away and call for help.

Is this a new way for criminals to rob and attack people now? This is really scary especially since we live in a city with about 150,000 people. Police are telling realtors to not show houses for now until this person is caught. Police also adviced realtors to show houses in pairs.

Maybe we should start carrying mace with us now. The realtor was attacked in a corner of the basement and she said she felt uneasy about showing the basement and the man told her his wife would be along but that was a lie.

Is anyone safe anymore? I know this is scary and thank goodness it was a one time thing, but this should not deter anyone from doing their job. Just take precautions. It is a sad state of affairs when we women now need to work in pairs so we don't get attacked.

Who knows how long the realtors won't be able to show houses is anyone's guess. I'm not a realtor but a stager and we need to take precautions now too. What gets me mad is that on top of all the business details we need to remember like if we brought the stepstool or if we have enough business cards with us, we have to remember to be cautious about some yahoo attacking women.

I know being cautious is a good thing and this incident taught me to be more aware of my surroundings, but it just ticks me off to no end when we need to worry about whether or not we will be attacked on the job. Criminals are getting more and more clever. We need to think one step ahead of them.

As the captain on Hill Street Blues always said, "Let's becareful out there".  

Every Saturday our local newspaper has one sectiond devoted to homes and gardens. Today there was an article on Propsmart.com. This is an independent real estate search engine. You can sign up for an account to put your own listings on it or you can look at the top 25 US metropolitan areas.

This search engine compunds more than a million property listings from online sources and private sellers and makes them searchable with a google map based visual interface. The site also has an online community of buyers, sellers, and service providers that share their information which then in turn gives them more exposure and increases traffic to the site.

You can also sign up to get rss feeds in order to get updates of new listings. It is relatively easy to sign up with a free account. It looks like an interesting site and coud be a help for agents and we stagers. I thought maybe you guys could check it out. I had never heard of them until I read today's paper.

 

I thought you guys might like this article I got today in an email. Some seller's are getting really creative or (desparate) it sounds like

By FrontDoor.com | Published: 7/08/2008

Say goodbye to the days when baking a batch of cookies and putting out fresh flowers before an open house would be enough to sell your home. In today's market, it takes more than that to attract buyers, and frustrated home sellers are resorting to some unusual methods to get their homes noticed. From clever to downright bizarre, here are our top 10 unique home-selling tactics.

1. Hold an open house party.
   Open houses are the norm when selling a home, but some sellers are upping the ante on the open house by offering wine, catered food, live music and prizes. A fancy shindig could start a buzz on your property and make your home memorable.
   
   
   
2. Take home staging to the extreme.
   It's well known that staging your home can help it sell faster, but some sellers are taking staging a step further with an ancient Chinese philosophy. Feng shui stagers rearrange the elements of a home to improve its chi, or energy. Good chi makes potential buyers feel more welcome.
   
   
   
3. Help serious buyers with financing.
   Many people who want to buy a home can't qualify for a standard mortgage right now, so sellers are offering a helping hand. Sellers have a few options when it comes to assisting buyers with financing, including offering lease-to-own deals, offering financing themselves, paying for closing costs or paying for points to lower the interest rate.
   
   
   
4. Have a little faith.
   Burying statues or medals of St. Joseph in the earth is a tradition that dates back hundreds of years. Most recently, home sellers have been burying the patron saint of family and household needs in their yards to help their homes sell faster. Thousands of sellers swear that a little divine intervention helped get a sale.
   
   
5. Throw in some extravagant extras.
   In the past, a free big-screen TV was enough of an incentive to get your home noticed. Times have changed, and incentives are becoming more and more substantial. Sellers are throwing in all kinds of goodies, like free cars, vacations, pricey home upgrades and monetary incentives like a year's mortgage or a furniture stipend. One woman in Florida is even offering herself as an incentive -- she hopes to marry the man who buys her home.
   
   
   
6. Make your home a grand prize.
   After conventional methods fall short, some sellers are holding raffles and essay contests and giving their homes to the winners. This method is sure to draw attention, but beware: Home lotteries are illegal in many states, so find out your state's regulations.
   
   
   
7. Get Web savvy.
   If the traditional method of selling your home through a real estate agent doesn't appeal to you, you may find an alternative process on the Web. Some sellers are auctioning off their homes on eBay, while others are swapping properties through sites like Pad4Pad.com and DomuSwap.com.
   
   
   
8. Let your house do the talking.
   After taking the traditional route of putting a For Sale sign in your front yard and placing an ad in the newspaper, try some hi-tech advertising. Some sellers and agents are using the Talking House radio transmitter, which allows you to record a customized message about the features of your home. Buyers can tune into a radio station to hear this message as they drive by your house.
   
   
   
9. Put your house on the auction block.
   Auctions are no longer just for homes that have been foreclosed on. Sellers looking to sell their homes quickly are choosing the auction route. Keep in mind that the total costs of auctioning off a home are often the same or more than the costs of selling a home through an agent.
   
   
   
10. Let buyers sleep on it.
    For serious potential buyers who are on the fence about buying your home, let them sleep on it -- literally. By letting buyers spend the night in your home, you're allowing them to get the full experience of living there. A trial run could be just what they need to sign on the dotted line. Be sure to consult with your real estate agent or attorney first.
    

 

 

I thought you guys might like this article I got in an email today. Seller's and agents are resorting to some really weird tatics to sell a house. Enjoy!

By Douglas Trattner, FrontDoor.com | Published: 1/14/2008

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Roberta Murphy's realty office was having an impossible time selling a breathtaking five-bedroom, five-bath Mediterranean in Encinitas, Calif. Despite sweeping vistas of the Pacific, not to mention a guest suite, five fireplaces and over 5,000 square feet of living space, no buyer was prepared to pony up the $2 million asking price.

That is, until the seller decided to toss in a shiny red Ferrari.

"In the current housing market, home sellers are resorting to more creative sales tactics because buyers are sitting on the fence," Murphy says.

As an agent with Villa Sotheby's International Realty in San Diego, Murphy has witnessed a rise in creative tactics sellers are employing to attract buyers. But not everyone can afford to toss in a sports car, trip to Hawaii or fancy furniture. Sellers desperate to unload slow movers should re-evaluate their listing price and consider these strategies.

1. Upgrade

"When you have a glut of inventory, your house really has to shine above the competition," says Adam Kaufman, a Cleveland-based agent with over $400 million in real estate sales. Buyers in today's market know they can be very particular. As a seller, Kaufman explains, you have to make a stellar first impression.

Kaufman strongly advises that sellers replace dated carpeting, strip wallpaper, install granite countertops and upgrade to stainless steel appliances.

"If a buyer walks through the front door and is dissatisfied in any way, he or she is off to the next house," Kaufman warns.

2. Stage That Home

"Sellers need to understand that the way we live in our home is not the way we sell our home," says Karen Hirschberg, a home stager in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

When Hirschberg is called in to help sell a house, she tells her clients to emulate a model home. With a model home, she says, everything from the landscaping to the interior is picture perfect and designed to attract the widest pool of buyers.

The first step in any home-staging is a thorough de-cluttering. Sellers should purge the house of all personal belongings, family photos and countertop appliances. Furniture should be rearranged so as to make the room appear larger. "Space sells," she says.

If the family has already moved -- and taken the furniture with them -- Hirschberg suggests calling in a stager to furnish the home. "People have trouble connecting with an empty house," she says.

3. Curb Appeal

"People make assumptions about the interior of a house based on the exterior," Hirschberg says.

Try these easy strategies for enhanced curb appeal:

• Power wash the house
• Lay a fresh cover of mulch in the flower beds
• Paint the front door
• Replace the address numbers

4. Ancient Chinese Secret

"Feng shui is something that sellers are beginning to appreciate more and more as a technique to sell their home. Especially within the Asian community," says Beverly Hills-based agent Joyce Rey.

If a house isn't selling, some believe the fault lies in a shortage of Qi (chee), or energy flow. Bringing in a feng shui expert to evaluate the home and make modifications to the placement and arrangement of items within is said to improve the odds of a speedy sale.

5. Going, Going, Gone

"Home auctions were all but nonexistent a few years ago, but they are more widely available now," says Roberta Murphy.

While a house auction is indeed a reliable way to sell a house quickly, there is no guarantee the seller will be pleased with the price. Also, warns Murphy, buyers are subject to home auction fees that can be as high as 8 percent of the sale price. And limited disclosure statements can be potentially disastrous.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to Home Staging News Behind the Stage July 15, 2008 Vol 1 Issue 1 Dear Friends,

 It is now mid July and many people are enjoying sailing on the water. Summer home sales are in full swing. Are your clients "sailing" towards a new or existing home? StageStruck can be that rudder that steers your clients to that home. Staging and Redesign in a nutshell. Let me define these two terms for those who don't know what staging and redesign are. Staging has been described as a "defluffing" of a home that is going on the market. In other words, stagers take the best features of the home and repackage them in a way that will appeal to the broadest range of buyers.

Redesign is taking what the owner already has and rearranging it to fit the use of the room and the lifestyle of the owner. We"shop" in the owner's home looking for things to be used in the reconfigured room.

Benefits of Staging for Agents Home Staging has many benefits for both the seller and the real estate agent. For the home seller the benefits are: faster sale of the home, more money from the sale of the home, homes that are staged can sell for 6% more than non staged homes. According the the International Association of Home Staging Professionals, about a quarter of homes nationwide were sold last year after being staged by a professional stager. This is up from 10% five years ago. A nonstaged home will help to outsell the competition. For agents, staging can lead to more commission. National statistics imdicate that staged homes net 3% to 10% more on average than non staged homes. Staging is a value added service. For example, if the median price of a home is $241,00 and you the agent sell it for 3-10% more, this equateds to a $7,230-$24,000 equity gain or an average of $15,665 (based on a statistical study from 2004-2005 of staged properties nationwide). An investment in staging the home or listing it is less than a price reduction on the home or listing. This gives more money to the agent and the client. Also, the average real estate agent has 5 seconds to sell a home and 5 seconds to make an impact on the buyers when they first walk in the door. Staging ensures that the impact is a good and lasting one.

 Home Trends for fall According to Maison & Objet, the salon of home decor, some of the trends we will see this fall are: 1. Bursting Roses everywhere. The bigger and redder the better. 2. Purple is out and Fuchsia is in. 3. Text Messaging words are in. They are on everything from pillows, wall lights, and candles. 4. See through structures. Steel wire chairs and furniture that look like bicycle baskets, and furniture made of cane weave with port holes are the new trends. I don't know about you, but if you sit on these in the summer, your back side will look like a belgin waffle from the imprint. 5.Strong yellow. Yellow anything as long as it exudes and screams, "Not pale yellow." The deeper the color the better. 6. Fractures. These are geometric shapes in an irregular pattern. Something like a honeycomb. These fractures are made into vases, tables, etc. Some of the patterns look like they are diamond shape or made to look like they are shattered. The texture emerges from the ridged pattern and not the material. 7.Ibride. This is part portrait and part furniture. They are married together to form one piece. 8. Aquatic themes; especially in lighting. These don't actually scream starfish, or plant. They are subtle images but you know they are supposed to be starfish. 9.Missoni. This is comic book style, over the top, and graphic. This fabric can be used as a sofa slipcover. To see any of the pictures of the above items, click on pointclickhome.com and type in fall trends in the search box. It will bring up a slideshow of the trends.

I hope you enjoyed this first edition of our newsletter. Continue to look for it around the 15th of every month. Sincerely, Sheila Swanson StageStruck

 

www.mystagestruck.com (574) 674-9764 Cell: (574) 252-1480. The owner of StageStruck, Sheila Swanson has been decorating for 20 years. She attended the Sheffield School of Interior Design and is also a graduate of the Staging Diva's online staging course.

 Save 10% off the price of a consultation for your client when you set up their appointment. Agents, if make an appointment for yourself, you get 25% off the price of your consultation. Offer Expires: Sept. 15, 2008

Hello.

I was just curious to see if anyone has blogged on the quality of service and these times of higher prices. I remember seeing a blog on changing your prices, but I don't recall seeing one on the quality of service.

One example that I can give of where this is not true is when I accidently bounced a check and the grocer called to let me know and wanted to know when I would be in to take care if it. Usually when you bounce a check you get socked with a fee from the bank and a fee from whomever you wrote the check to. The manager said that his bank doesn't charge a fee and neither did he, so I just had to repay the check amount. I thought that was very nice and I never heard of anyone doing that .

I know in my contracts I put a statement in there saying that a bounced check will result in a $25 fee. It seems like maybe I should take this clause out of my contract and try to be a little nicer. How many of us have stood at a checkout line only not to be acknowledged by the checker. They don't say anything at all. Sometimes I say hi first and sometimes I wait until they do. I don't think this has anything to do with the quality of service going down as the prices climb.

I know that some businesses are really tightening their belts and some of the services they once offered are no longer present. Or some departments in stores are relegated to one person whereas there might have been 4 or 5 persons doing this job. I know they get hassled since they are the only ones working at that time. But it seems like today's home sellers want more in a home for as little money as possible and don't want to hire us stagers because of the up front payment. The quality of my services have not gone down.

I also know that the quality seems to go down on the phone rather than in person. You try and talk with some one only to play phone tag after having gone through all ten numbers on the phone. After going through all the numbers, the person you are tying to reach is out or on the other line. This is one instance where the quality of service is going down when the prices are shooting through the roof.

I suppose another example could be in busy restaurants. The staff gets busy and things are forgotten or rung up wrong. Still usually, they try really hard to do their job.

Has anyone run into this quality of service problem with higher prices? I certainly hope that the quality of service doesn't go down but it is nearly impossible with these trying times. There are however, exceptions to the rule. 

 

 

 

 

Daily Real Estate News  |  July 9, 2008 Staging with a Human Twist

In Las Vegas, where thousands of empty homes await buyers, many real estate practitioners are turning to professional stagers to prepare homes for sale and potentially generate more offers. But now there adapting a human twist.

Beyond just highlighting décor, some staging companies find house sitters, who pay anywhere from 25 percent to 50 percent of the monthly mortgage payment in exchange for temporary housing.

The presumption is that an occupied home is more likely to generate offers than a vacant property, say real estate professionals.

The staging company covers the costs of relocating the sitter, who must undergo criminal background checks and cannot smoke or have pets.

Source: KTNV 13 Las Vegas (07/05/2008)

What do you think of this? Good idea or not? It might work for a big city but here in South Bend I don't think it would. Any thoughts?

Color in Decorating

 

Warm Colors - Think the colors of the sun - red, orange, and yellow. When using a cool color on a wall, the wall will appear to advance, making a room feel a smaller and more intimate. Avoid using warm colors in a room that is already warm - viewing a warm color can actually make a room feel warmer. 

 

Cool Colors - Think soothing shades of water - blues, greens, and purples. When using a cool color on a wall, the wall will appear to recede, making a room feel a larger and more airy. Cool colors are great in a room that is filled with sunlight, since viewing a cool color can actually make a room feel cooler.   

 

Connecting Colors - Colors from the tans, browns, beiges, whites, and grays family. These colors work to connect rooms, as well as create a background for more vibrant color combinations. 

 

Red - Hot and spicy and known to actually raise your heart rate. Red is great in a dining room (count how many restaurants you know that use red in their color theme) because it is thought to increase a person's appetite. It is also often used in bedrooms to add a sensuous touch. Many designers say that a bit of red should be used in every room in the house.

 

Orange - Orange has been known to actually make people feel nervous and edgy. It is a high energy color and is great as an unexpected color burst in a room. When decorating a room orange is much more daring than red. It can be used to energize a dull room, such as the laundry room or mud room.

 

Yellow - Though often thought of as sunshiney and happy, yellow is a very tricky color to use when decorating. It is very easy for yellow to have green undertones, which quickly turns the color to an almost sickly shade. Golden yellows and buttery yellows work best in decorating.

 

Blue - The color blue is known to physically lower a person's blood pressure and decrease a person's appetite. It is not advisable to use blue in a kitchen, since your decrease in appetite might make you think that the food you cook does not taste good. Blue and white is a classic combination and is re-interpreted in decorating trends every few years, as seen in wedgewood, country, and navy blue.

 

Green - The saying "green is serene" exists for a reason. As a dominant color in nature, green does double duty in that it is both energizing and relaxing at the same time. This combination makes green a perfect choice for offices. Also recommended for bedrooms and living rooms, as green is known as peaceful, rejuvenating, and refreshing.

 

Brown - In former design periods brown translated to "blah." Today brown is the new black and goes with everything. A rich, deep brown (think chocolate bar) can be used with most every other color - red, black, hot pink, orange, lime green, powder blue - you name it. Dark brown is versatile and can be worked into almost any color scheme.

 

Pink - Not just for little girls anymore. Pink has grown up with undertones of gray for a rich look or saturated to a hot pink intensity. Pink will always have a feminine quality and portray your softer side, so care must be taken when using it in rooms for mixed company so that a feminine/masculine balance is achieved.

 

Purple - Often associated with royalty. Every stage play that needs to portray a king and queen uses deep purple and gold, so if purple is overused in a home it is easy for it to feel "stagey." Use it sparingly to add a rich and dramatic touch to a room. 

 

Black - Not just to designate the "bad buy" in a movie. Black is a fabulous accent in any room and has moved from accent pieces to upholstered pieces and even wall color. When using large amounts of black there is fine line between rich and luxurious and depressing - be sure to stay away from depressing.  Black will always be considered a classic, in both contemporary and traditional looks. 

 

White - Another classic. White feels clean, sleek, and sophisticated and like black can be used in both contemporary and traditional looks. When using large amounts of white it is important to use several different tones and textures to avoid a "boring" look