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HomeGain is a well known industry leader in providing home stagers factual current statistical information for the home improvements that will give the best Return On Investment (ROI). This survey was published in January 2011 and is relevant in today’s marketplace and in many parts of Canada. The survey was conducted with 600 nationwide US realtors and these were their recommendations to home sellers.
You can read the full article but these are some of the highlights:
TOP 10
1. Cleaning and de-cluttering ($290 cost / $1,990 price increase / 586% ROI / 99% recommended)
2. Lightening and brightening ($375 cost / $1,550 price increase / 313% ROI / 97% recommended)
3. Home staging ($550 cost / $2,194 price increase / 299% ROI / 80% recommended)
4. Landscaping ($540 cost / $1,932 price increase / 258% ROI / 93% recommended)
5. Repair Electrical or Plumbing ($535 cost / $1,505 price increase / 181% ROI / 92% recommended)
6. Update kitchen and bathrooms ($1,265 cost / $3,435 price increase / 172% ROI / 75% recommended)
7. Replacing or shampooing carpets ($647 cost / $1,739 price increase / 169% ROI / 98% recommended)
8. Painting interior walls ($1,012 cost / $2,112 price increase / 109% ROI / 96% recommended)
9. Repair damaged floors ($931 cost /$1,924 price increase / 107% ROI / 93% recommended)
10. Paint outside of home ($1,467 cost / $2,222 price increase / 51% ROI / 81% recommended)
In comparison to the 2009 survey results, the top five home improvements were the same, except that Lighten and Brighten and Stage home for sale were flipped for second and third top home projects.
The home improvements with the highest price increases to a home’s resale value is Updating the Kitchen and Bathroom ($3,435 price increase), followed by Painting the Outside of the Home ($2,222 price increase) and Home Staging ($2,194 price increase).
This year thousands of dollars have been donated to charities on behalf of the PRES Staging School throughout the Lower Mainland. If you are selected as one of our ‘PRES training homes’ we request that instead of paying us for your home makeover, you make a donation to your favourite charity on behalf of the PRES Staging School. Recipients of the donations include animal rescue societies, music not-for-profits, art not-for-profits, childrens’ societies, homeless societies and disadvantaged youth and adults.
For this I am truly grateful because not only does PRES staging resource centre make a difference by transforming homes, we also play a role in transforming lives. By doing this I believe we make the world a better place for all of us.
In 2012, the PRES Staging School is looking into partnering with Habitat For Humanity as our primary charity. More details to follow in 2012.
Wishing you all a very Joyful, Loving & Peaceful 2012.
As a home staging instructor I don’t recommend staging with religious holiday decorations but I do believe you can use some seasonally coloured decorations like red, silver and gold. If the property does not sell in December the staging can stay as it is into the next month. Plants and florals work well at any time of the year but red amaryllis and white orchids look quite stunning.
Gorgeous Xmas display
Exquisite white orchids - so lush & beautiful
Smashing red garland with white orchids
We have a local florist shop that I love going into for inspiration called Special Moments. The owner Jennifer Sullivan does absolutely sensational displays every single month. I even go in her shop just to get a visually high on the florals and all the home decor items she has.
Take some time and get inspired by going into your local florists shops – so magic!
The colours we home stagers choose for our home sellers are typically neutrals. They can be neutral beige, green or blue but they are never too bright although they could be trendy.The colours I choose for my home owners who are living in their home are a totally different story. Read on…
I have been working with a client for years now and I started out doing a redesign for her. Since I am also an interior decorator I selected new upholstery fabrics for her two chairs, selected new window treatments, helped her purchase a new dining room table with custom upholstered chairs, and shop for her on occasion to update the look of her home. They thought they might sell but they looked around and decided to stay put and do some updates with paint colours and a few other small accessories.
So their dull and dated dining room went from blah…to WOW! and all with some colour that jazzed this boring room up!
Tired green dining room...
WOW! this is gorgeous and has so much life!
Sitting Room is so outdated and tired...
She was 'over the moon' with this colour choice!
Did you know that realtors are very fortunate to have home stagers as part of their team? We can play ‘bad cop’ to their ‘good cop’ because we know that the seller will absolutely love us when we have performed our magic of transforming their property into an incredible commodity just waiting for those multiple offers to pour in.
And all the while we are helping them prepare their property for selling, we are also building rapport and creating a great relationship with them. Yes we ask them to pack up their favourite family photos and personal collections of masks, dolls or whatever, and yes we request that they tidy up and declutter a great deal of their stuff and yes, we might even suggest they paint and while they are at it let’s redo the flooring and clean all the windows and yes … on it goes.
But did you realize that because we have helped them prepare for their showings we know exactly how they want to live in their new home. And many times it is a combination of the ‘gorgeous staged-new-home look’ and the way ‘they used to live’.
Even though she is not selling in the immediate future she wanted a new, non-cluttered look.
We can keep this same spacious, elegant look and transfer it to her new home when she is ready to move!
So realtors, just remember that we can add HUGE VALUE to your service deliverables by being able to not only stage your client’s home for selling, but we can redesign their new home for living – a real bonus for you and your home seller!Call a PRES home stager to find out more!
WHOOO HOOO!!! I am excited to finally be a published author! Self-Counsel Press sought me out years ago to write this book and now it is a reality.
My hope for this book is that newbies will gain some much-needed business knowledge and that the more seasoned professionals might be reminded of things they had forgotten about. The book comes from my years of being in the home staging business as well as from teaching home staging and redesign for over 7 years now.
Home staging is still fairly new in Canada. Thankfully with pioneers like myself and several others who always believed this was a great service business – it is here to stay!
Enjoy the book and from my book acknowledgment:
I would like to thank all of my teachers, students and clients who have taught me so much about starting and running a home staging busienss. I know they made a difference in my life as I know I made a difference in their lives.
Over the 7 years that I have taught home staging and redesign I have only ever had 2 men in my class. And those 2 men took the course the very same week!
In the class I am teaching this week I have 2 men again – but here’s the twist – one of them is one of the two men who took my class years ago (2007)! So now I can say I still have only ever had 2 men take my home staging and redesign course.
I wonder why this is? I know there are many men out there who are or would be excellent at home staging and redesign. I just wonder where they are….
Here’s the proof:
In an earlier post I mentioned that I was staging a vacant 2 bedroom condo. I found (I didn’t actually hire anyone) a painter to do some work, and cleaners to really clean the place so it would be ready for selling. All good.
I selected the inventory (look at my earlier post) and it all arrived on time for the staging. The movers were fantastic as they put your large furnishings exactly where you want them which saves you time and energy.
So far so good – right? My team arrived on time – Lisa Maddocks and Cheryl Grattan were my paid assistants and since I teach home staging two other PRES members were invited for a work experience – Tracy Johnson and Elin Ife.
* Well when I went to inspect the painting I found that through a MISCOMMUNICATION the painter had painted the white mantel over the fireplace BLACK and what I had requested was that he paint out the BRASS not the mantel. What to do, what to do… we just got busy and staged the condo as you see here, and I am going to see what the home owner thinks about the black mantel. It’s not that bad so the lesson is – make sure you have everything in writing and not just verbally as I did with my painter.
* When we went to open up the blinds in the breakfast nook one of the blinds went flying off and so, we were slowed down by having to fix it. In my follow up email to the client I let them know about that, and also 2 of the hallway light fixtures were not working. It’s a nice little ‘value added’ that you can give your client once the job is done.
I’ll keep you posted on whether or not we repaint the fireplace!
As part of my PRES staging course the PRES Gold and/or Platinum members are invited to do staging jobs with me. This time I was sourcing a job from a rental furnishing company for a vacant property. It’s great to have your own rentals and I do recommend having accessories and small items such as lamps, floral, art, cushions, etc. but the bigger pieces like sofas, chairs, beds (blow up or other), dressers, tables, etc. I prefer to source from a number of local suppliers.
This is what I do and have found it works quite well:
1. Take photos of each of the rooms I am going to stage
2. Make a rough floor plan of the layout of the property if I don’t have an original one
3. Print the photos – I get them done with a mat finish so I can write and draw on them
4. Glue them on 8 1/2 x 11 paper
5. I have a standard template of a List Of Rental Items that I would normally rent in a home so I just fill out the form. For example I would have LIVING ROOM and under that SOFA, CHAIR, LOVESEAT, LAMPS, AREA RUG, COFFEE TABLE, SIDE TABLE, ART, ACCESSORIES – I just check off what I need and how many items of each.
6. I take the photos and the List of Rental Items needed to the rental store. We are fortunate in Vancouver BC because we do have some very good stores to source from. I like Fluff Rentals for the selection and great staff!
7. Using the paint colours of the home I decide on my ‘Colour Story’ for the property.
8. I start with one room and pick the art first that works with the colour story and then my biggest items from here.
9. I don’t go on to the next room until I have finished (or almost) finished with everything I need in that one room – basically the same way we stage a property.
10. I have a cart to put all my small items on and I have a colour sticky that is for the larger items.
11. I review my order with the staff; they provide me a quote; I confirm it with my client; and I prefer to have my client pay directly and sign the insurance papers as well.
Here are a few shots from yesterday. I’ll do some ‘before and after’ photos once we are done next week. The rental costs for this 2 bedroom condo were about $2000. It is about 1100 square feet and I typically average the rentals to be about $2/square foot and this one falls into that category. Of course my charges for the consultation, report and staging are on top of this as is the moving company cost.
The sourcing took about 4 hours but there was also training going on!
Working From Photos and Inventory CheckList
The Final Colour Story
The Final Accessories after 4 hours...
Dana Smithers
SearchWarp.com
Author!
| January 23 - 27, 2012 | |
| March 5 - 9 | |
| May 7 - 11 | |
| July 9 - 13 | |
| September 10 - 14 | |
| November 5 - 9 |
