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Adding life and warmth to your listings over the winter.

By Vanessa Helmick

Home Stager with Fiore Interiors

January 04, 2012 11:48 AM

I specialize in vacant home staging. I own a warehouse full of inventory and arsenal of staging accents. Some of the most valuable ones are my accessories-quality silk plants, dried hydrangeas, and other accents that warm up the house in the cold darker months. A few well placed plants in a clean, well designed space go a long way.

Simple, tall plant in an uncluttered sunporch in winter.

Centerpieces for a formal dining room-silk red leaves (rather than flowers) add color and warmth.

In my humble opinion, if you have to use fake flowers, autumn colored hydrangeas are great.

Very simple red flowers.

Yes, all of the these listings were vacant, but the same approach can be tried in occupied listings.

Did I mention ALL of these listings pictured above are SOLD? Yep, here in Portland Maine....sold.

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Gene Riemenschneider

Home Point Real Estate - Brentwood, CA

Turning Houses into Homes

Nice post - great pictures to support your point. I believe in home staging.

Jan 04, 2012 11:54 AM

Adrian Willanger

206 909-7536 AdrianWillanger-broker.com - Seattle, WA

Profit from my two decades of experience

Vanessa-Nothing brighten up a vacant home more than red hydrangeas! Thanks for the pictures and ideas.

Best

Jan 04, 2012 12:01 PM

Jill Sackler

Charles Rutenberg Realty Inc. 516-575-7500 - Long Beach, NY

LI South Shore Real Estate - Broker Associate

I think it's so important but it's still hard to convince the homeowners they should be spending money upfront.

Jan 04, 2012 12:05 PM

Mel Ahrens, MBA, Kelly Right Real Estate

Kelly Right Real Estate - Hood River, OR

Customized Choices for your Real Estate Needs

I'm always looking for ideas to warm up a house, especially a vacant one and especially in winter. Thanks for the ideas.

Gretchen

Jan 04, 2012 12:13 PM

Vanessa Helmick

Fiore Interiors - Portland, ME

Interior Designer

Jill,

That's where stagers come into play. It's our job to educate the sellers and say what the Realtor can't. But you can show them comps that are showing beautifully and selling faster, it should help. Worst case scenario make them watch the HGTV show designed to sell. It's easy to understand, and the staging solutions should be CHEAP. All of the plants shown above were incredibly affordable. I work with a local broker who sends me to meet with every single listing. She already has great taste and style, that is not the point. It's my job to tell the seller what to update and what not to, and how to do it as affordably as possible,

Jan 04, 2012 01:28 PM

Kathy Burke

Sensational Home Staging~~Danville, CA - Danville, CA

S.F. East Bay Home Staging

Vanessa.....GREAT photos to showcase the "details" that show off the home!

Jan 25, 2012 05:31 AM

Sharon Parisi

United Real Estate Dallas - Dallas, TX

Dallas Homes

Staging a vacant home is always worth while. I am betting that you have fun with that warehouse filled with staging items!

May 10, 2012 03:00 PM

Thanks Sharon. I actually have staging friends in Dallas and we talk about things like inventory management. It is fun until it gets topsy turvy at has to be organized!

May 10, 2012 03:27 PM

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Vanessa Helmick

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