home staging: When is home staging not really home staging?
- 12/25/09 07:51 PM
I recently submitted a post to another group outside Active Rain in relation to the development of the home staging sub-industry of virtual staging. Virtual staging is the Clayton's Home Staging, the home staging when you don't stage a home. It allows a home owner to have very specific photos taken of their home and then they can select from a range of furnishings and accessories which are then stylishly and digitally applied to the shots to use in marketing. Don't get me wrong, I love what technology can offer us to make projects faster, more efficient and create better results … (20 comments)
home staging: How can a home stager present property if they cannot present themselves?
- 08/24/09 06:58 PM
A good home stager understands it is not only their work that makes them stand out from the crowd, it is also the way they present their business that can have an impact on the work they get. After all, if we cannot present ourselves or our business well, how can we present our client's homes? We are all acutely aware that presentation is important, but how well does your business present? Stand back and take a look, a really good look. Now with your staging experience, does your branding look tired? Do competitor logos look more impressive than yours? Could … (3 comments)
home staging: Dilemma of a home stager - when to charge?
- 08/15/09 01:21 PM
I am a firm believer that an upfront payment is the only way to go in the process of assisting clients sell their house particularly when I have my inventory sitting in their property for an extended period. It is that simple. I get my contract and payment and then the work is done. But just recently I have been toying with the idea of a different pricing strategy whereby I get half up front and half at settlement of the sale of the home. While this is full of risks, the strategy may also increase the amount of business I … (8 comments)
home staging: Do home stagers need branding? You bet!
- 07/06/09 05:45 PM
With the proliferation of new home stagers entering the market, it is important to ensure that your business stays one step in front of the competition. Most home stagers really offer a similar range of services at similar prices so determining who the client will pick can often come down how the stager is themselves presented. And by this, I don't mean how you look or what you are wearing more how your business looks and what it is wearing. Your brand is everything, it's what your business says to people, how you communicate with clients, how clients relate to your … (4 comments)
home staging: Home staging inventory - when is it time to sell off items?
- 07/06/09 04:23 PM
As a home stager with a large inventory of staging items built up over the last three years, there comes a time to decide on what stock needs to be sold off and what needs to be retained in order to remain fresh and fund new purchases It is a hard process, generally speaking the stock you buy to grow your home staging inventory is kind of like an extension of you and your own tastes combined with your skill in choosing items that will appeal to the widest selection of homes. The thought of getting rid of some elements of … (18 comments)
home staging: Art is in the eye of the beholder
- 08/02/07 11:28 AM
Artwork is one of the more expensive items in our decorative inventory at Shift due to the costs required to acquire, the safe storage space it often takes up and the need for safe transport to a home staging job (particularly those paintings that have a large sheet of glass on the face of the piece). It is also often difficult to find that 'right piece' that suits the property perfectly, and having art that suits every property to present it ideally is quite expensive. So I am always on the look out for ways to buy art that suits the jobs I get, … (6 comments)
home staging: Avoid the retail rip-off
- 08/01/07 04:38 PM
There seems to be an interesting trend in recent blogs discussing stagers owning their own inventory, a topic quite close to my staging heart. There is absolutely no question that it is imperative for a stager to have access to good quality items to place in our client's homes, a point well summed up by Craig in his recent post, but it is an expensive process to gain stock, right? Or is it? I am based in the smallest (and indeed most isolated) state of Australia and I know the difficulties in not having short term rental options, and the fact that there … (10 comments)
home staging: To chase or not to chase - that is the question
- 05/30/07 03:57 PM
An interesting question was raised recently by a colleague in the Staging Diva forum on the issue of following up work from prospects we have met or spoken with on the phone, but have not heard back from in some time. This really got me thinking about the issue, is it a good thing or a bad thing to follow up property presentation opportunities when you have not heard back from them? Personally, I have no issues following up leads and work opportunities if I have not heard back from propective clients. These people have considered having their home for sale staged, have rung you … (7 comments)
home staging: What goes into the property must come out.
- 05/26/07 03:08 PM
I recently helped a client set up a a home for a short term rental, one month to be exact. These jobs are quite simple to effect as the client usually has a property lined up and all I need to do is arrange the rental furniture, whitegoods and kitchenware. On this occasion I used a different supplier than normal to access a 'cost effective' range of products and because this particular supplier could arrange delivery to the property in the two day window I had to get the porject done. All good. Friday came, I signed for the goods and the … (3 comments)
home staging: A fresh palette
- 05/09/07 04:41 PM
The chance to stage an empty property is always an exciting one, you have a fresh canvas to start from and no real hinderance or theme that you have to work from. I recently worked on one of these properties which was an empty apartment in inner Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. The difficult thing was that this apartment was spread over three different levels, and I was under instruction to only stage the main living area and bedrooms. OK, well how about the other areas of the house? No, just the main living and sleeping quarters. Fresh towels in the bathroom, … (23 comments)
home staging: What do clients really want from staging?
- 05/09/07 12:45 PM
I find it interesting reading all the blogs on this terrific site about what agents are looking for when it comes to staging and and what stagers want to offer agents when it comes to selling. But perhaps throughout this process we need to keep perpsective on what the seller in the middle wants too. These are the people that are going through the personal stress of selling a home. They are the financial stakeholders, the emotional stakeholders and the ones with the most (or hopefully least) to lose during this process. These are the people that decide on which agent to … (9 comments)
I recently submitted a post to another group outside Active Rain in relation to the development of the home staging sub-industry of virtual staging.
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