montreal home stagers: Five Suggestions for Struggling Montreal Home Stagers - 01/07/12 07:45 AM
It is telling that these days the majority of calls I get for Montreal home staging come in the form of home stagers looking for work.  I know home staging in Montreal has yet to really kick off.  We Montrealers are not at all impressed with, nor do we feel the need to follow, what our fellow citizens in other parts of the country nor the continent are doing.  It's part of what makes us unique.
But it's also part of what makes it tough if you're a Montreal home stager looking for work.
I went from being a Montreal home stager to a … (25 comments)

montreal home stagers: Home stagers do not hide problems! - 12/04/10 03:55 AM
Home stagers do not hide problems! 
I know many of you believe that we do, because I've seen the surprise on your face when I refuse to do it.
And who can blame you for believing this when even the revered Mike Holmes, TV star and general contractor extraordinaire, puts out an article in The Montreal Gazette stating "...staging suggestions...hide real problems."  (Which is too bad, because the rest of his article on getting your home inspected before it goes on the market was bang-on.)
Oh for the love of God.  Enough already.
If your home stager suggests that you hang … (57 comments)

montreal home stagers: Adding Some Life to a Home: Montreal Home Staging Before and After Pictures - 06/16/10 11:43 AM
I've got some Montreal home staging before and after pictures for you here.  These come from a Montreal West Island home staging project we recently did.  The home sold after 6 weeks on the market, which was great considering it was in the $500,000+ range where homes generally sit on the market longer than lower priced properties. 
It was another real estate agent's listing, but I was happy to stage it because the homeowner was the mother of my very first client as a Montreal home stager. 
The home was essentially vacant, as the homeowner spent very little time there.  It needed a bit of PERSONALITY … (8 comments)

montreal home stagers: Quick Fix for a Stuffed Dining Room - 11/29/09 11:48 PM
We run into a lot of properties in Montreal West Island real estate that have more furniture than they can handle. This was one of them.  Among other rooms we tackled in our staging of this property, the dining room was over-stuffed and didn't show off all of the available space.
A quick trick we often use when we're staging a property is to remove the top half of a buffet/hutch, i.e., the hutch portion.  This presents a more contemporary look, cleaner lines, less clutter and, most importantly, more space!

                                   BEFORE                                                         AFTER       
We also removed the dated wallpaper throughout the home and applied a … (14 comments)

montreal home stagers: Halloween Comes Early in Montreal - 10/06/09 06:59 AM
Why wait 'til Halloween to dress up?  Inspired by ThatBritishAgent (Sheldon Neal), here's a pic of my boys...in July. 
Peace, brother.  Peace, sister.
 

… (10 comments)

montreal home stagers: The Difference Between Montreal Home Staging and Interior Decorating - 08/17/08 05:04 AM
What is the difference between Montreal home staging and interior decorating?
As a Montreal home stager and Montreal real estate broker, where home staging is still a relatively new concept, I'm often asked, "What's the difference between home staging and interior decorating?"
There are many, not the least of which is the fact that interior decorating caters to the tastes and preferences of one home owner/family, while Montreal home staging caters to the tastes of a whole pool of potential buyers for a home.
But it goes beyond that too. Here's a picture of a room that we were presented with at … (21 comments)

montreal home stagers: Staging Trainees: There's a Gold Mine of Info in the CSP(TM) Manual - 02/12/08 04:03 AM
How many of us arrived back home after our gruelling yet excellent Canadian Staging Professional (TM) training only to put the 20-pound manual on our bookshelf and then forget about it for a while? Though many sections of the manual have been extremely helpful at various stages of my business start-up, one in particular came in very handy before I went for my first “real” job.
It’s one thing to talk about staging with friends and family members — and to do pro bono jobs for them. It is quite another to do a job for a “real” client for which … (0 comments)