Stage to Sell Blog

Another Staging Success Story!

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:54:23 -0500

We recently Staged an adorable vacant townhome in Santa Monica. It had been listed for awhile with no offers, so we were brought in to help buyers see the potential.

The townhome had been painted and remodeled, so we had a great canvas to work with! Unfortunately the awkward layout of the living room, a not-so-neutral paint color, and a seemingly unusable loft space above the guest bedroom made it difficult for buyers to fall in love with the home.

BEFORE STAGING

CLICK HERE to see how Stage to Sell transformed this Santa Monica townhome from drab to fab!

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Annie Pinsker-Brown | Stage to Sell
Owner & Principal Designer
310-384-1084
www.stagetosell.biz

"We get you to SOLD so you can get on with your life!"

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Stage to Sell is the premier West Los Angeles Home Staging Company.

Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times , Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine .

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website . There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos , as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

Give Your Home a Fresh Look for Fall

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:26:34 -0500

A few weeks ago I celebrated my 10 year wedding anniversary with a trip to New England to see the fall foliage. That part of the country is breathtaking this time of year, but even in places like Southern California we can enjoy fall’s bounty!

There’s no better way to get in the fall spirit than by updating your living space with the warm earthy tones of the season.

Click here to read about two cheap and easy ways to update your space for the fall season!

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Home Staging Stories From the Trenches: "Yes, we can work with your furniture!"

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:37:08 -0500

I often get calls from Realtors who say, “I have a family who is actually going to be living in their home while it’s on the market. They would like to use their own furniture. Do you do that?” It always amazes me that they have to ask whether a full service Home Staging company would be willing to work with (gasp) someone’s OWN THINGS?! But I know why they have to ask.

There are some Stagers out there who refuse to work with anything but a completely blank slate. I once did a consultation for a guy who had a beautiful view home and completely workable furniture. His place just needed some updating and new accessories to make it appeal more to today’s buyers. He told me that the last Stager he interviewed told him she’d only take the job if he removed ALL of his own belongings and let her start from scratch…to the tune of over $30,000 in Staging fees! No wonder there are agents and homeowners out there who have yet to hire a Stager to help them prepare their home for sale!

Not only is it bad business to waste someone’s money on unnecessary furniture rental, but in my opinion it’s just plain lazy for a designer to say that they won’t work with a homeowner’s own pieces. Of course it’s easier (and more lucrative) for us to start from scratch because we can pick every last piece down to the art, rugs and plants and know that it will all coordinate beautifully. But if a homeowner has furniture that’s in decent shape and is properly scaled for his home, why would we ask them to get rid of it?

Though my company does lots of vacant home Stagings and model homes, I work all the time with families who are living in their homes while they’re on the market. For these clients, we start with a Consultation. We spend 2-3 hours on site determining what needs to be done in order to get the property sold quickly and for the best price. Recommendations might include de-cluttering, rearranging, reconfiguring or repurposing some of the furniture, updating paint or light fixtures, replacing worn or filthy carpets, and reaccessorizing. After our meeting, the seller receives a written Consultation Report, which gives them a room-by-room check list of what needs to be done. Often the seller takes this list and runs with it and we never hear from them again (until they call to let us know how happy they are that the property SOLD)! Sometimes, however, the client hires us to bring in the recommended accessories or additional furniture pieces that we’ve noted in the report, and to put the finishing touches on the Staging transformation.

As an example, we were recently brought in by a Realtor to do a Consultation on her client’s 4-bedroom home in Tarzana, California. The client had a gorgeous home with beautiful furniture, but she had seen some Staged properties on the market and knew that her home had a couple of trouble spots that needed to be addressed before it could compete with those Staged homes.

Click here to see photos of her trouble spots and how Stage to Sell turned them into selling points!

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Our Latest Low Income Housing Project - The Ardmore

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:12:01 -0500

If you follow my AR blog, you'll know that I've done several "staging" jobs for American Communities, a developer of low income housing in Los Angeles. If you read my posts about Staging 1, Staging 2 and Staging 3, you will remember that our goal was to make the common spaces in these buildings warm and inviting, as well as functional for the residents to relax, watch TV, attend meetings & classes and use a computer.

We recently completed Staging #4 for American Communities. Like the previous building, this one was designed in a contemporary Art Deco style, so we chose furnishings and art that fit with this theme. But at Stage to Sell, we always have to try something new! So this time we added a graphic element to the walls with vinyl decals. Though these gave us the fun design element we were looking for, their large size made them a bit difficult to install (more on that in a separate post).

I got the idea for the wall decals from Terri Lucas' post on a Home Staging Solution for Curved Walls. Great idea Terri!

Click here to read the whole article and see photos of this great project!

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Local Stagers Give Back

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:34:29 -0500

Every September, Accredited Staging Professionals (ASPs) around the country and around the world give back to their communities by participating in Worldwide Staging Service Week, an annual service project of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals).

I am a proud board member of the West Los Angeles IAHSP chapter and have been lucky enough to participate in this wonderful event for the last several years.

This year our chapter chose the Richstone Family Center's Transitional Living Program as our beneficiary. The program serves young women (ages 18 – 24) from LA County, who have been emancipated from foster care. For the young women in the program, this is often the first time they have experienced a safe, stable and healthy home environment. Richstone's program provides housing, case management, counseling, life skills, referrals and 24-hour support for residents.

Much of the original furniture in the main house was ripped and filled with holes and the art and furnishings were a mish-mash of hand-me-downs. The walls were stark white and the ceilings were damaged. Thanks to very generous donations from Brook Furniture Rental and Fashion Furniture, paint and supplies from Sherwin Williams and Lowes, fabric from Beach Drapery, cleaning services from Ready Clean, and labor from local painters Carlos Lopez and Albert Hernandez and contractor Brad Erwood (as well as about 10 of our members), our chapter was able to pull off an amazing transformation in record time!

Click here to see the full story and before and after photos from this amazing event!

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Survey Highlights Gender Differences in Home Purchase Decisions

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:20:49 -0500

Earlier this month Coldwell Banker released the results of a survey they created to discover the extent to which men and women differ in the home-buying process. They surveyed 1,000 men and women, asking questions like:

"How long did it take for you to know that the last home you purchased was right for you?

and

“Who 'wears the pants' in the relationship when it comes to making major financial decisions?”

It is crucial for all Realtors, Stagers and home sellers to understand the results of this survey, so that they can make sure the property they're selling will appeal to the right audience.

Click here to read the full article about this survey and what it means for Realtors, Stagers and home sellers.

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Selling Your Home When Your Neighbor’s House is an Eyesore

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:34:31 -0500

Just read an interesting article in the Los Angeles Times about the problems associated with trying to sell your home when you live next to a dilapidated home or a vacant foreclosed property.

This was very timely since I encountered this very issue while previewing a beautiful new construction home in Sherman Oaks just last week. The developer built 2 gorgeous, side-by-side, high-end homes with luxury upgrades and beautiful finishes. The homes were identical in layout, but the builder wanted to Stage only one - the less desirable one. Why was it less desirable? Smaller? Fewer rooms? Ummm...no. This one was less desirable because of the next-door neighbor.

Click here to read the full article about what to do when your neighbor's home is an eyesore.

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Worthwhile Updates When Selling a Home

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:15:51 -0500

I recently Staged a gorgeous home in Los Feliz, California. It was very large, had a beautiful outdoor covered terrace with amazing city views, and a view of the Griffith Observatory from the Living Room window. When I arrived to preview the home, the Realtor told me the home had initially been listed at $2 million. With the square footage and views I mentioned, that wouldn’t seem completely outrageous. However the moment I stepped in the door I knew this home was not a $2 million dollar property. Why?

Click here to find out!

BEFORE STAGING

STAGED

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Annie Pinsker-Brown | Stage to Sell
Owner & Principal Designer
310-384-1084
www.stagetosell.biz

"We get you to SOLD so you can get on with your life!"

************************************************
Stage to Sell is the premier West Los Angeles Home Staging Company.

Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times , Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine .

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website . There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos , as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

Another Staging Success Story – Cheviot Hills Spanish

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:26:37 -0500

As a professional Los Angeles Home Stager, it is always a pleasure to work with clients who take your advice and roll with it! Such was the case with a recent listing in Cheviot Hills. The couple living in the home were retiring and moving to Palm Springs, so they wanted to sell their beautiful Spanish style home…quickly!

The agent, Randy Troup of Coldwell Banker Brentwood West, often hires me to do Staging Consultation reports for his sellers. I preview the property and spend a couple of hours giving the sellers detailed recommendations of low-cost things they can do to (using mostly what they already have in the home) to Stage their property for sale.

I met with this lovely couple and gave them quite a list! Their home was beautiful to begin with, but there were several things I recommended they do in order to enhance its appeal to buyers.

Click here to read the full article about my recommendations and how they helped these homeowners get 6 offers in 10 days!

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Staging For Small Spaces - A Case Study

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:43:14 -0500

I recently got a call to Stage a “cute little bungalow” in Hollywood. Whenever you hear those 3 words together in LA you have to know this is going to be a tiny place. But I was completely unprepared for just how small this one was! At 500 square feet this is now officially the smallest home I’ve ever Staged!

Click here to read the full post and to learn how we answered the 3 crucial questions buyers have when previewing a small space!

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Some Thoughts on Trees and Selling a Home

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:59:03 -0500

Spring is my absolute favorite time of year in LA because the jacarandas are blooming, showcasing their gorgeous purple flowers all over town. I just love walking down streets like this one in my neighborhood at this time of year.

Towards the end of the blooming season, however, trees tend to get sparser and most of those purple blooms end up on the lawns and driveways of their owners. In fact today on my morning walk I spotted many a lawn completely covered with fallen flowers. Loving the jacaranda as I do, I happen to think of this carpet of purple on the lawn as beautiful, though perhaps a bit melancholy as it marks the end of my favorite season. However, today I began to think about it from a home buyer’s perspective.

Click here to read the rest of this article.

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Staging Works: West Los Angeles Condo in Escrow 1st Week on Market!

Wed, 27 May 2009 17:48:09 -0500

Since we have been so busy Staging lately, I was remiss in posting about our latest project - a lovely condo in West LA that we Staged on May 15th. Blogging about it was on my “to-do” list for today, but when I checked my email this morning I got the following email from the Realtor:

“I am happy to tell you that I got an accepted offer on the Pelham condo in the first week. It’s in escrow & inspection and I’m looking for a backup offer.”

It must have been fate that I hadn’t yet blogged about this project, because what better news to share than this Staging Success Story! It’s one for the record books.

Click here to see the full story and before & after photos of this amazing transformation!

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Staging a Model Home in Culver City

Thu, 21 May 2009 17:03:56 -0500

There’s nothing I enjoy more than Staging close to home! If you happen to forget something, it’s just a short drive to storage, and you’re never stuck in traffic on the way home. So I was thrilled when Stage to Sell was hired to Stage a model unit for a beautiful new townhome development in my very own Culver City!

When I first previewed this property, my biggest concern was the size of the 2 main living spaces. The townhome had both a formal living room and a family room on the main level, but both rooms felt very small, especially without furniture in them.

Click here to see how we solved these problems and created a beautiful Model Home that felt open and spacious to buyers!

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Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

The Power of Home Staging: Bachelor Pad to Loft Chic

Mon, 18 May 2009 22:35:00 -0500

Last week we Staged a beautiful loft at The Broadway on Hollywood & Vine. The owner was a young professional who had beautiful furniture, but almost nothing else. The condo certainly wasn’t cluttered, and the furniture was in the right place. But something was missing. The Realtor on this job has great taste and knew immediately that this listing needed some Staging help.

Click here to see how we took this loft from bachelor pad to loft chic!

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Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

A HUGE Thank You for Voting for Stage To Sell... P.S. We WON!!

Tue, 05 May 2009 20:16:21 -0500

Well, after all my shameless plugging, the votes are in and thanks to YOU, my company Stage to Sell has been named one of the winners in StartUp Nation's Leading Moms in Business Competition for 2009!

This contest really struck a chord with me because when I became a working mom five years ago, I was amazed at how difficult it was to run both a family and a business. It is often a thankless job and the hours are quite long! Of course as any mom knows, we wouldn't have it any other way.

Being a mom-preneur has given me a newfound respect for my own mother who worked from the time I was a baby, but always made sure I felt 100% loved, taken care of and special. Many moms don't have the option to stay at home full time for financial reasons, and many choose not to for their own sanity (and that of their kids!). But regardless of their reasons, ALL working moms deserve recognition and respect for having two full-time jobs. That's why I entered this competition and that is why I am so humbled and honored to have been chosen as one of the winners!

Thousands of moms entered and, like me, found that reaching out for votes to customers, vendors, friends, family and social networks was not only kind of fun, but it also gave us a new and unexpected way to generate positive buzz around our business. So many of you took time out of your busy days to vote for me once, twice, and in some cases every single day. Some of my followers on Twitter even re-Tweeted my requests for votes so that people I didn't even know were out there voting for me! It was an amazing experience and one that I won't soon forget.

I encourage any mom who owns her own business to enter this competition next year. As I have proven to myself, you never know what can happen!

Click here to read the full press release, and thank you again for making this dream a reality!

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Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

A Security Solution for REOs

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:16:45 -0500

I recently wrote a blog entitled "Squatters Increasingly Calling Foreclosures Home" about advocacy groups that are actively helping homeless people around the country move into foreclosed properties that are empty and all but abandoned by the banks that own them. This was a very controversial topic, and many of my readers had strong opinions on one side or another of the issue. There is concensus, however, in the feeling that the banks are not doing enough to secure their REO properties. Well now there is a solution, at least for those in the Los Angeles area.

This week I was at the weekly team meeting at the Keller Williams office in Marina del Rey pitching a free Home Staging for Success course I'm going to be giving there next week. One of the agents, Reggie Potts, came up to talk to the group about a new company he's launching called REO Secure. REO Secure will do everything from installing smoke detectors to rekeying the locks, boarding up the windows and strapping the water heater. The company is based in Culver City, but they serve the whole LA area.

If you know an agent, bank or asset manager that has REO listings, please forward this important information along to them. And if you're ready to call REO Secure, their number is 310-251-1773.

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Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

Squatters Increasingly Calling Foreclosures Home

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:29:52 -0500

According to an article from yesterday's NY Times, though squatting in vacant homes has long been an issue on a smaller scale, with so many vacant foreclosures on the market, homeless advocacy groups around the country are now actively assisting homeless families to take up residence in these foreclosed properties. And overwhelmed police departments are not helping much in the eviction process.

The groups say that they have sometimes received support from neighbors and that beleaguered police departments have not aggressively gone after squatters. "We're seeing sheriffs' departments who are reluctant to move fast on foreclosures or evictions," said Bill Faith, director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, which is not engaged in squatting. "They're up to their eyeballs in this stuff. Everyone's overwhelmed."

The issue is a controversial one. Advocates see these vacant properties as an opportunity to ease the growing homeless problem in a declining economy. Though some of these groups operate secretly, others are out in the open, trying to secure legal means to move their clients into these abandoned properties.

Anita Beaty, executive director of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, said her group had been looking into asking banks to give it abandoned buildings to renovate and occupy legally. Ms. Honkala, who was a squatter in the 1980s, said the biggest difference now was that the neighbors were often more supportive. "People who used to say, ‘That's breaking the law,' now that they're living on a block with three or four empty houses, they're very interested in helping out, bringing over mattresses or food for the families," she said.

The organized homeless groups are also having to compete with more traditional individual squatters.

"We had a move-in that we were going to do one day at noon," he said. "At 10 o'clock in the morning, I went over to the house just to make sure everything was O.K., and squatters took over our squat. Then we went to another place nearby, and squatters were in that place also."

Mr. Rameau said his group differed from ad hoc squatters by operating openly, screening potential residents for mental illness and drug addiction, and requiring that they earn "sweat equity" by cleaning or doing repairs around the house and that they keep up with the utility bills.

I have to say this issue has me torn. I'll admit I am a fairly left-wing liberal who appreciates the effort on the part of these advocacy groups to try to find a workable, though temporary, solution to a growing problem that no one else seems to be addressing. I feel for these people who, for reasons that may be beyond their control, have found themselves and their families homeless and unemployed in a dire economic climate. At the same time I work in the real estate industry and feel for the agents who represent these properties. I feel the banks are not doing enough to properly secure and maintain these foreclosed homes. They often leave them in a dilapidated state and just "hope for the best" in terms of a sale. Rather than investing a small amount in paint, carpet, Home Staging (and some sort of security system) in order to sell these properties quickly, they let them linger on the market and become targets for squatting.

What are your thoughts?

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Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

6 Days, 6 Offers, $21K Over Asking: Another Los Angeles Home Staging Success Story!

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 23:59:04 -0500

I do a lot of work for a very successful and hard-working Realtor who pays me to do a Staging Consultation on pretty much every one of his listings. He markets this as a value-added service that his clients get in return for listing their home with him. Everyone wins: the seller feels like they've gotten a valuable service at no cost, and the Realtor is happy because his listings always look great and sell quickly without him ever having to "be the bad guy."

With most consultations, I spend a couple of hours at the property, email out my detailed, room-by-room Staging report and don't usually hear anything more about it. (The whole point of a consultation is providing a low cost, do-it-yourself option for those who may not be able to afford full Staging services.) Sometimes I get a followup question here and there, and every once in awhile I check out the MLS photos of the homes just to make sure the sellers are following my advice, but that's generally the extent of it.

But sometimes the results are so remarkable that they warrant an e-mail like the one I received yesterday from my client, telling me that a Westchester home we recently did a consultation for had been listed at $674,000, it had 6 offers in 6 days, and was now in escrow at $695,000!

Excuse me, but aren't we in a recession here?! And yet these are similar to the results we were seeing at the height of the L.A. real estate frenzy.

Now when you look at the photo below, please note that I did not Stage this property, nor did I take the photo. I merely gave the seller a detailed list of what she could do, using just what she already had in the home, to Stage it herself! That rug was folded up at the bottom of her linen closet. The vase was in another room. The elements were all there, but they just hadn't been properly put together. But this motivated seller followed my directions and got herself many of the benefits of a Staged home at a fraction of the cost!

Now I'd call that a win/win!

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Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

Los Angeles Home Staging Company needs your vote in StartupNation Leading Moms in Business Competition!

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:16:15 -0500

So now that it's down to the wire, I am going to shamelessly and humbly ask you, my wonderful network of friends and colleagues, to PLEASE take a moment out of your busy days to vote for me in the 2009 StartupNation Leading Moms in Business Competition.

A couple of months ago, I posted a blog asking for your support as I entered the competition.

Most of you know me as a professional Home Stager in Los Angeles, but you may not know that I am also a mom of two wonderful kids ages 3 & 6. I started my Home Staging business in 2004, when my eldest was just a toddler, as a way to be home with him while also doing something I loved. Though having a home-based business does allow for some flexibility with my schedule, as any working mom knows, it is also a tough road to haul. Now that my Staging business has grown, I often find myself working much longer hours than I did when I worked for someone else. And I struggle with balancing work and family life just like all the other working parents in this country. So I was very excited to learn that now there's a way for entrepreneurial moms to be recognized for their hard work!

StartupNation, in partnership with Ladies Who Launch, has created a Leading Moms in Business competition, and I would love your vote.

Please click on the StartUp Nation logo below and it will bring you to my profile page. Below the photo, click "Vote for Me." You can vote every day if you are so inclined, but even just a single vote would be much appreciated!

The contest ends on March 30th so we're in the home stretch now and every vote counts!

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Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

National Home Builder Offers Home Staging incentives

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:47:06 -0500

This past Sunday the Hartford Courant reported that Toll Brothers, a luxury home builder with developments in 21 states, is offering Home Staging services to its clients so they can sell their existing house and buy a new Toll Brothers home.

The article uses the example of an older couple who wanted to downsize and move into an over-55 community, but had no bites on their home when they listed it in August of last year. Toll Brothers noticed this was part of a trend, with several of their potential buyers not signing contracts for fear of not being able to sell their existing homes. So Toll Brothers decided to do something about it!

They offered the following incentive:

"Sign a contract on a new home, and the builder would provide you with a home stager and pick up 75 percent of the cost. (Going forward, clients who participate in this program, called Center Stage, will pay the cost of the staging, and Toll Brothers will reimburse them for 50 percent of the cost with a credit at closing.)"

Did it work? In the case of the older couple, their home sold in just TWO DAYS after it had been Staged! And now they are preparing to move into their new Toll Brothers home!

There's lots more interesting info in this article, so check it out!

Oh, and please take a second to vote for me (you can vote once a day!) in the StartUp Nation Leading Moms in Business competition! The contest ends March 30th so we're in the home stretch now. I appreciate your vote. :)

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Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

Top 5 Things Buyers Don't Like About Your House

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:40:55 -0500

Home sellers, now you can't say you haven't been warned. In the article below, Pam Simpson tells it like it is. Consider getting a professional Home Stager to evaluate your home to see if you're doing everything you can to show it in the best possible light.

Oh, and please take a second to vote for me (you can vote once a day!) in the StartUp Nation Leading Moms in Business competition! I appreciate your vote. :)

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Annie Pinsker-Brown | Stage to Sell
Owner & Principal Designer
310-384-1084
www.stagetosell.biz

"We get you to SOLD so you can get on with your life!"

Via Pam Simpson - GRI, Broker-Assoc. (Bob Leigh & Assoc., LLC):

Top 5 Things Buyers Don't Like About Your House
by Pam Simpson
Desoto-Tate County Real Estate

I came across a discussion on city-data forum the other day on what people dislike about looking at homes. The following items were mentioned over and over again.  Here are the Top 5 Things That Buyers Don't Like About Your House:

SMELL...Overwhelmingly, the #1 complaint among prospective buyers were unpleasant odors in the home. The chief offenders were smoke, pet odors, and strange cooking aromas. Some in the discussion said they turned right around and walked out because they found the smells so oppressive. Most of us are unaware of the 'peculiar' odors of our homes because we become immune to the smells - the buyers are not immune to these same odors.

CLEANLINESS...This one just boggles my mind - the #2 complaint that buyers had about the homes they viewed was that the seller simply did not bother to clean. We're not talking about home staging (which will help) or even unrealistic expectations of the home being spotless - just simple old-fashioned cleaning.  Selling your home can be a bit inconvient, but when you have advance notice that a buyer is coming to view your home - clean it up!!! At the very least, remove the pile of dirty dishes from the sink.

SELLER AT HOME...Coming in at #3 is having the owners at home while the buyers are tring to view it. Most buyers felt very uncomfortable with the seller there. Many said they could not take the time to really look at the features of the home because they were in such a hurry to get away from the seller. This is a real problem for FSBOs, as they are usually the ones showing their own home.

CLUTTER...The #4 complaint is related to the cleanliness point - the dreaded clutter. We have all seen it on the home shows, many buyers have a hard time seeing your home because of all the stuff. When I was selling my small (875 sq. ft.) home, I hauled a big truckload of stuff to a storage facility. How in the world do we accumulate so much stuff?

UNFINISHED PROJECTS...Unfinished projects take the #5 spot. If you are planning on selling your home, finish up any on-going home improvement projects before placing it on the market. Homes with half-finished painting, flooring, trim, etc. gave buyers a bad overall impression.

But, none of the above matters if your home is overpriced. Buyers really hated it when the homes were priced above what the market indicates. An obviously overpriced home discourages offers because the buyer believes it is an indication of an unrealistic and unreasonable seller. The more out-of-line your price is with the current market, the longer your home will sit unsold and the more inconvenient the process is for you (the seller).

If your home is priced correctly and you have addressed the other items on this list, it will stand out like a diamond among the many lumps of coal out there.

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About the author:

Pam Simpson is an Assoc. Broker with Bob Leigh & Associates, LLC in Northwest Mississippi.
Copywright© 2009 by Pam Simpson. All rights reserved...***Top 5 Things Buyers Don't Like About Your House***

  Disclaimer: All information provided by this author may be based on information collected from several sources and is believed accurate but not guaranteed.

Inspirational Grand Opening of a Los Angeles Low Income Housing Development

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:17:46 -0500

If you follow my blog, you may have seen my post a couple of months back about a Low Income Housing development in Los Angeles that we "Staged" at the end of 2008.

Today was the Grand Opening event for Hobart Heights. Hobart is the 3rd low income housing community we did the interior design work for (see projects #1 and #2 here). They are always great projects, due in large part to our wonderful client American Communities. They are a joy to work with, and we look forward to many more projects with them.

Today was the first time I attended one of the Grand Openings, and I was blown away by what I witnessed. For starters, Herb Wesson was there. Herb is the LA City Councilman representing the 10th District. He was instrumental in advocating for this and other similar developments meant to provide affordable housing for Los Angeles residents so they can live in the same community in which they work. (Just to give you an idea, a 3 bedroom unit in this building rents for between $500-$1000/month, whereas similar apartments in the neighborhood rent for $3500!)

Representatives from the Los Angeles Housing Department and the Community Redevelopment Agency were also on hand to congratulate everyone involved for a job well done. This building was located in a historical neighborhood so there were many "hoops" to jump through in order to get the plans approved. But it was obviously worth the effort. Beautifully designed in an art deco style, with the comfort of the residents in mind, this building has created a new life for the deserving people who live there.

The most touching part of the entire presentation was when a current resident spoke (via a translator) about the way in which living in the building has changed her life.

This woman is the mother of a disabled daughter. For 13 years before moving into Hobart Heights, she had to carry her daughter on her back up to the 5th floor of her old apartment. She was in tears when she spoke about how the simplest things that we take for granted have changed her life. The ramp up to the front of the building and the elevator, as well as the handicap accessible bathroom and kitchen, allow her daughter to be truly self-sufficient for the first time in her life. There wasn't a dry eye in the house after this lovely woman spoke.

With all the doom and gloom in the news, it was wonderful to hear some positive news and to know that there is funding for many more similar developments in the area. Many local politicians are working tirelessly to create affordable housing, as well as job opportunities and open space (parks) for LA's under-served residents. Let's hope they succeed in changing many many more lives.

Oh, and please take a second to vote for me (you can vote once a day!) in the StartUp Nation Leading Moms in Business competition! I appreciate your vote. :)

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Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

Are you serious about selling your home?

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:05:30 -0500

Today I saw a post by David Painter of Keller Williams in Spartanburg, SC entitled "Dress Your House Well So It Will Sell."

In his blog, David points out how the national stats are clear that sellers need to have their homes "priced right and staged right" in order to sell in this highly competitive buyers' market. He goes on to say how buyers are looking for homes in move-in condition and don't want to spend time painting and remodeling after they move in. I couldn't agree more!

Especially in today's market, it is crucial that your home appears well-maintained and move-in ready or buyers will simply move on to the next property on the list. Some buyers even tell their agents they only want to look at Staged homes.

When you properly prepare your home for sale, you are telling the buyer:

1) You're not desperate.

Have you already purchased your new home and moved in, leaving your old house completely empty except for the cobwebs? That is a clear clue to a potential buyer that you are likely paying two mortgages and are desperate to sell. Hiring a professional Home Stager to Stage it with furniture and accessories will create a beautiful lived-in look that has buyers breaking down the door to view your home! It also shows buyers that you're serious enough about getting your home sold that you've invested in Staging to show it in its best possible light.

2) Your home has been well-maintained.

Today's buyers want a home to be move-in ready. So as they walk through your home they are assessing everything they see, trying to determine whether the home has been well-maintained, or whether they will need to do lots of work before they can move their family in. Not to mention that when they see something that hasn't been well-maintained, they often jump to the conclusion that if the paint/carpet/fixtures haven't been kept up, there are probably many other problems that have been left untended in the home.

Today's buyers are also looking for any reason to ask for a credit to lower your asking price. Is the carpet worn? Credit. Is the paint old and peeling or too bright of a bright color? Credit. They may have mentally taken $15,000 off your asking price before they've even gotten to the back door.

A professional Stager will advise you on the necessary updates you need in order to get your home in proper showing condition. If paint and carpet are required, we will select a neutral yet appealing paint color and the proper carpeting to make your home look brand new and ready for any family to move right in. Once the initial updates are complete we can add the extras that make your house show like a model home.

If you're still living in the home and prefer a Do-It-Yourself option, a Staging Consultation will provide you with a comprehensive checklist of what you can do using mostly what you already have in the home to properly Stage the property. If you want a professional to do the work, a Stager can bring in art, plants and accessories to enhance your home's appeal. If you have a vacant property, we can bring in furniture, art, rugs, plants and accessories to create that model-home look that will entice any buyer!

According to the latest Staging statistics, 94% of Staged homes sell in 35 days or less. If you are serious about selling your home, consult a professional Home Stager.

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Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

Staged & Sold - Santa Monica Townhome

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:04:41 -0600

Right before the holidays last year I blogged about a Santa Monica townhome we Staged on December 8th (I remember because it was my birthday). This was the second townhome in the same condo complex, and this one was listed by Randy Troup of Coldwell Banker.

I must admit I was leery about Staging a home so close to Christmas since it's a tough time to hit the market, but the homeowner was insistent. He made some great updates to the unit with paint and carpet and was gung-ho on Staging from day one. Not to mention he was a really fun guy to work with! Though he was strict on budget and insisted I "kick in the creative juices" on this project, he also called during the Staging and sang Happy Birthday to me and wrote me a glowing review on Yelp. All in all this project was a complete joy and we were thrilled with the results. See more photos of this home here.

So the results?

The realtor called me in a panic a couple of weeks ago saying he forgot to tell me they were about to close escrow and we needed to schedule a pickup before his Staging lease expired. I told him he still had almost a month left on the lease. Though pleased with our Staging job, he seemed a little bummed that the property took so long to sell. I asked how many days it was on the market. He said "58, but the first 30 were the holidays." At first I couldn't understand how he could be disappointed with those results, but then I realized he just thought it looked so good it should sell in the first week! Well, I agree but in this market over the winter holidays, I was thrilled with the results! :)

Oh, and please take a second to vote for me (you can vote once a day!) in the StartUp Nation Leading Moms in Business competition! I appreciate your vote. :)

*************************************************************************************

Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.

Los Angeles Staging Seminar for Seniors Part 3 - A Follow Up to My Fairly Lame Follow Up!

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 20:22:58 -0600

Ok, I admit it. When I wrote that follow up blog last night I was TIRED...really tired after a long day of work and a long week preparing for the seminar. Then my husband surprised me by coming home early (if you can call 9:30pm early!) and I was anxious to wrap up my blog and spend some time with him.

So unfortunately I left out some pretty important details about the Senior Staging Seminar I gave yesterday at the Culver City Senior Center. I hope you don't think I'm beating a dead horse here, but since so many Stagers seem interested in holding similar seminars in their areas, I thought you might be interested in how I structured my talk.

I originally got the idea for the seminar from another senior seminar I did with Michelle Minch and Karen Thornton last fall. We spoke to close to 100 seniors who had already put down deposits on apartments in a brand new senior community in the San Fernando Valley. Though, at the time, the property was a year or so away from being finished, the future residents were concerned about selling their homes in a down market. The consulting company that put on the event needed three Stagers to speak so that they wouldn't be seen as "pushing" one company as a preferred provider. Since we had never done a group presentation like this before, it took a bit of work to figure out how to break it down. In the end we structured our talk in this way and I kept the same structure for my seminar yesterday:

1) Introduction: My Credentials

I always like to begin any speech by introducing myself and my company and telling a little bit about my background and experience. I mention that I am an ASP, a board member of my local IAHSP chapter, a member of the West Los Angeles and Culver City Chambers of Commerce, and an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Assocation of Realtors (BHGLAAR). I go on to say that I have Staged homes for two television shows ("Million Dollar Listing" and "Property Ladder") and that I have been featured in articles on Home Staging in the New York Times, Los Angeles Magazine, Frontiers Magazine, and my personal favorite Costco Connection!

I feel this gives the audience confidence that I have some clue as to what I'm talking about!

I also just realized that it's the same thing I put in the blurb at the bottom of each of my blog entries!

2) What is Staging?

Regardless of whether I'm talking to seniors or seasoned real estate agents, I always give a brief description of Home Staging. In the case of the seniors, I felt this was an important way to start since many of them may not be familiar with the industry, or may have a skewed view of what we do from some of the television shows on HGTV. I explain that Staging is not just about making the home look pretty, but more about seeing the home through a buyer's eyes and playing up the positive features of that home while detracting from any potential negatives.

3) Why Staging is important

Here I give statistics as to the percentage of buyers that pre-shop online for homes. This helps the audience to understand that it's CRUCIAL that your MLS photos pre-sell your home before any potential buyers even set foot in the house.

4) Repairs & Updates

With older homes especially, there are often repairs and updates that need to be made before Staging can be effective. Some examples are removing wallpaper, painting walls and dark wood paneling, removing or replacing old carpet and heavy draperies. Though the audience may have heard all this before, seeing actual before and after pictures makes a dramatic impact! Be sure you have some great before & after examples of these types of updates and your talk will be much more effective.

5) Room-By-Room Examples

Next I went through each of the different types of rooms (and outdoor spaces) in a home and gave several examples of some of the challenges (clutter, oversized furniture, etc.), as well as low-cost solutions to address them. Once again, a picture is worth a thousand words!

During this part of the discussion, some of the attendees had specific questions they wanted to address. I took the time to answer any questions that arose. Some of the situations required an on-site consultation, but I was able to answer a few more straight forward ones on the spot.

6) How it Works

In closing, I covered how the process works when you hire a Home Stager, starting with the initial consultation and then moving on to actual hands-on Staging work. We discussed pricing and I offered a special discounted rate for those who attended the presentation. This is always a good idea when presenting to a group. It makes them feel their time was well-spent and rewards them for thier attendance.

Another option is to raffle off a gift card to a local coffee shop or restaurant. Though usually we collect business cards for a drawing in a realty office, most seniors won't have cards. Instead, can create small pieces of paper with a place for them to fill in their name, email or mailing address and phone number. Make sure to have a bowl and some pens to make the process go more smoothly.

7) Realtor Partner Presentation/Teaser

For the last 5 minutes of the seminar, I invited one of my Realtor partners Dana Ehrlich from Keller Williams Santa Monica up to speak. Dana is a marketing maven! Not only is she one of my best clients, but she and I have decided to team up this year to do a series of seminars geared toward home sellers. As I mentioned in yesterday's post these seminars will focus on seven different strategies for selling your home in a buyers' market, one of which (of course) will be Staging. She gave a brief discussion of the topics we plan to cover in our first of these seminars, to be held Saturday April 5th at the Keller Williams Santa Monica office. She also raved about me, which is always a plus! :)

As they left, several of the seniors came up to us and said that they didn't really know anything about Staging before this talk and that they were so glad they had come. One even compared Dana and I to Oprah and Nate the Architect! :)

One last note about giving seminars to seniors (or to any audience for that matter): Remember to speak slowly and loudly! I have a tendency to get very excited about my topic and to speak very quickly. Slowing down is always a challenge, but I found that since this was the second time I had spoken to an audience of seniors, the pace came more naturally.

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Owner & Principal Designer Annie Pinsker-Brown is an ASP Home Stager, a member of IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals), an affiliate member of the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors and a member of the Culver City and West LA Chambers of Commerce.

Annie has Staged LA homes for Bravo's hit show "Million Dollar Listing" and TLC's "Property Ladder." She has also been featured in recent articles on Home Staging in Los Angeles Magazine, The New York Times, Costco Connection and Frontiers Magazine.

If you would like to see more of our Home Staging work, visit our website. There is an extensive gallery of before & after photos, as well as a list of our Staged properties currently on the market.