melissa marro: Finding new cheese is simple - it's leaving the old cheese soon enough that's the problem
- 10/05/09 02:08 PM
So I've been trying to feed my mind and not just work, work and then spend time being mom/wife/friend. My best friend always asks me why I don't read something actually interesting, but to me, the business books actually are interesting! I recently blogged about completing E-Myth Revisited and how it inspired my life and business - all thanks to not actually having the books I ordered arrive in time for my last flight to Stagers List Expo. Taking a nice warm bubble bath tonight after a long day of staging in Kiawah Island, I thought I would do a little … (9 comments)
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melissa marro: Feeling overwhelmed, overworked and stressed out?
- 10/04/09 02:43 PM
With so much travelling lately I've finally had a chance to catch up on some reading that I've been wanting to do. A couple of weeks ago, sitting in the Chicago airport, I went on Amazon and ordered a few books which had been recommended to me. I wanted reading materials for my next trip - to the Indianapolis Stagers List Expo. Thinking on suggestions that I've gotten lately I ordered Who Moved My Cheese, Shift & Real Estate Rainmaker, Guide to Online Marketing. Working non-stop and getting completely worn out trying to keep up with the travel, moving, renovating a new … (9 comments)
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melissa marro: StagersList Expo Indianapolis September 29th
- 10/01/09 09:23 AM
Commentary provided by one of the attendees of the Indianapolis Stagers list Expo this week....
StagerList Expo Indianapolis - What a great experience today! The tips and tricks that were shared today were incredible. Staging is an industry that is so new and there needs to be more education to the public and Realtors to understand how to present our added value as team members to the Realtor listing proposals.
Listening to Realtors that utilize Home Stagers share their real life experiences. Top producers with a 98.5% selling price to listing price results, raving about Home Stagers as their team members! This will … (3 comments)
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melissa marro: Certified Home Staging... What does it mean??
- 09/28/09 01:58 PM
A great post explaining why CSP Training is different than many others out there... We set the bar higher, where it should be!
Recently I have been asked quite a bit about home staging training and what “Certification” means. At this point in time there is no governing body in the United States, Canada or Australia that gives out or approves a license for Home Staging.
What does this mean to you as a future Home Stager, Real Estate Sales Person/Broker or Homeowner?
Christine Rae, founder and President of Certified Staging Professionals (CSP™) decided to address this issue by creating … (0 comments)
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melissa marro: Diary of a Home Renovation - Prime, Paint and Cave be gone....
- 09/27/09 01:31 PM
Why is it that so many 1970s homes have wood panelling? Ok, so that was sylish back then but why do so many men still like it? Why is it that men cringe when you say you want to paint over wood? Well, if you are one of those guys who love the look of paneling and the 'man cave'... look away!
Our den before....
This depressing room was given a lift with A LOT of primer and some great pigmented paint...
The floors will be redone later this week and the windows are supposed to be replaced soon (why … (13 comments)
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melissa marro: Diary of a Home Renovation - Sometimes making do is good enough....
- 09/27/09 01:17 PM
In order to close on our new home we were told a few things by our lender - the first of which was it would have to have usable flooring throughout the home. Well, somehow they let the fact that there was no carpeting slide upstairs, but the kitchen seemed to be another issue... If you remember, this was one of the scarier looking parts of our new home...
since this is where the fridge would go we were certain there was going to be damage to the subflooring and we would have to rip all of this out and have … (3 comments)
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melissa marro: Diary of a Home Renovation - Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better
- 09/27/09 12:40 PM
We've been working on the new home for about 2.5 weeks now and are definately making progress. Unfortunately sometimes it's really hard to tell. A lot of what we've been doing has been ripping things apart, tearing it out or pulling it down. The good news is that this part of the process is very cheap... really mostly free!
Remember the Dining Room Before....
Vinyl sticky tile flooring, popcorn ceiling, wrong color walls for my decor....
Our progress....
In the living room and dining room we ripped out the vinyl flooring, painted the walls and scraped the ceilings … (6 comments)
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melissa marro: Demystifying the Staging Process for Charleston, SC Agents - If it doesn't sell then we'll stage it...
- 08/17/09 02:38 PM
If the home doesn't sell in the first month or two, then I'll stage. This philosophy, designed to save money, actually has a tendency to cost the seller more than they could possibly stand to gain - in both time and money.
MLS PHOTO BEFORE MLS PHOTO AFTER
Think back to one of the first things you learned after real estate school. New listings are HOT! This is when the most interest is generated. Agents who are WOWed by the listing will show it over and over again - if it lasts that long. The best possible offers are … (5 comments)
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melissa marro: Demystifying the Staging Process for Charleston, SC Agents - Only High End Homes Need to Be Staged
- 08/14/09 01:13 PM
After talking to past clients we've realized that often times this is because many agents just don't have enough information. In this series, we'll begin addressing some of the most common concerns.
Only High End Homes Need to Be Staged. We hear this comment from both agents and homeowners. People have the misconception that staging is expensive and therefore, only applies to higher end, more expensive homes. It is important to let them know that staging works in all homes, regardless of price, age or occupancy status. Also, let them know that you work with all budgets to get the job … (1 comments)
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melissa marro: Demystifying the Staging Process for Charleston, SC Agents - Cost & Who Pays
- 08/13/09 12:25 PM
You've seen our blogs and our success stories and still we see many homes on the market, right here in Charleston, in desperate need of staging. After talking to past clients we've realized that often times this is because many agents just don't have enough information.
Cost & Who Pays? Agents seem to have concerns about this because they are afraid that if they hire a stager then we'll suggest that they should pay for us. Well this simply isn't true! While most of our agent clients do pay for our consultations as part of their marketing budget, the staging itself should be paid by … (5 comments)
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melissa marro: Motivation, Education, Helping others move on & Creating Unlimited Opportunities
- 08/09/09 01:56 PM
Earlier tonight I wrote a blog My client doesn't really want to sell so how do I get them to stage? that is about how to discuss home staging with a client who needs to sell but doesn't really want to. In that blog I took a real live situation that happened to me this weekend and discussed how to help enlighten the client. Not surprisingly the agents who read the post all seemed to have the same comments - don't waste your time taking a listing for an unmotivated client. While for the most part I agree with this answer when … (14 comments)
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melissa marro: My client doesn't really want to sell so how do I get them to stage?
- 08/09/09 11:18 AM
This weekend I had a situation where I was searching for properties on MLS. My family is moving and as usual we are looking for a dog house in a nice neighborhood to purchase. This way we can benefit for our skill sets and others who don't understand how important it is to have a home in 'move in ready' condition. As I ran through the properties I found a few that I liked and sat down to narrow down a showing list when I noticed that one of the properties was that of an agent who was familiar with our … (15 comments)
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melissa marro: Technology Changes the Way Real Estate is Sold...
- 07/23/09 11:02 AM
The Real Estate Industry has continued to evolve over time. With its evolution have come many new and exciting fields of technology and subsidiary business. Just 10 -15 years ago agents were an essential commodity in the business of buying and selling homes because there was almost no way of finding out what was available in a given community without one. Before online MLS capabilities were available, agents were provided weekly copies of new listings, which were inserted into large three ring binders. Often there were multiple listings per page with, if you were lucky, a single exterior photograph of the … (13 comments)
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melissa marro: Charleston's local statistics - Homes Staged and Sold in under 30 days!
- 07/22/09 03:00 PM
So you think the market is a little stagnant in Charleston? That definately isn't what we are seeing with our staging services. Take a look at these properties that were staged and went under contract in 30 days or less!
MLS# 2904781 - Listed: 2/17/09 Owner Occupied Consultation provided prior to listingUnder Contract: 2/22/09 - 5 daysMLS# 2823882 - Listed: 8/3/08 Staged: 3/11/09 Under Contract: 3/20/09 - 9 daysMLS# 2911681 - Listed: 4/28/09 Owner Occupied Consultation provided prior to listingUnder Contract: 5/6/09 - 9 daysMLS# 2912367 - Listed: 5/5/09 Staged: 5/6/09 Under Contract: 5/16/09 - 10 daysMLS# 2906646 - Listed: 12/7/08 … (1 comments)
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melissa marro: What changes can happen when you add a rug, some plants and elbow grease!
- 07/15/09 03:51 PM
This was a stunning home in John's Island, SC. I'm not sure that the home ever was a primary residence but it was fully furnished and no one was living in it at the time. The owner, during our consultation, advised that the furniture in the home was pretty much there 'as storage'. It wasn't the furniture they were currently using in their home, but were hoping we could do something with it in order to stage the home. Thankfully their agent was savvy enough to recommend staging PRIOR to the property going on the market....
Here are some of our … (6 comments)
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melissa marro: Beautiful home in River Landing on Johns Island
- 07/15/09 03:17 PM
This was a great property we had the pleasure of staging for Bill Erickson (berickson@carolinaone.com) with Carolina One Real Estate today. The views were breathtaking from the moment you walk through the door. I'm confident this home will not last long....
For more information on this fantastic property, contact Bill Erickson directly.
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If you would like to be taught by CSP's Executive Director, Melissa Marro, see her class dates below and call 1-888-STAGING to reserve your seat. To learn more about becoming a Certified Staging Professional, visit www.csptraining.com.
July 28-30 CSP Certification Course - Charleston, SC August 4-6 CSP Certification Course - Jacksonville, FL … (0 comments)
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melissa marro: One of my most important staging jobs this year - my own home!
- 07/06/09 07:29 AM
All of our staging jobs are important, but when the staging job actually belongs to the stager, well, then it had better be good, right? Last week many of you saw my updates on Facebook and Twitter and may have noticed that I was franticly working on minimizing and more importantly painting almost every room of my home. No, this is not how I actually live (I happen to like stuff - lots of stuff)... but it is the way I am selling my personal home..... I think you'll get a glimpse into my personality, but not so much so that … (5 comments)
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melissa marro: It's hard to argue with staging when the numbers are there in black and white....
- 06/30/09 02:23 PM
Bevin has been working putting some statistics together for a new flyer and I have to say that even I am impressed. First Impressions has been busy this year and thankfully we've got some great stats to prove it.
It is hard to argue with hard facts and numbers... Staging turns listings into SOLD!
Now, let's see how anyone can dispute these number?!
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If you would like to be taught by CSP's Executive Director, Melissa Marro, see her class dates below and call 1-888-STAGING to reserve your seat. To learn more about becoming a Certified Staging Professional, visit www.csptraining.com.
July 8 -9 CSP Elite … (5 comments)
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melissa marro: Deja vu?? What happens when two of us do the same house two years apart?
- 06/26/09 11:32 AM
Last week I received an email from a past client. Two years ago we staged her downtown Charleston loft and in less than a month it went under contract. The deal was supposed to be a lease to own, but apparently things didn't go exactly as planned with the economy and banking being what they are. Recently the tenants moved out and the home was ready to go back on the market. The email was on Thusday of last week and the new open house was scheduled for Thursday of this week.... with no time to spare and my calendar being … (18 comments)
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melissa marro: It's so easy a ----------- could do it!
- 06/25/09 08:44 AM
This seems to be the philosophy of so many new staging training providers that are popping up in the industry these days. Have you noticed how many there are? Because many businesses are struggling, and of course staging training is a 'cash cow', they have decided to throw their hats into the ring - at least that is perception.
In truth, courses that are properly prepared, written and presented are not 'cash cows'. They have high levels of overhead and expenses. They have industry professionals teaching the course who are taking time out of their busy schedules of running their own … (7 comments)
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So I've been trying to feed my mind and not just work, work and then spend time being mom/wife/friend. My best friend always asks me why I don't read something actually interesting, but to me, the business books actually are interesting! I recently blogged about completing E-Myth Revisited and how it inspired my life and business - all thanks to not actually having the books I ordered arrive in time for my last flight to Stagers List Expo. Taking a nice warm bubble bath tonight after a long day of staging in Kiawah Island, I thought I would do a little … (9 comments)
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